Management Holding appoints Head of Sales Europe
Jan Buelck changes from Hong Kong to newly created position in Hamburg.
Since May 1, 2022, Jan Buelck is responsible as Head of Sales Europe for the corporate sales and marketing strategy at the holding company of a. hartrodt in Hamburg. In the newly created position, the 40-year-old reports directly to the Managing Partner, Felix Wenzel. Jan Buelck has been part of the family business for two decades, most recently as Managing Director of a. hartrodt Hong Kong and South China. His new strategic task is the creation of a sales operational substructure "that ensures that both key account management as well as field sales take place in a systematic, uniform and high quality way in every country in Europe".
From apprentice to own desk in China
In 2002, Jan Buelck began a freight forwarding apprenticeship at a. hartrodt in Hamburg and continued to work in Customer Service & Pricing. Even during his full-time studies at the University of Hamburg, he remained closely associated with the freight forwarding company as a working student. His loyalty was rewarded: "Two weeks after I had handed in my bachelor's thesis, I was sitting at my desk at a. hartrodt in Shanghai". There, he was Sales Manager for four years before moving to Hong Kong as Managing Director at the beginning of 2015.
Target: Enhanced cross-border customer service
After eleven years abroad, Jan Buelck was attracted by the new challenge of implementing a corporate sales strategy. "In the holding company, we define the guidelines and support the national companies in implementing them," he explains. In almost 20 European countries, around 50 employees are part of a. hartrodt's sales team. Jan Buelck states that the target is "enhanced cross-border customer support," for example for automotive customers: "We want to invest more in sales, and new hires are also planned". Digital products such as CargoWise One and IT Solutions are to enable more efficient sales.
While Jan Buelck is about to meet customers across Europe face to face, he also prefers a melting pot of cultures in his private life. Thanks to his Italian wife, they cook Italian-Asian food at home, and his little son is growing up trilingual (German, Italian, English).