David Beecham leaves AirBridgeCargo to join Charles River Laboratories

David Beecham has been appointed as the director of global category procurement – freight & logistics by Charles River Laboratories. According to the company, Beecham will oversee the development, implementation and management of global category strategies and supplier relationships across the portfolio of freight and logistics sub-categories including, freight forwarders, ocean, air, LTL, courier and parcel. Beecham will be based in Amsterdam.

Charles River Laboratories, a New York Stock Exchange or NYSE-listed company (CRL), was founded in 1947 by Dr Henry Foster, a young veterinarian, in Boston, overlooking the Charles River. Today Charles River provides products and services to help expedite the discovery, early-stage development and safe manufacture of novel drugs and therapeutics.

Before taking up the current role, Beecham was senior director product development at AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) based in Amsterdam. He joined ABC, a Volga-Dnepr Group company and the largest Russian cargo airline, in July 2018.

Before his stint at ABC, Beecham was the senior manager for cargo products at Qatar Airways for more than five years based in Doha. At Qatar Airways he handled climate-controlled projects after which was responsible for developing the airline’s QR Pharma product.

Beecham has more than four decades of experience working in special cargo products with a focus on products like pharma and perishable that require temperature-controlled logistics.