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Globe Express Services - woman who first rose to the top in Mideast logistics

As a woman, Poonam Datta, the chief commercial officer at Charlotte, North Carolina-based Globe Express Services (GES), looks back on her 25 years in shipping pleased with her success in a male dominated world.

Charlotte, North Carolina's Globe Express Services has appointed Ms Datta as its CCO, tasking her with expanding the company's presence in the international market.

And after running the AP Moller-Maersk Group operations as a woman in the Middle East, Ms Datta has every confidence of doing just that.

Relying on experience that includes founding and heading up lnternational Management Consultants, her Dubai-based full-service management consultancy, training and executive search firm, she is now well stuck into her new task.

As Maersk's managing director Ms Datta led Maersk Line, Safmarine and Maersk Logistics to unprecedented growth and results in their respective countries - earning her the nickname "the reefer queen", she told Logistics Middle East journal.

"When I started my career [in 1990], I had lots of offers from various sectors, such as banking, PR and events - where you see many more ladies working - but then there was Maersk ," she recalled.

"Everybody said don't take this offer because it's shipping and it's male dominated. I think that made me want work with them more. It was enticing. I like to accept challenges and the liked the challenge of proving myself in a male dominated industry. This spurs you to excel," she said.

"In global companies, I do not see many leaders who are women. It's always been a very male dominated and male centric industry, and that was the challenge that enticed and motivated me to get into logistics," she said.

"I was known as the reefer queen because I took care of the reefer trade in India of Maersk and I had done a phenomenal job making Maersk number one ranking there," she said.

"Then I transferred to Dubai and people would say to me 'shipping and the Middle East?' But for me, that was even more of an incentive. I worked hard and was very passionate about it. I was proud because we had very passionate about it. I was proud because we had unprecedented growth and results. When I was in that role I delivered the best results of Maersk Gulf and it was named as the best performing region across the globe for Maersk Group."

From this, Ms Datta was drawn to GES. "Being in shipping and logistics, I have known Mustapha Kawam, the CEO, since the company was called Overseas Group, when I was heading up Maersk. I introduced Overseas to Maersk with the result that over the last more than a decade it has been one of Maersk's most loyal clients," she said.

"After 25 years, it's not so much about the titles and the money; accomplishing challenges are the best rewards. I like everything about logistics - the people associated with it and the fact it is a very exciting world," she said.

It opens your eyes to the bigger picture of what's happening around the globe; so much is changing and, over the years, borders are disappearing because of logistics.

"You feel that when you are in logistics, you are bringing continents closer, and helping the trade and economy. Most importantly, you get a global perspective and you are aware of growth opportunities. It is exceedingly dynamic," she said.

Ms Datta, who holds a BSc and post graduate certifications in business management from the Indian Institutes of Management and the International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne in Switzerland, has enjoyed being on the road travelling.

Asked about her initial priorities with making a success of her new position, Ms Datta said: "I wear two caps with GES - heading both Global Commercial and Global Procurement. I want to expand our footprint and to do that I need to first assess the strong niches we have.

"The idea is we want to build upon our position as a strong, trusted, valued, global supply chain provider. Customer focus is very important and delivering solutions is very important, with an emphasis on technology. We are trying to make sure we are exceedingly advanced in technologically, so we're not just 3PL, we're 4PL."

Based in North Carolina, GES last month opened its second office in India at New Delhi. Its first Indian office is in Mumbai. The move was borne of GES' prediction that India's logistics market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.17 per cent by 2020 due to a boom in manufacturing, retail, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and e-commerce.

Unsurprisingly, Africa - the emerging market on everyone's lips - is another market Ms Datta says the company is focusing on.

"We are very well spread in Asia, Middle East, Europe, South America, US and Canada. Africa is one of the areas that we're looking into," she said.

In terms of short-term and long-term goals, Ms Datta has plenty of ideas for moving the company even further forward and realising its global ambitions, revealing that she wants to continue building capacity. That's the goal," she said.