Senior appointments at DHL see Michael Mulvenna take on the role of vice president, Europe for Industrial Projects, succeeding Martyn Lawns, who now leads the company’s new energy growth initiative.
Mulvenna brings to the role a wealth of experience, having served as vice president, Asia Pacific (APAC) at DHL Industrial Projects and most recently as the head of global renewables. This experience, combined with his previous roles in the heavy transport sector, will support Mulvenna in continuing the growth that DHL Industrial Projects has enjoyed in Europe over the past few years – both as a key project region as well as a supplier.
He will administratively report to Tobias Schmidt, DHL Global Forwarding ceo for Europe with a dotted line reporting to Ryan Foley, ceo of DHL Industrial Projects.
As part of this leadership shift, DHL’s global renewables team – formerly operating as a standalone unit within the Industrial Projects global team – will now be fully integrated into its sector team, managed by Andy Tite, global commercial director Industrial Projects. This strategic and centralised team covers engineering and manufacturing (E&M), EPCs, IECs, mining, oil and gas, semiconductors, government and defence and now renewables. The integration aims to streamline customer engagement and leverage cross-sector synergies, with EPCs, IECs and even mining houses increasingly looking for clean energy to support their operations and feed new projects.
“The changes are an alignment with our established sector strategy team,” Tite explained, “which focusses on having sector specific subject matter experts (SMEs) supporting our key customers in industry sectors, meaning our sector SMEs have the ability to support our clients, regardless of geographical location; provide consistent points of contact, focussed and tailored support; and ensure that we allow ease of access to our global network.”
Lawns, meanwhile, began his new role as senior vice president, growth initiative – new energy at the start of April, reporting to Tim Scharwath, ceo of DHL Global Forwarding, supporting him in steering the group-wide growth initiative as part of the company’s Strategy 2030. This identifies the ‘new energy’ sector as a future growth area, with a particular focus on electric vehicles (EVs) and battery supply chains.
Lawns joined the group in 2014 as head of mining sector from Rio Tinto, where he held various procurement leadership roles across the EMEA region. He served as vice president, Europe at DHL Industrial Projects since 2020.
