Ram Menon, COO of Wallenborn Group, was born and raised in Dubai and has been living in Luxembourg for the past 14 years. Menon began his career at Wallenborn in 2013 in the Monitoring department and progressed through Operations before moving into Sales and Account Management. Between his tenures at Wallenborn, he spent five and a half years at Amazon, where he held several roles within the Global Security Operations department. There, he established and managed the Transportation Security department for EMEA and later oversaw Aviation Security and Regulatory Compliance for Amazon Air, supervising the 3P Gateways across the EU network. He rejoined Wallenborn in July 2023 as Chief Commercial Officer and was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in June 2025.
What was your dream job as a child?
Funnily enough, I always used to joke that seeing as I have the same name as my father, I could simply go to Emirates and take his job. At a later stage in life, my hopes were to work for Interpol, and whilst trying to achieve that, my life took a different routing and I ended up in logistics.
What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in the industry?
This is a tough question. When I have discussions with my dad about challenges we face today, he laughs as he faced the same ones in the 1990s and 2000s. I guess the biggest change I would say is the scale of how the industry has grown. It catered to the growth of international trade.
What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever shipped?
Unusual is relative. The coolest things we transport regularly are aircraft engines and I am always fascinated when I see how big they are. It still today blows my mind that we are able to have planes in the air given the weight and size of it all.
What’s one buzzword you secretly dislike?
Explain to me why you are doing this in the way you are… “because we have always done it like this”.
Window or aisle seat?
Window.
What’s the best business lesson you’ve learned the hard way?
Never take anything for granted and never accept anything at face value. Use the ‘Five Why’ principle and do root cause analysis. Problems are rarely where you think they are, and usually buried deeper within a company and you need to dig for them to fix the issue at the source.
If you could swap jobs with anyone for a day, who would it be?
Tough question and hard to say. I am living the dream that I built over the last decade, so I don’t see the need to switch with anyone for the day.
Which three items would you bring to a desert island?
Water purifier, multitool, emergency shelter.
Tea or coffee?
Coffee.
What’s your guilty pleasure TV show or movie?
TV shows.
What’s the most exciting place you’ve visited for work?
China.
If you could introduce one new regulation in air cargo, what would it be?
Mandatory real-time tracking and data transparency using a single source adapted for all links in the supply chain (airline, GHA, RFS).
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Queen – Bohemian Rapsody.
Describe your job in three words.
Fun, Intense, Challenging.
What’s your hidden talent?
Cooking.
If you could instantly master one skill, what would it be?
Mechanics – being able to take apart and rebuild motorised vehicles (of all sorts).
What’s something on your bucket list?
Rent an RV and drive through Canada to go downhill mountain biking.
What’s the best airport in the world, and why?
Dubai, due to the ease of all things relating to transit and because it is the airport that I have visited the most in my life.
If air cargo had a mascot, what would it be?
A Falcon. One of the fastest animals in the world and a good summary of air-cargo, we are the choice for speed.
How did you get into airfreight/logistics?
50/50 would be the answer. Either because it is in my blood with both my parents having been in Aircargo (my dad at Emirates and my mum at Cargolux), or by pure luck / coincidence. When I moved to Luxembourg in my mission to get to Interpol, I ended up at Wallenborn by chance (with Frantz Wallenborn taking a chance on me) and what was supposed to be a couple of months jobs ended up being a full-blown career in the domain.
What quote has most resonated with you?
Dominate then elevate. Elevate then dominate. Repeat.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Life is about the journey, not the destination. Remember to live and enjoy the little things in life. It is not about big wins; it is about all the little one combined together that create greatness.
What is the most adventurous thing you have ever done?
Bought an old ambulance at auction, converted it into a camper van built around downhill MTB, packing my stuff in it and solo traveling around Europe for 6 weeks looking for the best beaches and mountains.
What’s something we wouldn’t know about you from your CV?
I live on an old farm that I am slowly bringing back to its roots and original purpose. I am a hobby farmer outside of work and enjoy tending to my animals and driving around on my tractor.
