DHL has named Lau Tian Chen as the new Head of its Asia Pacific Innovation Center (APIC) in Singapore as the company looks to enable businesses by coming up with new tech solutions.

Coming from his role as vice president and head of business development at APIC, Chen has worked for over 2 decades at DHL.He will now be in charge of leading and mentoring colleagues at APIC where he will work with like-minded innovators to explore and test emerging logistics-related technologies that could reinvent supply chains.

Chen started his career at DHL Express Malaysia in 2002, moved up to DHL Global Forwarding as head of business development in 2006, and was promoted to head of commercial in 2008. He also held the role of vice president, business development for Southeast Asia and was head of DHL’s Global Center of Excellence in Iskandar, Malaysia.

“We aim to simplify tech buzzwords like IoT, digital twin, big data, and blockchain and utilize it to develop commercially viable solutions that can help businesses solve real problems and to impact the lives of their customers,” said Chen.

“I look forward to further deepening collaboration with my colleagues across the DHL family, and forming stronger bonds with innovation partners in the public and private sectors,” added Chen.

The Asia Pacific Innovation Center in Singapore, established in 2015, is one of four across the globe that are testing key logistics technologies and proof of concepts for future use.

The center also drives research initiatives focusing on emerging trends and offers tours and workshops to ideate and share learnings for customers and partners. The other three innovation centers are in Troisdorf in Germany, Chicago and Dubai.