60 seconds with… Sebastian Schulte
Sebastian Schulte was born in 1970 in Groningen, Netherlands. After studying economics and business administration at Rotterdam College, he began his career in cargo aviation in 1997, working in Mexico City for AeroExpress, the cargo division of Aeromexico and Mexicana.
Since 1998, he has been based in Madrid as Vice President of Europe. Sebastian has been based in Mexico City since 2000 and has been promoted to Vice President of Sales for Mexico and Central America. In 2002, Sebastian joined Cargolux Airlines in São Paulo as Regional Director for Latin America. After successfully restructuring the division, he became Regional Business Development Manager for Cargolux in Spain and Portugal in 2004.
Between 2006 and 2010, Sébastien was Head of Marketing and Special Projects at Cargolux’s headquarters in Luxembourg. In April 2010, he was appointed CEO of Jan de Rijk Logistics, based in Roosendaal, Netherlands, and in May 2012 he was appointed President of the Cool Chain Association. In 2013, he joined the TIACA Board of Directors, where he was elected Vice Chairman in April 2015 and Chairman from 2017 to 2019.
He is currently CEO of Calis Group since 2020 and Senior Advisor to Boston Consulting Group since October 2020.
What was your dream job as a kid?
In my teenage years I wanted to be a stock broker.
What is the biggest change you have seen in the industry?
Compliance has become more prominent and important after the 2008 financial crisis.
What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever shipped?
Dolphins.
What’s a buzzword you secretly don’t like?
There’s actually no buzzword I don’t like.
Window or aisle seat?
corridor.
What’s the best business lesson you’ve learned the hard way?
Not trusting everyone.
If you could trade jobs with anyone for a day, who would it be?
I wouldn’t mind seeing how it would feel to be President of the United States of America.
What three items would you bring with you to a desert island?
A book, softboard and sun lotion.
Tea or coffee?
tea.
What’s your guilty pleasure TV show or movie?
In the wild.
What is the most interesting place you have visited to work?
Fortunately, there are a lot of them, but if I had to choose one: Puerto Montt in Chile.
If you could introduce a new regulation in air freight, what would it be?
Unifying ground operations between handling and trucking.
What is your favorite karaoke song?
Piano man Billy Joel.
Describe your job in three words
Getting out is lively and challenging.
What is your hidden talent?
Surfing.
If you could master one skill instantly, what would it be?
Playing the guitar.
What’s something on your bucket list?
Surfing across the English Channel.
What is the best airport in the world, and why?
Singapore: Effective and great food.
If air cargo had a mascot, what would it be?
Chameleon: Easily adapts to the changing external environment.
How did you get into air freight/logistics?
After finishing my studies I wanted to work and live in Mexico. Through a contact I started working for Aeromexico Shipping.
What quote resonates most with you?
Kites rise against the wind, not with it.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
I’ve gotten a lot of good advice from a lot of great people. When I was young I had my first job interview. I did my internship in Mexico and they asked me to sell Mexico. So I first asked whether it was for business or tourism. When they said tourism, I started talking about beaches, culture, nature, history, etc. They stopped me after a minute and told me I asked the right question at first because they were only interested in tourism, but they just wanted to learn about the beaches, and I talked a lot about other aspects of Mexico. One of the wise lessons I learned there is that sales is not about talking but about active listening (and asking the right questions).
What is the most adventurous thing you have ever done?
The most recent was swimming from Asia to Europe via the Bosphorus Strait.
If you could have dinner with any three people, living or dead, who would it be and why?
My two daughters and my wife.
