© DPD

The parcel and express service DPD mourns the loss of its key executive: Boris Winkelmann, CEO of the international DPDgroup, died suddenly on the evening of December 15 at the age of just 51 in his native city of Hamburg.

Boris Winkelmann had been CEO of GeoPost/DPDgroup, the international parcel network of the French La Poste, since June 2020. In this role, he was also a member of the Executive Board of La Poste. Prior to this, Boris Winkelmann was CEO of DPD Germany for almost six years.

Philippe Wahl, Chairman and CEO of Le Groupe La Poste: "With his positive and inspiring energy, his approachable and empathetic nature, his insatiable curiosity and his infectious enthusiasm, Boris Winkelmann left a lasting impression on everyone who had the privilege of meeting him. Our thoughts are with his wife, his daughters and his entire family, to whom we extend our deepest sympathy in this terrible tragedy."

Under Boris Winkelmann's leadership, DPDgroup continued its successful growth course and accelerated the Group's international expansion, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. He also drove forward DPDgroup's transformation into Europe's most sustainable parcel service and was a strong advocate of low-emission and climate-friendly parcel delivery.

Boris Winkelmann was CEO of DPD Germany from 2014 to 2020. His successor Eric Malitzke explains: "We will miss Boris Winkelmann as an outstanding leader who has shaped DPD in Germany and beyond like no other. Above all, however, in Boris we are losing a fine, warm-hearted and humorous person who has become a friend to many of us."

During his tenure as CEO of DPD Germany, Boris Winkelmann transformed DPD from a pure B2B specialist into a digital innovation leader and an important player in the fast-growing B2C market. He also merged the parcel service, which had been structured into different parts with several companies in the German domestic market since its foundation, into a uniform company throughout Germany.

Boris Winkelmann had more than 25 years of experience in the parcel and express market. He began his career in 1994 at TNT Express Worldwide, where he held various management positions before moving to the La Poste subsidiary GeoPost in 1999. He coordinated the acquisition of a majority stake from DPD in Germany until its completion in 2001 and was also involved in the international development of GeoPost. Subsequently, Winkelmann and a business partner founded LetMeShip, an online shipping service, CEP Research, an information and market research service, and ITA Consulting, an M&A consulting service.