• DHL Global Forwarding has appointed Henk Venema as its new Executive Vice President for Global Airfreight, reinforcing its focus on reliability, transparency, and service performance.
• Announced by CEO Oscar de Bok, the move brings Venema’s two decades of operational experience across Exel, UTI, Geodis, and DHL into a global leadership role.
• Previously head of DHL’s Benelux business, Venema is expected to strengthen airfreight execution through his expertise in carrier relations, capacity management, and customer-focused operations. His appointment reflects DHL’s strategy to act with greater speed and consistency in a complex air cargo market.

DHL Global Forwarding has named Henk Venema as its new Executive Vice President for Global Airfreight, a move aimed at strengthening the forwarder’s reliability, transparency and service performance in a demanding airfreight environment.

“We announced that Henk Venema will take on the role of EVP Global Airfreight for DHL Global Forwarding. Henk brings a depth of operational experience that matters in Airfreight. He understands the product from every angle; carriers, capacity, service quality, pricing and the day-to-day realities of running a resilient network. His more than 20 year career across Exel, UTI, Geodis and, for nearly a decade DHL, has shaped a leader who is close to the customer and clear on what good looks like.”

Oscar de Bok announced the appointment, highlighting Venema’s extensive operational experience across carriers, capacity, service quality, pricing and daily network management. Venema has built a career spanning more than 20 years at Exel, UTI, Geodis and, for nearly a decade, DHL. His background across these global logistics companies has given him a broad understanding of freight operations and customer-facing service.

Before stepping into the global airfreight role, Venema led DHL’s Benelux business. This regional leadership experience, combined with his long exposure to major international supply chain organisations, places him among the senior operational leaders within DHL’s global forwarding division. De Bok said Venema’s deep understanding of the airfreight product will support DHL’s ambition to deliver consistently, act with speed and create real value for customers. He added that Venema’s leadership will help reinforce the reliability and service performance that customers expect from a forwarder