Xavier Urbain has been appointed as Ceva Logistics’ chief executive officer, from 2 January 2014, when he will take over from Marvin O. Schlanger.
Urbain has previously served as chief executive of Hays Logistics when it was bought by Platinum Equity in 2003 and renamed ACR Logistics.
ACR was sold to Kuehne + Nagel two years later and Urbain become CEO for South West Europe.
He will now be based at Ceva’s head office in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands.
Chairman Schlanger is retiring from his current role as CEO, which he took on in October last year, following the retirement of John Pattullo.
His key task there has been to drive through a refinancing of the Ceva business to cut net debt by some €1.3 billion – cutting interest payments by some €130m and opening the way for €230 of investment cash.
He will now resume his position as non-executive chairman of the board at the company, which he first undertook in 2009.
Schlanger said: “When I assumed the leadership position at Ceva, I had a number of immediate priorities to position the company for success in the future. I am pleased with our progress and the accomplishments of the management and employees of Ceva, and I am excited that we have been able to recruit an executive with the background and stature of Xavier Urbain.”
