It’s a double appointment disclosed yesterday at Geodis, with company veteran Eric Martin-Neuville taking over as Geodis’s EVP for Asia-Pacific and Middle East, leaving Henri Le Gouis to take on Mr Martin-Neuville’s existing role as EVP for freight forwarding.
Although the pair are set to join the company board too, there are some question marks surrounding what appears to be a sideway if not backwards step for Mr Martin-Neuville.
The statement announcing the appointments was scant on comments from company bigwigs that usually accompany these people stories, but managerial changes were anticipated at Geodis on 26 November.
For his part, Mr Martin-Neuville started out when it was still Geodis-Wilson back in 1985 and in his near 40-years long career has often circled back to it.
Sandwiched between Geodis he had stints with Calberson and Talentbank, the latter coming after he had been tasked with managing the 2007 merger between TNT Freight Management and Geodis, while based out in Asia.
He returned to Europe briefly before departing Geodis again for a little over year at Talentbank in Singapore.
But the pull was too strong, and he again returned to Geodis, where he has been for the past 13 years, starting back as deputy COO before spending five years as COO for freight forwarding until his 2018 appointment as EVP for the division.
Much like the man he is replacing, Mr Le Gouis is also something of a company man, having spent almost two decades at Bollore, before joining Geodis last month.