Kester Meijer works at KLM Cargo as Director Operational Integrity, Compliance & Safety. Kester is member of the KLM Cargo management team.

Kester enjoys working with people in industry, regulations, enforcement and technology.
He has extensive knowledge and experience in both Air Cargo Supply Chain Logistics, Compliance and ICT. Putting this unique combination to work on connecting with stakeholders and orchestrating innovative concepts, where processes are combined with new technology and standards. He strongly believes our industry is in the era of a paradigm shift, where Data, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Blockchain will provide new ways to collaborate and connect. The future of Smart Borders and Air Cargo is to pre-check everything upstream and ensure a smooth shipment journey! The design of smart border assessment capacity has proven it’s value on several topics like Strategic/Military/Dual-Use goods and on the latest developments on Sanctions.

Then came the Covid crisis: together with the VP Worldwide Ops and Director Cargo Control Center, the three of us reshaped the global operations within the matter of weeks to be a flexible organization with commitment and purpose to Deliver our Promise. Building on operational excellence principles (OpsX) we were able to reduce throughput time and the cost of non-performance. From a high performance team perspective both my colleagues requested me to chair the global OpsX calls, which provide a drumbeat of continuous improvement and balancing workload and resource allocation for higher quality output monitored by Cargo iQ and GDP standards.

Key areas are Compliance, Safety, Customs, Sanctions, Security, Environment, Anti Counterfeit, Wildlife protection, Cargo Knowledge Center, Industry representation, Blockchain innovations.