A citizen of the world
Life and work has taken Mathilde de Rocquigny, CargoAi CCO, to Mexico, Portugal, France, the UK, Ireland, Japan and now Singapore but her heart remains in air cargo
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ingapore is always a hive of activity. It attracts talented people looking for innovation and transformation and brings them together. And it serves our cargo industry excellently. For the last three weeks, I’ve been meeting people whose shared ambition is to make their mark on air cargo by throwing themselves – body and soul – into the industry’s digital transformation, which, in their eyes, is no longer something disruptive. And it seems that these talents have something else in common: they all decided to join the other equally talented members of CargoAi, the SaaS application that offers air cargo digital solutions to freight forwarders, airlines and GSAs and allows users to manage the entire air cargo booking process via a single tool.
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o I’m back in Singapore once more – this time, to meet Mathilde, an enthusiastic leader in the airlines and airports industry. Mathilde knows where she’s going. And it isn’t chance that led her to a brilliant career in our industry. Mathilde chose it: “I began my career in 2000 at Air France’s passenger business in the Southern Europe market. I have been working for airlines and airports since then, switching from air cargo to passenger business and airports.” And so, while Mathilde is French, she’s also a citizen of the world, she is an international manager. “I’ve lived and worked in many countries: Mexico, Portugal, France, the UK, Ireland, Japan and now Singapore, and I’ve seized opportunities in multicultural environments, including in air cargo and passenger business.”
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his extremely charismatic woman has a taste for a challenge – and an even stronger taste for cargo: “I’ve always thought that cargo was the most fascinating part of the airline business. To me, air cargo means having access to the world’s goods production – a major part of the economy. Though it accounts for less than 5% of global goods transportation, those goods are the most important and valuable in the world, which means finding aircraft capacity to ship them is a challenge.” And she’s spent over 20 years working in our industry. “I used to work on
knowledge to make CargoAi a success.”
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Audrey Serdjebi “My career choices have been driven by an attraction to complex organisations, commercial challenges and change management in foreign cultures.” full-freighter scheduling strategy at Air France KLM Cargo, and I have specific expertise in route development for airports. I also worked in cargo development while I was managing traffic development at Osaka (Kansai) Airports.” The CargoAi team didn’t miss this opportunity: Mathilde has just joined CargoAi as chief commercial officer. “The CargoAi team recruited me to build up a commercial structure and bring airlines and freight forwarders together around this unique solution. “We are rolling out a sales plan to on-board our customers onto the platform. From my expertise in air cargo, I believe our team has designed the best solution for the airline and freight forwarder marketplace. CargoAi will become essential for booking cargo capacity online.” The team Mathilde mentions is “talented, dedicated and inspiring.” But above all, it offers a carefully picked blend of skills to deliver the best results. “I feel we are all complementary. I bring many years of experience of airlines and air cargo, as well as my network. We definitely have the energy, skills and
n addition to her industry expertise, Mathilde is also a specialist in organisations and change management – an essential quality when your focus is on simplifying digitalisation for an entire industry. She says: “My career choices have been driven by an attraction to complex organisations, commercial challenges and change management in foreign cultures. I enhance team performance and company profitability through a human prism to transform structures and drive sales achievements.”
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nd naturally, Mathilde’s driving force is digitalisation and data collection. Throughout her career, she has tested the added value that digital technology can bring to the human side of the business: “I have always had to adapt processes and implement new IT solutions to enhance our performance in forecasting, sales and negotiations.” Mathilde adds: “Data and booking information are valuable. They provide accurate visibility on the business and lead to revenue optimisation. “With access to data, it’s possible to forecast and then, planning new developments will make air cargo stronger.”
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nd although the crisis we are currently living through is wreaking havoc, Mathilde has an amazing capacity for resilience, allowing her to see today’s times as an unmissable opportunity for us to transform. “The direct negative impact of this unprecedented crisis is the lack of capacity due to the reduction in passenger flights and stronger demand driven by pharma and e-commerce. The positive impacts are a better load factor on full freighters and an improvement in unit revenue and profitability. This shortage of capacity will make freight forwarders think differently about their capacity purchasing process.” And without a doubt, this is what makes CargoAi a “game-changer for both airlines and freight forwarders.” As Mathilde concludes, “Having all airlines’ cargo flights displayed on our booking solution is something that’s never been seen before, and this will be the key feature of our success.”
aircargoweek.com