Charles Kaufmann

Charles Kaufmann
CEO, North Asia & Head Valued Added Services
Asia Pacific
DHL Global Forwarding

Charles Kaufmann was appointed President/Representative Director of DHL Global Forwarding Japan K.K. concurrent to his roles as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of North Asia and Head of Value-Added Services (VAS) Asia Pacific, DHL Global Forwarding effective January 1, 2017. In this role, he takes charge of driving the development of DHL Global Forwarding’s business in South Korea, Japan, Mongolia and North Korea. Charles is also a member of the DHL Global Forwarding Management Board. Based in Japan, he continues to head Value-Added Services for Asia Pacific, specifically Road Freight and Multimodal Products, Customs Brokerage, Integrated Warehousing Services, Lead Logistics Partners, Control Towers, Security, Occupational Health & Safety and International Supply Chain for DHL Global Forwarding in the region.

Prior to his current position, Charles was the Head of Operations and Value-Added Services, Asia Pacific. With the perspective from the operations team, Charles was able to look at the products and services offered across the whole region with a more holistic approach in that role and provide customers with even more customized forwarding solutions. Before that, he was in the role of Head of Airfreight and Value-Added Services, Asia Pacific.

Charles also held COO for DHL Global Forwarding, North Asia Pacific. Previously, he has dual roles as the CEO for DHL Global Forwarding for North Asia, looking after Japan and Korea in particular, as well as that of Head of Air freight for North Asia Pacific. He led the air freight operation in Asia of former DHL Danzas Air & Ocean for eight years. In that role, he was responsible for operations in 21 countries in the Asia Pacific region, managing air freight operations and implementing cost-efficient purchasing and pricing policies on a country group level to achieve strong year-on-year revenue growth and set new standards of operational excellence.

Kaufmann’s management responsibility for Japan spans more than 10 years. Named COO of Danzas K.K. in 1993, he became Managing Director of Danzas Maruzen K.K. in 1996, a post he held for six years before being named Representative Director/President of DHL Global Forwarding Japan K.K in 2007. His significant achievements in Japan speak for themselves: revenue growth has increased by approximately 12 times and human resources by a factor of eight. Committed to serving the needs of customers and employees alike, Kaufmann has transformed DHL Global Forwarding Japan into the No. 1 foreign forwarder in the competitive Japanese market.

Kaufmann started his career with the former Danzas in 1973, and has held various senior management roles across Europe and the Asia Pacific region during his more than 35 years of service in the forwarding and logistics industry. Over the last decade, Kaufmann’s insights into and knowledge of the air and ocean freight industry have strengthened his reputation as an industry thought leader.