Supply Chain Management has been a big part of what I have been doing since joining Santova. With my main goal within that area to help companies gain greater visibility of there supply chain, from the factory at origin, to the delivery point at destination and everything in between. I have also been responsible for negotiating the contract rates for the UK's biggest customer. By negotiating direct with shipping lines and agents across the world I have helped the company sustain and grow some of it's biggest accounts.I am also the key contact and manager of Santova's agent network with a very important part of that including building relationships with business owners from around the world to help grow mutual business between our companies. Since returning from the most recent international agent network event in Singapore, I have presented, overseen and implemented new processes within Santova which are key to gaining the most out of our network of agents across the globe. We have seen a big increase in jobs from agents in just a short space of time since my return to the UK. The above areas are not to retract anything from my main area of responsibility, which is to bring in new and profitable business to Santova. I have built a strong portfolio of business (both Air & Sea freight), a portfolio that continues to grow and one that has seen me hit my targets comfortably month on month. Whether it is new trade lanes, sectors or projects, I am always looking for a new challenge when it comes to business and expanding my portfolio even further.

Responsible for planning and implementing sales strategies for the North West of England, including managing the internal sales team and their processes. Working very closely with the route development manager for the far east in developing that particular trade lane with targeting business in line with the sales strategy I set out for the North West of England.

At Uniserve i was the key account manager for the branches largest customer. This customer was responsible for more than half the income for the Manchester branch and included full PO management and warehousing, as well as managing the day to day air and sea imports that were due to be booked/arriving in. The most important part of managing an account like this was constant communication with the customer and making sure they were kept up to date. Although sales wasn't my responsibility at Uniserve, in my spare time I was chasing down some of my own leads which resulted in me winning a blue chip ocean import account for the branch.

My experience at Expeditors was invaluable! The training I received was second to none and it gave me a fantastic platform to build my career from. I spent 6 months as a customs specialist, learning in depth the procedures that are required when clearing any commodity through customs, whether it is just a standard entry, CFSP, IPR or British Returned Goods I was taught all types of import entries as well as the certification required from certain origins/commodities. My second role within Expeditors was back on the air freight import team. I was responsible for handling my own accounts, including Reckitt Benckiser and Regatta amongst others. The professionalism I learned in my early days here stood me in good stead for the accounts I was responsible for and for the other areas of freight forwarding I was now getting involved in after earning the trust of the management team. The relationships I had built with my clients from my role on the desk resulted in the company gaining more business from them, in particular winning the sea freight business from one of the larger companies I was responsible for.

This is where my career in shipping all started and it's gone from strength to strength since, largely thanks to a great mentor at DHL and a grounded upbringing in the industry. I was very lucky to start my career at a company as prestigious as DHL. My responsibilities here begun with being a simple breakbulk clerk and filing my colleagues files away in a hectic filing room (Before offices started to go paperless). I'm a quick learner and soon became a fully fledged member of the Air Freight Import team, looking after import shipments coming from all over the world. I learn't about ERTS warehousing, customs clearance procedures, duties/taxes, invoicing and probably the most important thing I learned was how to handle customer's problems, for big and small companies and all whilst keeping them happy.