Vector.ai appoints Lionel van der Walt as Chief Growth Officer

Vector.ai, the productivity platform for freight forwarders, on Tuesday announced that Lionel van der Walt will be joining the company as Chief Growth Officer.

van der Walt will oversee the acceleration and commercialisation of Vector.ai's industry-leading, AI-driven automation processes that simplify freight forwarding operations, improve productivity and deliver numerous tangible cost and efficiency benefits to freight forwarder clients of all sizes. In this role, van der Walt will be leading all company growth activities, including marketing, sales, customer success and strategic partnerships.

"Lionel's industry and leadership experience is invaluable as we continue to supercharge forwarder's customer service through new products, offerings and capabilities," said James Coombes, co-founder and CEO, Vector.ai. "His 20-plus-year track record of on-the-ground logistics work and supply chain management empowers us to take the next step in our growth journey."

Prior to joining Vector.ai, van der Walt served as Global Chief Commercial Officer at PayCargo where he played an instrumental role in furthering the company's commercial strategy, revenue and team growth. He is known as an industry transformation evangelist with broad international experience, having also served as president and CEO of PayCargo's Americas division. Prior to his time at PayCargo, van der Walt was President at Cargo Network Services (CNS), held various leadership roles at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in offices across the globe, and was an air traffic controller in the early stages of his career.

"The profound positive impact of Vector.ai's rapid expansion and innovative approach to helping freight forwarders solve their business challenges with AI, is leading a new wave of meaningful transformation across the industry," said van der Walt. "I look forward to integrating myself into Vector.ai's dynamic, collaborative culture and bringing the cutting edge technology they've developed to freight forwarders across the globe. Vector.ai is all about uniting AI-driven practices with the physical supply chain, something that is more vital to success than ever before."

Vector.ai's recently announced AI-payments integrations, as well as their enhanced arrival notice capabilities, will be at the core of van der Walt's focus. These along new products currently in development will fall under van der Walt's discretion as Vector.ai continues expanding its portfolio to become a complete operations hub for freight forwarders.