Jörg Conrad, owner and CEO of the Leschaco Group, received a high personal award on Friday, 29 March 2019: The jury honoured Jörg Conrad with the LEO Award 2019 in the category "Logistical lifetime achievement" at a festive gala attended by 350 top-class representatives of the transport and logistics industry. LEO stands for "Logistics.Excellence.Optimisation", which makes it clear that this is a personal award for outstanding achievements in logistics.
There are no longer too many medium-sized players in the international freight forwarding and logistics industry who can still play in the top league. One is Lexzau, Scharbau from Bremen, better known as Leschaco. Founded in 1879, the company is today one of the ten largest sea freight forwarders in Germany. And in chemical logistics it is a global top player. Over the past four decades, CEO and owner Jörg Conrad has made this his mission. DVZ honours this life's work with an LEO award and was explained by Sebastian Reimann, deputy editor-in-chief of DVZ in his laudation:
Born in 1954, he began his career after completing an apprenticeship as a banker in 1976 in the Berlin operations of Anker Schiffahrts-Gesellschaft, a member of the Leschaco Group. In 1980 he was overcome with wanderlust. He wanted to get to know the world, which he did over the next five years. The stations: USA, Brazil and South Africa. In 1985 he returned to Germany. In the same year, his father, the then company director, passed away. For Jörg Conrad, this meant assuming responsibility early on. In 1986 he was given power of attorney, and in 1988 he became managing partner. Since 1992 he has been the sole owner of the group of companies.
Under his leadership, Leschaco has become an international logistics company - with more than 2,500 employees in over 70 offices in more than 22 countries. The product range was expanded to include contract and tank container logistics. However, the core business remains international forwarding, in line with Leschaco's motto "Forwarding is our passion."
Jörg Conrad is not afraid of the fact that business is changing rapidly - in short, digitalisation. Early on, he established a globally uniform IT landscape at Leschaco. At its headquarters in Bremen, the company employs more than 20 software developers and founded Logward, a digital start-up, last year.
Excellent employees and interpersonal communication are and will remain the A and O for the LEO winner. "Because robots cannot make strategic decisions, they can only implement them," he emphasizes. Leschaco is therefore investing massively in young professionals and has 120 trainees worldwide.
In November, Jörg Conrad turns 65. He is not yet thinking about quitting, but he has already considered how Leschaco's top management should continue. His son Constantin joins the management team this summer. For Jörg Conrad, one thing is crystal clear: Leschaco should remain an "independent and innovative group of companies".
LEO Award for Leschaco owner Jörg Conrad
Leschaco