UPS Appoints Frank Sportolari as New President of UPS Germany, Stefan Schuerfeld to Head Europe Transportation

Neuss, October 04, 2011

Frank Sportolari, a 25-year veteran of UPS, has been named president of UPS Germany. He takes over this position from Stefan Schuerfeld, a 29-year company veteran, who becomes president of transportation for UPS Europe.

In his new position, Sportolari will be responsible for all operations, strategy and business development in Germany, which is UPS's largest market outside the United States with more than 15,000 employees. Schuerfeld, meanwhile, will now be responsible for managing UPS's European intermodal transportation network and will also oversee the recently announced expansion of UPS's European air hub in Cologne/Bonn.

Sportolari, a native of Chicago, USA, has spent his entire UPS career based in Europe, and comes to his new role from Italy, where he was UPS country manager from 2002 to 2004, and again from 2008 up until now. Sportolari started his UPS career in 1986 in Munich, Germany, as a trainee in the Finance and Accounting department. He then held various positions of increasing responsibility within the Finance and Accounting function, including working as the controller in Munich, Cologne and Neuss for UPS in Germany, along with further controller assignments in Spain/Portugal, Italy, and UPS's European headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. From 2004 to 2006 he was vice president of strategy for UPS Europe, also based in Brussels.

Commenting on his new role, Sportolari said, "I'm excited to be returning to Germany where my career with UPS began. I intend to put all the experience gained during my time working in various positions across Europe to good use, further developing the business here in Germany and helping German customers better connect to their global markets."

Schuerfeld began his career with UPS in 1982 as a part-time operations employee in Dortmund, Germany. He went on to hold positions of increasing responsibility in operations before becoming Netherlands country manager in 1999, Germany west division hub manager in 2000, air operations manager at UPS's European Cologne/Bonn air hub in 2002, Germany west district package division manager in 2005 and Germany south district operations manager in 2006. That same year, Schuerfeld was promoted to president of the former Great Basin District based in Salt Lake City, USA, and became president of UPS Germany in 2008.

"These are two vital appointments for Europe which illustrate our strong culture of promoting from within," said Jim Barber, president, UPS Europe, "With 54 years at UPS between them, Frank Sportolari and Stefan Schuerfeld bring to the organisation a wealth of leadership experience. They have each served on the front lines at UPS and their proven track records in a range of key operational and staff functions make them ideally suited to deliver continued excellence in UPS Europe's main market - Germany - and across the company's entire European transportation network."