In our Women in Leadership Series, we profile Kinjal Pande, the first woman CEO for India and the subcontinent at DB Schenker. She speaks about her 19-year-long career in the logistics sector and her plans in her new role.

In April this year, Kinjal Pande became the first woman CEO for India and the subcontinent for DB Schenker India, the transport and logistics division of the €44.43 billion Deutsche Bahn Group.

Kinjal has more than 19 years of cross-functional experience in the logistics industry, with a successful track in transport and logistics, covering sales, pricing, commercial strategy, operations, finance, and profit and loss.

In her current role as CEO, Kinjal will be driving growth in supply chain solutions to existing and new clients, covering freight forwarding, contract logistics, container shipping, rail and road transportation, and infrastructure development.

In a conversation with HerStory, Kinjal traces her long career in a space that’s largely male-dominated, and her plans as CEO.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

HerStory (HS): Can you tell us a little about your early years?

Kinjal Pande (KP): My father was in the Army and my entire childhood was spent moving from one city to the other every couple of years.

And one of the things you pick up every early on is to acclimatise yourself to a new place, make new friends and adjust to a different language or culture very quickly.

We moved around smaller cities near the borders and when he was transferred to Lucknow, we felt like we were finally moving to a big city.

I did my undergraduate course in Delhi University and an MBA from Pune and got placed with shipping line P&O Nedlloyd.

HS: Trace your career from the beginning until now.

KP: I got placed on campus in 2003. Two years into the role, I experienced a transformation where the company was bought by Maersk, one of the biggest shipping lines. It was an absolute fun company from a cultural perspective, and then you are put in a position where you don’t know whether you will have a job or not, but it went really smoothly.

I went to on to work at AP Moller Maersk for the next 17 years until I joined DB Schenker this year.

HS:There must not have been many women in the logistics sector when you started out. Was it a conscious decision to choose this line?

KP: Twenty years ago, the concepts and the kind of push and priority we are seeing around diversity and an inclusive environment were not really spoken about much.

Courtesy:Your Story