Page 26 - STAT-November-2023-for-Magzter

interview
COLLABORATE

TO COMPETE

and WIN

Thirty-five-year-old chief executive of Teleport
Pete Chareonwongsak started his career as an
investment banker but it was Tony Fernandes, the
low-cost airline kingpin credited with revolutionizing
budget air travel in Asia, who inspired Chareonwongsak
to consider a career in aviation. Neither Fernandes
nor Chareonwongsak were wrong in their decision.
Chareonwongsak now wants to make package
deliveries across South-East Asia in 24 hours or
less. He says he wants Teleport to collaborate
and compete with legacy players in the
industry on speed and cost of delivery.
His ambition is to make Teleport a verb –
packages will be “teleported” in 10 hours.
Edited excerpts from the interview:
Reji John

Tell us briefly that story and how you
ended up in air cargo and logistics and
as the CEO of Teleport?
I would say a lot of luck and lack of experience
are the reasons why I am here. Most of my
peers in the industry are there because of their
experience – 20 years or more. But for me, my
lack of experience is probably why I'm here. And
then we're trying to achieve what we're trying
to achieve, which is, how we deliver everything
tomorrow, whether it is moving large freight or
small packages end to end to the consumer. My
lack of experience comes from the fact that
I understand what it feels like to live and
work in parts of the world that are not
my own. Frankly, nobody can disrupt the
best of breed in logistics like DHL, FedEx,
UPS and some of the amazing air cargo
carriers of the world. It's not expected
24 | NOVEMBER 2023 www.stattimes.com