New chief technical officer at Pallet-Track

Swedish-born Thomas joins the Wolverhampton-based firm from Palletways, where he has worked for nearly 20 years.

The 52-year-old will report directly to chief executive Caroline Green and says his focus for the role will be the continued development of Pallet-Track’s IT infrastructure, enabling it to win and retain business and drive efficiencies across the company.

Thomas’s varied career to date has seen him work in South East Asia for Volvo’s Far East operation, as well as a spell as a lecturer and researcher in artificial intelligence and database design and management at Staffordshire University, the University of Surrey and Aston University.

He has held an IT directorship for nearly all of his 20 years in the logistics industry and says his role at Pallet-Track will involve “doing the good things even better.”

Thomas said: “Technology has changed enormously since I started in the industry. However, what remains the same is using IT as a driver for efficiency – that’s something I’ve always been interested in.

“UK pallet networks have been able to expand all over Europe and internationally, and that has all been driven by IT.

“I’ve followed Pallet-Track’s successes through the media and I am very excited to get started here.”

Thomas aims to start his role with a ‘stock take’ to establish the pressure points in the business, before focusing on three main topics – making it easier for customers to work with Pallet-Track; operational processes and efficiencies and cloud migration.

He said a big part of the role will be ensuring happy customers stay happy and any changes to IT infrastructure will only improve the service-driven ethos Pallet-Track is known for.

“The areas we have spoken about include how we can use IT to help make it easier for our customers to work with us, he added.

“We will also be looking at cloud migration and our operational processes. We are really fortunate that we have never done IT for IT’s sake. Everything either offers value to our customers or operational efficiencies to our members.

“Everything will be considered by what will bring the biggest value to the network as a whole.”

Caroline Green, chief executive of Pallet-Track, said: “Thomas joining the team represents a major coup for the business and we are thoroughly looking forward to working with him.

“We pride ourselves on our continual investment in technology and Thomas is a key part of this ongoing commitment.

“The world of logistics is ever-changing and this appointment will help us to stay ahead of the curve, continually innovating and adding value for our customers and members.”