Deepak Khushalani, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Premier Logistics, Ranks 18
Leveraging his degree in Business Management with specialisation in Entrepreneurship and Marketing from Indiana University, Bloomington, US, Khushalani accumulated over 15 years of global experience in spearheading businesses of FMCG distribution in Africa and real estate development in UAE & India managing multimillion-dollar P&L’s, before venturing into logistics in UAE.
An avid believer of innovation and digital disruption, he founded Premier Logistics in 2016 to focus primarily on digitisation of the age-old industry of logistics within the Middle East. Under his leadership, Premier Logistics has grown from a three-member team to a 55-member team of logisticians.
With ambitious expansion plans in the next three years, Deepak’s focus now is to create an asset-light logistics company with his emphasis on scaling-up the organisation by creating intrapreneurs and expanding operations to three new countries through strategic partnerships and collaborations.
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Carolin-Carmen Neubauer, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder, FERO.Ai, Ranks 19
Fero aims to spearhead a new generation of technological transformation by shaping the future of digital freight with the use of revolutionary automation systems such as narrow artificial intelligence, machine learning, speech recognition, computer vision & blockchain to eliminate the need for human interaction in the logistics industry worldwide.
With Neubauer at the helm, Fero has created the world’s first AI voice agent that will replace monotonous human interaction and optimise transactions in the freight and logistics.
With over 14 years of experience in the logistics industry, she leads a 45+ talent team, with over 30 tech wizzes, that builds, designs, and sells SaaS solutions.
Neubauer has previously worked at various blue-chip companies such as Uber and A.P.Moller-Maersk. “As Head of Business Development – Strategic Initiatives at Uber Technologies, I directed business development operations across the Middle East and African region, with gross bookings of USD2 bn annually. I also handled the first global delivery deal between Amazon and Uber,” she notes.
She has a Master’s in International Applied Economics from IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria and an Executive MBA in Global Leadership from London Business School.
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Paula Bellamy, Managing Director, Oceanwide Logistics Dubai, Ranks 20
Bellamy and Oceanwide Logistics USA set up Oceanwide Logistics (OL) Dubai in August 2016 to offer domestic and international freight solutions in the region.
“The challenge to set up from zero was an enjoyable journey, I learnt a lot about myself and other nationalities along the way, I thoroughly believe this experience helped shaped me into a much better businesswoman with an entrepreneurial vision I didn’t have before I arrived in the UAE,” she says.
She was awarded the Woman Professional in Transport & Logistics in 2019 award, an accolade that has helping women in logistics to ‘find their voice’ alongside their male peers.
In 2020, due to the pandemic, Bellamy chose to re-locate back to the UK and in March 2021, she began working on strengthening OL’s presence in the UK & Europe by opening OL United Kingdom. She continues to be the remote Managing Director for the UAE.
She says: “COVID has been and continues to be a major challenge for the logistics industry, along with lack of space, equipment imbalance and rising rates. Cargo owners now have different countries on their radar, different routings and sometimes sourcing more locally to try to continue with their own business but everywhere prices have increased therefore it is the job of a freight forwarder to try to remain at the forefront of knowledge, latest news and different options for us to offer clients with their movements of cargo.”