New board appointments at Cargo iQ

Henrik Ambak, senior vice president, cargo operations worldwide with Emirates SkyCargo, has been made the new vice chairman of Cargo iQ.
Ambak’s appointment came as Cargo iQ welcomed board members from Qatar Airways Cargo and Swissport.
Nadeem Sultan, vice president – global cargo operations at Qatar Airways Cargo, and Hendrik Leyssens, head of global operations – cargo at Swissport, will be their companies’ first representatives on the Cargo iQ board.
Cargo iQ is a not-for-profit membership group supported by IATA and composed of over 80 major airlines, freight forwarders, ground-handling agents, trucking companies and IT solution providers globally.
Also joining the Cargo iQ board are Rutger Jan Pegels, director, performance management at KLM Cargo, and Markus Muecke, global head airfreight procurement and product management at Panalpina, who will continue to hold the seats for their companies.
Max Sauberschwarz – vice president and global head of carrier & gateway air logistics at Kuehne + Nagel, Jens Appel – vice president performance management at Lufthansa Cargo, and Ambak have been re-elected to continue to represent their companies.
Ambak brings over three decades of experience in air cargo, starting his career in freight forwarding, and moving to ground handling, before joining Cargolux to oversee all aspects of cargo and ground operations.
He joined Emirates in 2014, where he is responsible for all Emirates SkyCargo’s operations at its hub in Dubai, UAE, as well as more than 150 outstations globally.
“The Cargo iQ journey of close industry collaboration has rendered air cargo as the only mode of transport with a standard cross-industry quality management and measurement approach — quite a feat,” said Ambak.
Sultan has over 18 years’ experience in air transport, including roles in cargo network operations, cargo sales & marketing, safety and security compliance, and freighter operations. He joined Qatar Airways Cargo in 2014 after working with Atlas Air.
Said Sultan: “At a time when the industry faces innumerable challenges, collaboration by all parties in the logistics chain is paramount.
“Like Cargo iQ, Qatar Airways Cargo believes in excellence and along with my fellow board members, we look forward to further paving a successful path of process control, quality monitoring and services improvements for air cargo.”
Leyssens joined Swissport in 2012 to develop and implement quality standards and KPIs at Swissport Cargo Services, and now oversees the global management of its cargo processes, standards and systems, including Cargo iQ.
“Swissport was one of the first members to join Cargo iQ and our commitment to quality delivery in our cargo operations is well recognised,” said Leyssens.
Both Emirates SkyCargo and Qatar Airways Cargo were recently awarded Cargo iQ Certification through Cargo iQ’s new Audit Scheme administered by independent auditors SGS. Swissport will be audited under the new scheme in the following months.
The Cargo iQ Board consists of 13 seats that are elected by members for two years, and this year there were seven seats up for election.