2006 Hall of Fame Recipient

Manfred Kiel - Chairman
S.A.T. Sea-Air Transport GmbH

Manfred Kiel is being inducted into the TIACA 2006 Hall of Fame in recognition of his professional leadership and innovative development of sea-air transport, creating a cost-effective trade and transport link from Asia to Europe.

Mr. Kiel began his career as an apprentice with Schenker. Following this training period, he started another apprenticeship with Krupp in Essen, where he received an education in industrial management. During this time, he was among a group of twenty young managers selected out of thousands to become top manager. Following this, he worked as a Branch Manager with AEI, and later with Alitalia. In the early 1970s, he was asked to join Pracht, a leading German forwarding agent at the time. He started as Branch Manager and was soon named Director of Airfreight Sales. Later, he served as Managing Director of companies like Circle Freight International and Concorde in Germany.

In 1984, he founded his own company, S.A.T. Sea-Air Transport GmbH, in Düsseldorf. As the name implies, S.A.T. is a specialist in multi-modal sea-air combined transport. The concept offered is a carrier service which mixes the two modes of transport as one product. After one year, the company rose to number one in combined sea-air transport. Together with his associates Peter Knopf and Issa Baluch (Chairman and CEO of Swift Freight International), they built up the sea-air combined transport business via Dubai and have maintained the number one position over the last 15 years.

Before the development of sea-air transport, moving freight from Asia to Europe was an expensive, time-consuming process. By developing sea-air transport via Dubai, Mr. Kiel helped create a revolutionary, cost-effective trade and transport link between East and West. Sea-air transport has become an important multi-modal product, which offers great benefits to regional economies, airlines, airports, seaports, forwarders, and importers. SAT became the largest sea-air carrier in the world, and has received awards for the same over 15 times.

Manfred Kiel’s dedication has brought great benefits to regional economies, airlines, airports, seaports, forwarders, and importers.