David Cuenca has been appointed the new CEO, CHEP North America after the departure of Xavier Garijo due to “cultural differences.”
Brambles has announced that Xavier Garijo, CEO, CHEP Americas, has decided to leave the CHEP business to pursue other opportunities after only six months on the job.
David Cuenca, currently CEO of CHEP Europe, will assume the role of CEO, CHEP North America, effective immediately. Paola Floris will continue to lead the CHEP Latin America business and now report to the Brambles CEO. According to a Brambles press release, an announcement regarding the leadership of the CHEP Europe business will be made in the next two weeks.
“I am delighted David has agreed to lead the North America business,” said Graham Chipchase, Brambles CEO. “David brings extensive global pooling experience to the role, having been with Brambles since 2000. He is a proven people leader with clear strategic vision and experience in driving growth while optimising business performance.”
Commenting on his new role, David Cuenca, incoming CEO, CHEP North America, said: “I am excited to lead the CHEP North America team through its next phase of growth, focused on unlocking significant value for our customers and business through exceptional service and operational excellence.”
Regarding the departure of Garijo, Chipchase commented: “We have appreciated the energy and significant skills Xavier has brought to the role; however, due to cultural differences, we have mutually agreed that a different leadership is better suited going forward. We thank him for the contributions he has made to our business and we wish him the very best for the future.”
Xavier had led the CHEP Americas business since January 2024. He replaced Laura Nador, a 20-year CHEP veteran who became CEO of CHEP North America at the start of 2018 and retired at the end of 2023 after a successful career. According to a January 2024 release, Nadar would stay on until the end of June 2024 to ensure a smooth transition.
Before joining CHEP, Garijo was most recently responsible for DB Schenker’s global contract logistics business, which had a workforce of 40,000 people in 60 countries. In this role, he developed and implemented a successful transformation strategy, introducing value-added services that accelerated profitable growth through customer centricity, operational excellence, automation, and digitization.
Previous to that, he worked in the US for 20 years, including managing end-to-end supply chains and operations for Revlon, Reckitt Benckiser, and Unilever. Garijo was educated in France and holds an Engineering degree from École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris and a Master of Science from the Université de Paris.
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Rick LeBlanc, EMBA, is the founder and editor of Reusable Packaging News (subscribe to the free newsletter) and editor of Western Pallet Magazine. A supply chain journalist with more than 30 years of experience, he specializes in pallets, reusable packaging, material handling and related operations. Rick is co-author of Pallets: A North American Perspective and Pallets & Progress: A Collected History of Pallets and Palletized Handling 1922–1945. He is also an advisory board member of the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design. Read Rick’s full bio.
