Sue Bancroft (Tuffnells)
A Derbyshire educated woman who kept her love for the north, previously worked for food retail before getting into logistics. NFT the first of them where she has held strong HR roles, from manager to senior manager, to Head of department and Head of employment division for the company EV Cargo Logistics. Sue has the passion to ignite others to excel, encourage others to be part of the sector, so it was no surprise when she was invited to become the Human Resources Director for Tuffnells.
With quite a few years under her belt in express Sue is highly qualified to understand who will work well in our sector and that is success we all wish for.
Mark Bischler (Tuffnells)
Starting his career with DFDS in Germany, gave Mark the encouragement to become bi-lingual with four years under his belt a move to London came to join Business Post where he became the International Development Director with another move over to City Link in 2008. Later a decision to bring a company he had built in Germany over to the UK saw Mark run Kuehlspeed International specialising in dual temperature refrigeration small freight distribution.
The call in 2022 when the opportunity to join Tuffnells came and Mark was recruited for his talents. A driven, focused, influential individual who carries everyone in his wave of enthusiasm.
Craig Burton (Yodel)
An individual who was born to be in this sector, express parcels must be in his veins. From leaving school on the south coast he has worked across the country, Craig has held posts with Royal Mail, Securicor and DHL, with a short dabble in mobile comms at Panasonic he has given his whole career to our express sector.
With an eye for detail, and a whole host of accreditations to his name Craig believes in getting the job done well. Holding career posts of Client operations to client engagements it has all led to his current role as Continuous Improvement Manager at Yodel. Inspiring, honest, ethical and above all, a real professional who understands how to get the best out of a team.
Amanda Chew (Tuffnells)
Now to advise I did carry out my risk assessment before this event, just in case Amanda was to ask me. I just want to say that.
Amanda plays the important role as Head of Compliance at Tuffnells. A lifetime of dedication to the support work that keeps our sector safe as well as looking to improving how we do things. Her versatile approach to engage others into this subject makes her the good leader she is.
Amanda started her career at a prison, HMP Rye Hill so no doubt she has never taken the easy way out. Applying her keen sense of rationale alongside the criteria of keeping everyone safe Amanda has shared her skills with retail and more recently since 2014 express logistics. A very long list of accreditations with more acronyms than the alphabet, Amanda takes her duties seriously and with dedication she delivers a positive approach to a successful health and safety environment, for us all.
Dominic Cooper (Viking Direct)
With a school motto of ‘Working together for Excellence’ you can imagine Dominic was destined for logistics from his very early years. With a passion for getting the job done Dominic enter a career in distribution after leaving school. Sortation, Transport and Regional manager post’s came thick and fast, leading to a national role as Transport operations manager for UK and Ireland.
Viking Raja is a company that deals with freight of all sizes, and it is due to Dominic’s tenacity and agile delivery of controlling budgets and operations that show his sills and dedication to our sector.
James Cooper (EVRi)
James left school and started work with a Digital company giving him the foundation for strong due diligence in managing operations, meeting standards and KPI’s. Field account manager, Field Operations Manager to Project support; James’s skills, of being able to liaise between client and operations team excelled. Taking on the full-time role of managing logistics and contractors James changed direction, and join a parcel company.
James was successful in his first job role with Hermes as he managed courier performance and rose quickly into the role as Divisional Compliance Manager, overseeing day to day operational compliance of the division. James is currently the Area Delivery Manager covering the south-west region.
Sam Farnsworth (TVS SCS Rico Logistics)
Sam is found using her mantra Be Kind it’s free! Whenever it is needed to make the situation better.
Sam started out at Tuffnells and following a varied and diverse experience of all things parcel now holds the role of National Operations Manager for Rico Logistics, part of the TVS Supply Chain Solution company. A varied and dynamic career starting at Tuffnells and moving on to TNT where she rose from sales account handler, depot manager, general manager to Regional Operations Manager. Another change of direction to National Process Improvement Manager at Tuffnells followed by a move to Dpd as Distribution Centre Manager.
Change is in her nature as well as her talents as she supported the change in culture that the business recognised it required to allow them to recruit more experienced and diverse senior leadership team leading to her current role where she is an advocate of Health, Safety and Environmental initiatives with a strong focus on creating a Business As Usual Environment in these areas. Sam is an innovative, creative, and dynamic leader that takes full and accountable responsibility to get the delivery done.
Wayne Foster (Smiths News)
Wayne describes career to date as shipping everything from bullets to toilet seats to iPads. Leaving education, he joined the REME/the Army and as a young fresh-faced soldier spent 5 years learning his trade, this gave Wayne the foundation for logistics and on leaving the Army he joined Tibbet and Britton and from their he enjoyed logistics manager job roles with Kcom, UK Mail and PJH Group. The journey wasn’t planned but it was the fuel of his passion ‘to get the job done’ which brought him to move into a role in print logistics where he quickly moved from logistics manager to DC manager finding himself again working with the major parcel carriers moving point of sale around the UK.
Finally, and still within the Print Logistics Wayne landed with Smiths News, where recently he has moved from his role based in the midlands to one of National Final Mile Delivery Director. A keen runner when not delivering the news Wayne can been seen on the canals of the Midlands getting those miles in.
Paul Grice TVS SCS Rico Logistics
Paul has an impressive 40-year career in the logistics, with two distinct halves. Beginning in 1982, working for TNT Sameday in Cannock, recognizable by their pink vans followed, by a move to Interlink Express, Midlands, where he held various positions over a 13-year period.
Paul's interest in the ultra-express same day delivery sector grew stronger in 1997 when he became the Managing Director of a provincial Courier Company in Devon and Cornwall, expanding and rebranding it as Cougar Couriers. In 2000, he led the launch of a new national network involving 38 courier industry companies as the Managing Director of Webforce Logistics.
In 2002, Paul became MD of another new national courier network, Klicka Courier. Negotiating a joint venture with Royal Mail Group, rebranding the business as Royal Mail Sameday, and then led the company to full acquisition and ownership by Royal Mail, and remained as MD. Following this he briefly worked for Rico Logistics, followed by two years as Commercial Director for Speed Couriers in Manchester, before returning to Rico in 2011. Paul was appointed to lead Rico's Courier Division and played a crucial role in its acquisition of DHL Sameday business. Today, he works as the Commercial Director of the Courier Division at TVS SCS.
Jack Harrison, (EVRi)
On leaving university the path was not set as Jack worked in projects, marketing and as a claims consultant before finding the opening at Aldi as the area manager for distribution. Setting new standards in KPI’s for the depots under his charge Jack saw success in all areas of KPI performance, store development, project management and infrastructure delivery. A promotion to regional manager saw him soar to a new level of delivery. Taking new areas of responsibility, improving safe space of parcels, collaborating, and improving training development for staff whilst implementing and driving performances across all metrics.
Jack’s ‘can do attitude’ and keen sense for logistics brought him to the opportunity of working with EVRi and he accepted the job role of East Divisional manager. Looking after six regions the move very quickly saw Jack make an impression as he improved end of life of parcels, on 1.4m volume per day.
Jim Hawkins (FedEx)
Jim has been around this industry for a long time, good looks deceive that statement! When we take the main artery of the UK the Motorways are key to the distribution and that is how I would describe Jim. The M1 of express delivery. Originally the FD for ANC (Michael Holt et al era) Jim has been the mould of which many of our leaders have been taken from. An accountant by trade he has held the posts of financial, commercial, and operational director for express delivery. He is an accountant of miles.
Jim having spent the last fourteen years working with FedEx Express saw him move into his current role as Managing Director of Operations in 2016. His long and loyal dedication to the company is only surpassed by his passion for this sector.
Nick Hayes (CitySprint)
Whilst at university, having completed a print and design degree Nick found himself working at St Ives PLC, one of the UK’s leading printing firms of financial documents, here he not only expanded on his trade knowledge of printing but got into the logistics of it as well. A long and happy time, seventeen years later Nick made a move to start a new career as Director of CYC Logistics, seeing the black and yellow signs of CYC flying around London has been a corner stone of London Express delivery.
This successful express delivery was ripe for the picking and CitySprint were the lucky purchaser of CYC. Nick joined Citysprint as their general manager in 2014 and has held this post for the last eight years.
Aaron Haynes, (EVRi)
Starting on the south coast the sea air was good for Aaron as he gain his first at Bournemouth University in Business studies with Finance. A head for figures saw him deliver at Xerox providing support to the product managers for hardware solutions. With a change of heart and a short time at Fullers Brewery Aaron found his way to Aldi stores with a meteoric rise from manager to regional project manger, as a dual role with customer interaction for National Customer Service project.
Aaaron got the taste for logistics and was delighted to take on the new challenge with EVRi as the Divisional Manager for South/South East of England. A role that sees him responsible for the Final Mile operation and support of 2,000 individuals and over 250,000 parcels a day.
Becki Hunter City Courier Direct
Having taken a hospitality – Publican no less – entry into her working life Becki has had a varied route through her early career years of operational business implementation.
Becki brings a decisive and precision approach with a caring attitude to the ultimate goal of success. Having applied her business acumen to previous professions Becki brought her skill set to the regional courier company CCD, joining Darryl she has played a key role in achieving national success for a regional courier company.
As Director of Commercial Operations she expects and delivers high standards to which she believes benefits customer, company and sector.
Greg Michel (EVRi)
A career that started with a business management degree from the University of Leeds whilst working at the family hotel and restaurant business. This was the precursor of working in the retail area of hospitality further afield on the south coast followed by joining Aldi in the food distribution sector in London. With three years of success under his belt Greg looked for greater challenges and was rewarded with a new role as Area operations Manager at EVRi.
With a dynamic and positive outlook Greg continues to inspire and motivate others as well as himself, to achieve a successful final mile delivery of over 350,000 parcels daily.
Paul Molloy (CitySprint)
A lifetime of work brings Paul to the Express delivery sector, for the past ten years he has motivated, collaborated, inspired, and led the teams at CitySprint.
He has taken on challenging roles with zest, from National Operations Manager through to his current role as Director of Specialist Services. It is evident through his manner, in which he leads the team through challenging issues, showing that anything is achievable with teamwork and planning.
Paul is a beacon for others to aspire to and he is dedicated to always realising a successful outcome for the customer.
Michael Morgan (Smiths News)
Michael has always had a passion for logistics and mapping, starting in his youth when playing Transport Tycoon on the PC in the 90s to studying for a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography.
Starting his career with Majestic Wines on a management training scheme, learning everything from route planning, vehicle compliance, running a warehouse of wine stock to exciting client tastings! After a short stint in commercial wholesaling Michael took an opportunity to develop further skills in crisis logistics. This was focussed on moving people around when things sadly go wrong whilst abroad, this was a rewarding and quick thinking role within operations of the travel sector.
Seeing a great opportunity to join Smiths News in 2020 Michael furthered his passion for people and logistics and is now responsible for 800+ couriers that help perform the final mile nightly miracle and making sure Smiths vans are on the road 364 days a year.
Hiten Patel (HSP Couriers)
A name you can trust and a local courier who covers the UK and Ireland with ease. Hiten Patel firsts foray with logistics came in 2007 when he joined Bidvest. Learning the intricacy’s and getting a taste for all things logistics Hiten made no hesitation to start his own company in 2008, HSP Couriers in Northampton.
A local but national courier who proudly meets the customer demand for a quality, honest and reliable service, finding his vehicles almost every day travelling to Ireland. With fifteen years of successful deliveries under his belt he consistently receives recommendations for the standard of his delivery.
Andy Renshaw (Viking Direct)
Starting with a career in retail logistics Andy took an MBA focused on management and operations. Always aware that business processes and operations management was his ideal job he moved out of retail to join Office Depot as operation support systems manager. Whilst this job role saw Andy draw on his operations, routing and planning skills he very soon drawn to national optimisation manager role of being responsibly for innovate delivery solutions at the then company of Viking Raja Group.
One thing leads to another and with Andy’s commercially astute head for figures and detail he took on the current role of Logistics Director for UK and Ireland.
Lucy Robertson (Smiths News)
After qualifying with a BSc Hons in Production Engineering and Management Lucy chose a career in Logistics as a place where different challenges were faced every day. Starting firstly in Excel Logistics (now DHL) Lucy moved quickly into a Director role over 25 years ago and has worked in senior leadership roles in a variety of different sectors including Petrochemicals, Process Improvement/ Automation, Home Delivery, Retail and, more recently, E-fulfilment, Parcels and Pharmaceuticals.
Lucy found her ‘home’ last year in Smiths News as Operations Director responsible for the UK network and support functions delivering News and Magazines through an amazing team across a network of 36 depots with employed staff and courier drivers, and well as experimenting with some exciting Growth opportunities.
Lucy runs her life on a balance of working hard plus outside interests around her husband, children and 50 year old Landrovers.
Tim Russell (EVRi)
With a career spanning twenty-one years Tim has many notable achievements to his name, from the youngest ever store manager of Curry’s at the age of 21 to delivering the most improved KPI’s winning Area manager of the year with Poundland. From Curry’s to M&S operations manager Andy’s next step was to enter the logistics industry when he joined EVRi in 2015.
Delivering on brand standards and customer promise Andy covered areas of Health and Safety and legal compliance. Another move to Multichannel operations in 2017 saw him design, launch and sustain a multichannel picking operation from within stores. This was followed by the current move to Divisional Delivery Manager for Scotland, North of England, and Ireland. An example of which see’s Andy excel through his leadership that allows maximum utilisation of resources.
Michael Till (EVRi)
An interesting start to his career as a Tour Manager delivering 12 UK tours for a musician Michael got the bug for sorting out the logistics. The first step as Business development Manager was to deliver the very product our sector needs, Proof of delivery and scanning equipment for Zebra, Honeywell and Samsung. This area of experience led to retail delivery when he joined Aldi as Area manager.
A change of sector came in 2018 having seen Michael, complete the implementation of a new Regional Distribution centre, in the transferring of 61 stores and 4,000 members of staff to a new region overnight.
This move led Michael to his current job role with EVRi, taking on the challenges of Final Mile Operation for London.
David Winchcombe (Dpd)
David is Head of Transport at Dpd Group, a career that led to arriving at the Dpd some 15 years ago. Now he is responsible for a diverse fleet holding over 11 thousand vehicles that include cars to HGV’s, more importantly through his diligent support, a rise of alternative vehicles has now exceeded 1,500 electric vans.
Leading and motivating a team of over 200 personnel David is proud to include many apprentices as part of that team, identifying not only the early career training but for all his current members of the team. Identifying challenges, finding innovate solutions and delivering is the trademark of David.
Kish Bhalsod (FedEx)
An individual who having started out at a fast-food retailer just knew logistics was for him. Skilled in many HR related activities Kish built a successful track record in change management. A career starting with Depot manager rising to Regional Manager for UPS, taking on the challenges of BA freight hub, followed by Target Express and ANC.
His current role, since 2006 as Senior Manager, responsible for depots across the UK with FedEX, calls upon his multi-regional management experiences and his ability to create efficient and effective operation processes through warehousing, contractor productivity and minimalizing wasted time.
Kelly Leech (Tuffnells)
