Biography Johan Elzes

Johan Elzes is a Dutch national who has been living and working in Russia since 2011. Since 2022 he is the General Director of Ahlers Russia. He combines this role with managing the Business Unit Trade Facilitation & After Sales Services. Johan is based in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, a city which he first visited during his studies of the Russian language. Johan holds a university degree in Master of Arts, Russian Language and Literature from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

In his role as Business Unit Director Johan focuses on supporting companies overcome the difficulties of doing business in countries like Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, but also China. Ahlers does this by providing a combination of the supply chain- and market entry/development services aimed to unburden its customers. This is really where Ahlers goes beyond pure logistics and pragmatically thinks along with the customer's route to market strategy. As General Manager Russia Johan supports the business units in realizing their commercial strategies and providing guidance to Ahlers’ employees in Russia.

Topics on which Johan speaks:

• Doing business in Russia and managing the cultural differences
• Sales acceleration & route to market re-design; - Supply chain continuity, data analytics & 4/5PL services
• Compliancy & Russia: certification, labeling, and digital marking in Russia.