MANAGEMENT

Management spokesman

Bernhard Simon, born in 1960, became management spokesman for Dachser on 1 January 2005. A grandson of company founder Thomas Dachser, Mr Simon represents the third generation of the family to head the company. He has been a member of the company management since 1999.

After graduating from secondary school in Kempten and training as a qualified specialist in forwarding services at Dachser’s Kaufbeuren branch, Mr Simon studied business administration at Friedrich Alexander University in Nuremberg. He completed his studies in 1987 with a degree in business administration, achieving one of the top three exam scores in his class. Even then his goal was to join the management of his family’s company, which motivated him to complete Harvard’s senior executive programme in the US in 1996.

During his studies, Bernhard Simon became interested in development aid programmes. This led him to volunteer for the terre des hommes non-profit international aid organization, among other activities. In 1988 he went to Brazil for a year to work on a development aid project. In 1989, he worked as a trainee at Mory, a French logistics provider. That same year, Mr Simon joined Dachser in Cologne as a project manager for European freight services. Since then, the Europeanization of the company has been a recurrent theme throughout his various positions at Dachser.

In 1993 Mr Simon was summoned to the head office to work as Division Manager European Freight Forwarding Organization. His task was to transform the hitherto nationally-oriented units of the company into a unified European organization, while introducing a change in the corporate culture. Under Mr Simon’s guidance, a groundbreaking reengineering project thus revised the company’s European operational processes and boosted productivity by 30%.

In 1995, while working as Division Manager Corporate Development, he helped develop Dachser’s strategy for internationalization. This project – known as “Mobile” (Mobilization for Europe) – still serves as the basis for the company’s business model.

Since 1996 he has been responsible for Dachser’s European sales organization – first as division manager and, since 1999, as a member of the management. Now serving as management spokesman, Mr Simon retains responsibility for the company’s sales organization. During his stewardship of the sales department, Dachser has seen organic growth in sales of almost 10% per year – well above the industry average.

Mr Simon played an important part in the negotiations for Dachser’s purchase of the French company Graveleau, the international logistics provider, seeing them through to a successful conclusion. Subsequently, his primary task has been to integrate this major acquisition and to settle the succession to the company’s owner, Joel Graveleau, who left the company, as agreed, in 2001. Since 2001, Mr Simon has been chairman of Graveleau’s supervisory board, and has made key contributions to the successful integration of this new member of the Dachser group.

Another central task for him since 2001 has been his contribution – working alongside the administrative board, the shareholders and his management colleagues – to developing a modern governance structure for the company.

2008 Bernhard Simon received the LEO-Award of Deutsche Verkehrszeitung (DVZ) in the category entrepreneur of the year. In addition he was granted the "familiy entrepreneur of the year" award by the Intes-Akdademie für Familienunternehmen in cooperation with Impulse magazine.

Today Mr Simon is responsible for the Corporate Development, Human Resources, Marketing and Sales department.

Mr Simon is fluent in four languages: German, English, French and Portuguese. In his spare time he is an active sportsman.

Managing Director Dachser Air & Sea Logistics

Thomas Reuter was born in 1957 in Schwetzingen near Mannheim. After completing an apprenticeship in freight forwarding with a regional provider, he completed a number of management training courses. These included an advanced training programme at the German Academy of Foreign Trade and Transport (DAV) in Bremen, sponsored by Dachser, in which he qualified as a graduate in transport management and operations.

Mr Reuter joined Dachser in 1978, initially working in the local transport department at the Mannheim branch. That same year he also took up a position as a customer consultant in the sales department, learning the business as he worked his way up.

He began his career in Dachser’s foreign operations in 1982, first as deputy manager of the export/import department for western Europe, and from 1984 as manager of the export department. While holding this position, he was empowered to act as an authorized signatory for Dachser at the age of 28, in 1985. From 1986 to 1990 he was responsible for all of the branch’s western European overland freight services.

Mr Reuter moved in 1990 to the air freight division at Frankfurt Airport. Four years later, he took over the reins as manager of Dachser’s German air freight operations, which at the time employed 170 people in 18 locations in this sector. In 1996 the company merged its air and sea freight activities, which had until then been separate, into a single organizational unit, and Mr Reuter was promoted to become director of all European branches.

Since 2002 he has also been managing director of Jet-Speed GmbH, a joint venture with a leading air and sea freight provider that serves routes to and from Greater China.

Mr Reuter was appointed to the Dachser management on 1 January 2006.

Seit 2002 ist Reuter zudem Geschäftsführer der Jet – Speed GmbH, einem Joint Venture mit einem führenden Anbieter im Luft- & Seefrachtbereich auf den Routen von und nach Greater China.

Zum 01.01.2006 wurde Thomas Reuter zum Mitglied der Geschäftsführung von Dachser berufen.

Managing Director European Network Management and Logistics Systems

Michael Schilling was born in Heidelberg in 1963. During his two-year military service he earned his truck driving licence and discovered a real passion for transporting goods. He then studied business administration, specializing in freight forwarding, at the University of Cooperative Education in Mannheim. He spent the practical part of the course working in Haniel’s logistics segment, and upon graduation he took his first position with that company.

Mr Schilling joined Dachser in 1989. Dachser had created an internal logistics department charged with reviewing and improving all of the company’s processes. Mr Schilling was one of the first to join this team, which was tasked with improving the efficiency of Dachser’s process management. A short time later, the department was also made responsible for developing Dachser’s own software, and for organizing its international rollout.

To gain experience in the company’s business operations, Mr Schilling moved to the Saarbrücken branch in 1990 and to Frankfurt in 1992, where he became branch manager in 1993. In 1996 he returned to the head office, taking over responsibility as division manager of what was known as Production, which was primarily concerned with developing and optimizing the network infrastructure. Following a reorganization, these functions were taken over in 1997 by the new European Network Management and Logistics Systems department, which has since been responsible for the company’s entire European network. Mr Schilling became managing director of this division in 2002. Since January 2005, Mr Schilling has also been in charge of Logistics Consulting, where more than 20 members of staff handle Dachser’s contract logistics projects.

Managing Director Finance, Legal and Tax (FLT)

Dr Dieter Truxius joined the management of Dachser GmbH & Co. KG on 1 January 2008, by appointment of the company’s administrative board. He assumed responsibility for the Finance, Legal & Tax (FLT) department.

Dr Truxius is considered one of Germany’s leading finance experts for family-owned businesses. Before joining Dachser, he spent eight years as CFO in the management of the precious metals and technology group Heraeus Holding.

Dr Truxius was born in Mettmann in 1952 and studied economics at the University of Bochum, where he earned a doctorate in investment and financing theory from the department of corporate taxation and auditing. He also worked for several years as a research assistant in Bochum before taking his first position at the Hüls AG chemical company in Marl in 1981. During his ten years at Hüls, Dr Truxius gained a great deal of experience in various departments concerned with finance and accounting, finally becoming division manager of controlling in the company’s largest division, with annual sales of EUR 1.5 billion and 4,000 staff.

In 1990 he joined Röhm GmbH in Darmstadt as commercial director. Five years later, in 1995, he moved on to Heraeus Holding in Hanau, where he worked first as finance director. He was appointed to the management board of the company and CFO in 2000. Along with managing finance and accounting, controlling and tax affairs, Dr Truxius also took responsibility for the Heraeus Infosystems GmbH IT company, and acted as a member of the supervisory and advisory boards of a number of group companies.

Dr Truxius is actively involved outside his professional career in accounting and controlling issues related to German family-owned companies. He is a co-founder and board member of the German Association for the Cooperation in the Development of Accounting Principles for Family-owned Companies (VMEBF) and assistant lecturer in controlling at Mannheim University.
Dr Truxius played a key role in Germany’s introduction of the ROCE as a key ratio in measuring the financial performance of family businesses. In addition to his activities on behalf of Dachser, the managing director of FLT also represents the interests of family-owned companies as a member of the Accounting Interpretations Committee (RIC) of the Accounting Standards Committee of Germany (DRSC). He also sits on the Bavarian state advisory board of the Commerzbank, and is a board member of the Stanford Club of Germany.