Introduction

My career has taken me across industries, countries and cultures, from my first role in logistics in the United Kingdom to leading complex supply chain operations across Asia and, more recently, building my own business.

Looking back, there was never a grand plan. Each opportunity opened the door to the next, each challenge taught a lesson, and every role added another piece to the experience I have today.

This page isn’t intended to be an online CV. It’s a personal journey through the experiences, people and decisions that shaped my career over the years

The Beginning

Like many careers, mine didn’t begin with a carefully planned roadmap. I left college after my ‘A’ Levels in 1987 and went to work with my cousins in the South of England for three years. During that time I embarked on night school to attain my City & Guilds qualification in Motor Vehicle Maintenance (reinforcing my passion as a petrol head), but I soon realised that my future lay elsewhere.

I moved back to the North and contemplated starting my own business even back then. But not wanting to sit at home idle I enlisted with a temp labour agency who placed me at TDG (Transport Development Group) as it was then, Harris Distribution. I had been given a job in a building society but then TDG offered me a full time job which I took because I didn’t think I’d be working for a company for long. I had no idea at the time, it was the start of a career that would take me across industries, countries and continents. One promotion after another and suddenly I had been there 5-years and was by 1995 the Warehouse Manager of the very site where I joined as a Goods-In clerk.

What began as a job quickly became a profession. I was drawn to the pace, the challenge of solving problems, and the satisfaction of making complex operations run smoothly. Those early years taught me the importance of discipline, teamwork and understanding that success in logistics is built on people as much as processes. Although still alot to learn, I & others saw potential in my early years as a leader and I was now fully immersed in a career.

Looking back, joining TDG was the decision that shaped everything that followed. It laid the foundations for an international career spanning more than three decades and gave me a passion for supply chain and logistics that continues to this day.

Learning The Foundations

My early years at TDG were where I truly learned the fundamentals of logistics and leadership. Starting in Goods-In gave me an appreciation of the importance of accuracy, discipline and teamwork. Every pallet, every delivery and every customer expectation mattered, and I quickly realised that success depended on getting the basics right every single day.

As my responsibilities grew, so did my understanding of warehouse operations. I was fortunate to work alongside experienced colleagues and managers who challenged me, trusted me with increasing responsibility and encouraged me to develop. Each promotion brought new challenges, from supervising small teams to managing larger operations, teaching me that leadership was about earning respect, setting standards and leading by example.

I was particularly lucky that I had great managers and bosses who took me under their wing, and nurtured and cultivated my abilities. Harvey Martin, Phil Carroll & Phil Jones I will always be thankful to for their mentorship, trust and confidence in me. TDG invested heavily in developing its people. Throughout my time there I attended numerous training programmes, including achieving my National and International ‘O’ Licence qualifications. That commitment to developing people had a lasting impact on my own approach to leadership.

One of the more challenging phases was when I became Warehouse Manager. I was now the manager of the same operations teams and supervisors that I had worked with. It was a real test of how to be an authentic leader and I recall having to make some challenging decisions during that time. It was the first time I realised that leadership sometimes meant making difficult decisions that wouldn’t please everyone, but were necessary for the business and the team.

Looking back, these formative years gave me far more than operational knowledge. They instilled the work ethic, values and leadership principles that have remained with me throughout my career. The lessons I learned during this period became the foundation upon which every future role was built.

Expanding The Horizons

After five rewarding years with TDG, the company relocated me to Slough, Berkshire, to manage what was then one of the world’s first Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) warehouses. It was a significant step in my career and a completely different environment from anything I had experienced before. Instead of building operations from the ground up, I found myself managing highly automated systems where technology, processes and precision were at the heart of the operation.

During the next six years I experienced some of the most important developments in logistics at the time, including major systems integrations and the Y2K systems integrity programme as the new millennium approached. It was an exciting period of rapid change that continually challenged me to learn, adapt and grow.

Looking back, those six years did more than expand my technical knowledge. They helped me define my own leadership style and principles. There were plenty of successes, but also more than a few stumbles along the way. Every challenge, every mistake and every achievement made me a better logistics professional and, more importantly, a better leader.

During this period I had the privilege of working for three very different leaders. Steve Barraclough gave me the opportunity to take on the role, while Wyn Griffiths was probably the most challenging manager I worked for during my career. Looking back, however, I learned an enormous amount from both of them. Steve gave me confidence and opportunity, while Wyn taught me lessons about leadership that have stayed with me ever since. One of the biggest lessons I learned was that every manager—good or bad—has something to teach you, if you’re willing to learn.

I finished my time in Slough working for Dave Warren, who had been on the same management development programme as me. Dave was simply a wonderful person to work with and someone I respected immensely. Sadly, Wyn passed away a number of years ago and, although Dave and I have lost touch over the years, Steve and I are still in contact today.

In 2001, another of my most respected managers, Alastair Ibister, invited me to join his team at Head Office within the Sales Development function. It was my first exposure to Business Development and gave me an entirely new set of skills beyond warehouse operations. A year later, the company announced a major redundancy programme. By then Alastair had moved to Exel Logistics and invited me to join him as part of a Change Management team delivering projects across the South East of England.

Shortly after joining Exel, I was asked to travel to South Korea to support the onboarding of a major new customer and mentor the local team in the complexities of retail logistics. I had no idea at the time that this would be the beginning of my international career. After completing the assignment, I returned to England to continue my Change Management role. Nine months later, however, the Asia Pacific leadership team asked me to return to South Korea on a two-year assignment to mentor and develop a newly appointed General Manager in building a world-class retail logistics operation.

In 2002 my life changed in more ways than one. I got married, moved to South Korea and began what was originally planned to be a two-year assignment. It was a completely new chapter, both personally and professionally, and my first experience of living and working outside the United Kingdom. Looking back, I couldn’t have imagined where that decision would eventually lead.

After successfully completing my assignment in South Korea, I was offered my first General Manager role in Indonesia. It was a huge vote of confidence and an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. It was also the point where I realised that succeeding internationally wasn’t just about understanding logistics—it was about understanding people, culture and how to lead in completely different environments.

One of the people who had the greatest influence on me during this period was Steve Daniel. Steve taught me the commercial side of the business in a way that no one had before and helped me see logistics through a very different lens. His guidance broadened my thinking beyond operations and played a significant part in my development as a business leader. Steve sadly passed away a few years ago, but he remains in my thoughts and I continue to be grateful for everything he taught me.

During the same period, Paul Graham, then Head of Asia Pacific for Exel, became one of the people I have admired and respected most throughout my career. When my wife was recovering from emergency appendix surgery, Paul and his family welcomed her into their home so that I could remain focused on delivering one of the company’s most important customer projects. That wasn’t management—it was genuine leadership and genuine friendship. It taught me that leadership is about looking after people when they need you most. More than twenty years later, I still carry a deep sense of gratitude and respect for Paul because of that act of kindness.

Indonesia was both exciting and humbling. I had more than a few stumbles as I adapted to a completely different culture, different customers and a different way of doing business. I quickly realised that the management style that had served me well in the UK and South Korea wasn’t always the right approach. I had to listen more, adapt my communication, understand local expectations and develop a leadership style that respected Indonesian culture. Looking back, those lessons taught me as much about myself as they did about leadership.

After two successful years in Indonesia, DHL acquired Exel Logistics and I was approached by IDS Logistics to join their leadership team in Singapore. During the next four years I held three different roles, each expanding my experience and further shaping my leadership style across Asia. Every move brought new challenges, new industries and new perspectives, reinforcing the importance of adaptability, cultural awareness and continuous learning.

I then joined HAVI Logistics, where I had the privilege of working for another exceptional leader, Bo Grabowski. What began as a professional relationship developed into a lifelong friendship that continues to this day. During my four years with HAVI I also spent a year in Japan, leading the design and specification of a new Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) in Tokyo. Working with Ross Ellison on that project was another highlight of my career and gave me invaluable experience delivering complex projects in one of the world’s most demanding business environments.

Looking back, this period transformed me from a UK logistics manager into an international business leader. Every country, every culture and every challenge taught me something new. More importantly, they taught me that successful leadership isn’t about applying one style everywhere—it is about understanding people, earning trust and adapting without ever compromising your values. I can honestly say those values were tested many times throughout my international career, but every challenge only reinforced the leader I wanted to become.

International Leadership

By this stage of my career, Asia no longer felt unfamiliar. It had become home. I had learned to adapt to different cultures, build relationships across diverse teams and lead businesses in environments that were very different from the one I had grown up in. The years ahead would prove to be some of the most rewarding of my professional life.

Following four successful years with HAVI Logistics, I was offered the opportunity to join ECCO Shoes in Thailand as Factory Supply Chain Director. It was a fascinating experience because, for the first time in my career, I was sitting on the other side of the table. Instead of providing logistics services to customers, I became the customer, responsible for managing the supply chain supporting a global manufacturing operation.

The role gave me a completely different perspective on how supply chains operate and the challenges manufacturers face every day. I thoroughly enjoyed those three years and gained an enormous amount of knowledge. It also taught me something about myself. Whilst I had developed a genuine appreciation for end-to-end supply chain management, I realised my real passion had always been logistics. That was where I felt most at home.

In 2016 I returned to Indonesia to join Kuehne + Nagel. I was given the opportunity to build a logistics business from the ground up, and it remains one of the most enjoyable and satisfying roles of my career. We built a talented team, won significant new business through organic growth and successfully completed the acquisition and integration of another logistics business. By 2021 we had developed a business with a strong reputation, a healthy profit and loss account and, more importantly, a team that I was immensely proud of.

Looking back, those five years were probably the happiest of my professional life. I genuinely loved going to work every day. I felt completely in my element, as though everything I had learned over the previous twenty years had prepared me for that role. Challenges that might once have seemed daunting had become opportunities to solve problems, develop people and grow the business. I was fortunate to lead an incredible team, and I believe they knew how much I valued every one of them. Together we built something very special.

Like so many businesses around the world, COVID changed everything. My time with Kuehne + Nagel came to an end, but I was fortunate to be offered a new opportunity almost immediately with DB Schenker in Thailand as Head of Contract Logistics for Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.

There I had the privilege of working for another outstanding leader, Dean Thorpe, who ranks among the very best managers I have worked with throughout my career. What made our relationship even more remarkable was discovering that, despite building our careers on opposite sides of the world, we had grown up on the same street in the North of England. Dean’s family had emigrated to Australia when he was young, leading him to an international career spanning Australia, the United States and Asia, while my own journey had taken me from the UK across Asia. His mother still remembered me, I had been at school with his older brother, and to top it all off, we shared the same passion for motorcycles. The chances of two boys from the same street eventually working together in senior leadership roles in Thailand are almost impossible to comprehend. It remains one of those wonderful coincidences that life occasionally gives us.

While Dean was an exceptional manager, the people who made my time at DB Schenker truly unforgettable were my Thailand team. They taught me one of the greatest leadership lessons of my career. I thought I understood trust. I thought I had earned it. What I eventually discovered, to my surprise, was that whilst my team respected me, they didn’t yet truly know me. In Thai culture, those are two very different things.

With the support of our HR Director, Peerada Surachet, we did something that was completely outside my comfort zone. We held a “Get to Know Jamil” session where, for the first time in my professional life, I openly shared some of the most personal parts of my journey. I explained not only who I was, but why I did the things I did. Why I would turn up unannounced at a warehouse. Why I would stop for a coffee with the operations team if I happened to be driving past. It was never about checking up on people or catching someone doing something wrong. Operations had always been where my heart was. Warehouses are where promises are either kept or broken, and I genuinely loved spending time with the people who made those promises happen every single day.

That conversation changed everything. Once my team understood who I was as a person, not just as their leader, the relationship transformed. It was no longer, “Here comes the Country Head.” It became, “We know Jamil, and we know he genuinely cares about us.” That level of trust is something many expatriate leaders never fully experience in Thailand, and I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have earned it.

Even today, almost three years after leaving DB Schenker, many of us are still in touch. Every now and then I’ll receive a message saying, “We miss you,” or hear that someone has said, “If Khun Jamil was here, we’d be doing it this way.” There is no greater compliment a leader can receive than knowing they made a lasting difference to the people they had the privilege to lead.

My final corporate role took me to Doha with TALKE, where I accepted a regional leadership position covering the Middle East. I thoroughly enjoyed my two and a half years there, working with another exceptional organisation and expanding my experience into yet another region of the world. When that chapter came to an end in early 2026, I found myself reflecting on everything I had experienced over more than three decades in logistics and supply chain.

Rather than searching for another corporate role, I made what was probably the biggest decision of my professional life. It was time to build something of my own. The experiences, mentors, successes, setbacks and friendships I had accumulated throughout my career had prepared me for this moment. In 2026, I founded JRS Supply Chain with a simple ambition: to build a business founded on experience, integrity and execution, while helping customers solve real logistics challenges with practical, hands-on leadership.

Entrepreneurship

After more than three decades working across Asia, the Middle East and Europe, I reached a point where I no longer felt driven by job titles or corporate ladders. I had been fortunate enough to lead exceptional businesses, work alongside remarkable people and experience opportunities that I could never have imagined as a young Goods-In Clerk in Lancashire. I felt a deep sense of gratitude for the career I had enjoyed, but I also knew there was one challenge I still wanted to take on.

For many years, people had encouraged me to start my own business. Like many ideas, it was easy to talk about but much harder to commit to. There is never a perfect time to leave the security of a corporate career, particularly after spending so many years building one. However, when my role with TALKE came to an end in early 2026, I saw it not as a setback but as an opportunity. Rather than looking for another executive position, I decided it was finally time to back myself.

JRS Supply Chain was not created because I wanted to be an entrepreneur. It was created because I wanted the freedom to work differently. Throughout my career I had seen that the best solutions rarely came from complicated presentations or lengthy reports. They came from listening, understanding the operation, rolling up your sleeves and working alongside people to solve real problems. That has always been my approach, and I wanted to build a business around that philosophy.

The years I spent leading operations taught me that trust is earned through consistency, honesty and doing what you say you will do. Whether I was walking around a warehouse floor, sitting with a customer discussing strategy or having a coffee with an operations team, my belief remained the same. Relationships come first. Businesses are built by people, not spreadsheets.

Starting JRS Supply Chain has probably been one of the most challenging experiences of my career. When you work for large organisations, there are departments, systems and teams supporting every decision. Building a business from the ground up is different. Every decision matters, every customer matters and every success or setback is personal. It has reminded me what it feels like to start again, and in many ways that has been both humbling and incredibly rewarding.

Looking back over my career, I realise that every mentor, every country, every success and every setback prepared me for this chapter. Harvey, Phil and Jones gave me my foundations. Steve Daniel taught me commercial thinking. Paul Graham showed me what genuine leadership looks like. Bo Grabowski demonstrated the value of friendship, while Dean Thorpe and my teams across Asia reinforced the importance of trust and authenticity. Each of them left their mark on the leader I became, and I hope a small part of each of them lives on in the way I lead today.

JRS Supply Chain is therefore much more than a company. It represents the values, experiences and lessons accumulated over a lifetime in logistics. My ambition has never been to build the biggest business. It is to build one that customers trust, employees are proud to be part of and partners enjoy working with. If, many years from now, people say that JRS was a business built with integrity, humility and a genuine commitment to helping others succeed, then I will consider it a success.

Looking Forward

As I look back over the last four decades, I realise how fortunate I have been. I have lived and worked in countries I never imagined I would visit, led businesses across different cultures, built lifelong friendships and been given opportunities that began with a simple decision to accept a temporary warehouse job all those years ago.

If there is one lesson I have learned, it is that careers are rarely planned. Mine certainly wasn’t. Almost every significant opportunity came from saying “yes” to something new, stepping outside my comfort zone and trusting that hard work, integrity and a willingness to learn would open the next door.

However, there is one person without whom none of this would have been possible—my wife.

Throughout every move, every new country, every promotion, every challenge and every setback, she has stood beside me with unwavering love, patience and encouragement. She left family and friends behind more than once so that we could build a life together wherever my career took us. She celebrated every success as though it were her own and, more importantly, carried me through the difficult times when things didn’t go to plan. Whether it was the uncertainty of redundancy, the pressure of leading businesses through challenging periods or simply the demands that an international career places on a family, she never once stopped believing in me.

People often talk about successful careers as though they are individual achievements. Mine certainly wasn’t. Every opportunity I accepted, every country I called home and every success I enjoyed was only possible because I had someone beside me who never questioned the journey, never asked me to give up and never stopped supporting me. Her faith in me has been constant, even during the times when my own confidence was shaken. That is a debt I could never hope to repay, and one for which I will remain grateful for the rest of my life.

I have also come to appreciate that success is never achieved alone. Every chapter of my journey has been shaped by people who believed in me, challenged me, supported me and, at times, carried me through difficult moments. I hope that, in some small way, I have been able to do the same for the people I have had the privilege to lead.

Today, my passion for logistics remains as strong as it was when I first walked into a warehouse. I still enjoy spending time in operations, talking to people on the warehouse floor, understanding how things work and helping businesses solve practical problems. Technology will continue to transform our industry, but I firmly believe that great logistics will always be built around great people.

JRS Supply Chain is the next chapter of that journey, not the final destination. It is an opportunity to bring together everything I have learned over a lifetime and continue doing what I enjoy most: building relationships, solving problems and helping customers succeed.

Away from work, I continue to enjoy exploring the world, particularly by motorcycle. Some of my greatest adventures have been experienced on two wheels, travelling through countries, meeting people from different cultures and being reminded that, no matter where we come from, kindness, respect and curiosity are universal languages. Those journeys have taught me lessons every bit as valuable as those I have learned in boardrooms and warehouses.

If someone were to ask me how I would like to be remembered, I don’t think it would be for the businesses I built or the positions I held. I hope people remember me as someone who treated others with respect, cared about the people around him, remained true to his values and never lost his passion for logistics or his curiosity about the world.

And if there is one thing I know with absolute certainty, it is this: whatever people may see when they look at my career, they are only seeing half the story. Behind every chapter, every achievement and every opportunity stands the remarkable woman who shared every step of the journey with me. Whatever I have accomplished in my professional life belongs to both of us.

After all, careers eventually come to an end. The impact we have on people doesn’t.