Chief Commercial Officer — Global Air Cargo & GSA | Case Study | SearchPath
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Global Air Cargo & GSARetained Executive SearchPublished September 14, 2026

Chief Commercial Officer

A GSA network winning mandates faster than it could scale unified its commercial strategy and grew tonnage under management 27%.

The Challenge

A global GSA network was winning airline representation mandates faster than its commercial leadership could scale. Without a unified sales strategy, regional offices competed against one another and carrier partners questioned the network's ability to deliver consistent yield.

Our Approach

We searched the air cargo and GSA community for a commercial leader with airline-side yield management experience and multi-region P&L oversight. Our finalist had built a centralized pricing desk at a competing network and brought carrier relationships across three continents.

The Mandate

Rapid mandate wins had created an enviable problem: a network growing faster than its commercial operating model could support. Regional offices were quoting the same lanes against one another, and airline partners were beginning to doubt whether the network could deliver predictable yield.

The company needed a commercial leader who understood both sides of the air cargo trade — the airline's yield priorities and the GSA's sales reality — and who could impose one strategy across a proudly independent set of regions.

How We Ran the Search

We focused on the narrow population of commercial leaders with genuine airline-side yield management experience alongside multi-region P&L oversight. The finalist had already built a centralized pricing desk elsewhere and carried carrier relationships across three continents — evidence, not promise, that the model could work.

The Outcome

The placed CCO ended the internal competition between regions by standing up a unified pricing desk within five months, giving carrier partners the consistent yield they had been asking for. Tonnage under management grew 27%, and the network retained or won twelve airline mandates on the strength of a single, coherent commercial story.

27%
Growth in tonnage under management
12
Airline mandates retained or won
5 mo
To a unified pricing desk

Client company and placed candidate identities are withheld to protect the confidentiality of our retained search engagements.

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