Ben Milne
CEO, COO, Transformation and Board Advisor. MBA.
A commercial leader who sees through the complexity to the value underneath, then moves fast and brings the team with him.
Opening
Ben does not have a typical logistics CV. He is a commercial leader who has spent 25 years driving growth, turning businesses around and finding the value that others miss because they are looking at the sector rather than the fundamentals underneath it. He has grown a food distributor by $75M in 14 months, turned around the region of a FTSE-100 business facing an £80M projected loss, built a company from zero to £7M, and advised a national postal operator at board level.
Whatever the business, the same questions apply. Where is the value, where is it being lost, who needs to move, and what changes first. The answers come quickly because the pattern is recognisable, even when the industry is not.
Ben grew up in Saudi Arabia and understands the Gulf in a way most expatriate executives do not. He is as comfortable in a room with a Chairman or a government minister as with a warehouse team. In the GCC, where relationships determine outcomes as much as proposals do, that matters.
His MBA specialised in organisational behaviour and change management, which is another way of saying he understands that every operational system has a human system behind it, and that changing the first without managing the second is how transformation fails.
What Ben brings
- Commercial growth. He has never held a role where growth was not the output. Seven service lines cross-sold at UK Mail, $75M of revenue growth at Chef Middle East, a food business built from nothing to £7M.
- Turnaround and transformation. The regional turnaround of a FTSE-100 business facing an £80M projected loss. Acting CEO of a UAE logistics group. Restructuring and recovery across sectors.
- Board and PE advisory. Board-level strategy for Qatar Post, distressed acquisition diligence for a Dubai private equity firm, operating model and investor readiness for a scaling GCC distributor.
- Cross-functional reach. Commercial, operational, HR, finance and government relations moved together, across single sites and across three countries at once.
- GCC fluency. Raised in Saudi Arabia, operating across the Gulf, trusted at board and Chairman level.
Selected track record
Acting CEO
Tameem Logistics & Warehousing, UAE · 2026
AED 67.9M
Full C-suite scope at a cold chain, road freight and cross-border 3PL business, 299 vehicles, reporting to the Chairman. Grew the anchor relationship 35% in three months and recovered a seven-figure debt.
Head of Commercial Development
Chef Middle East, UAE, Qatar and Oman · 2023 to 2025
$75M growth
Led the commercial function across three countries and 70-plus people. Grew revenue from 225 to over $300M in 14 months, and secured regional exclusivities with Bridor, IRCA and Lactalis.
Strategic Growth Advisor
Qatar Post
Board level
Board-level advisory to the Chairman, repositioning a national postal operator toward premium logistics and e-commerce. Received a personal recommendation from the Chairman.
Regional Managing Director
City Link, UK · 2008 to 2009
£11.5M
Brought in to turn around the London region of a business facing an £80M projected group loss. Delivered £11.5M in regional savings and returned the region to profit.
Co-Founder and CEO
The Chef's Deli, UK
£7M
Built a premium food distribution business from zero, supplying more than 250 clients including Harrods, Soho House and the London 2012 Olympics. Founded and ran three London restaurants featured in GQ, Time Out, the Evening Standard and Channel 4.
Fractional and advisory engagements
Goldman Advisory, Beboxa, Sprift, Guernsey Post
Senior advisor to the CEO of Goldman Advisory, a Dubai private equity firm. Fractional advisor to Beboxa on go-to-market and investor readiness, strategic advisor to Sprift on data commercialisation, and advisor to Guernsey Post, where he identified a £10M opportunity from a rough brief.
Selected numbers
$75M revenue growth in 14 months
£80M projected loss turned around
AED 67.9M managed at CEO level
In their words
“Ben is a highly intellectual individual, who has the ability to translate business strategy into deliverable actions and output. A dynamic, non-nonsense leader with a wealth of cross functional experience, able to engage at all levels within an organisation.”
“His ability to quickly grasp what we do and have an immediate impact was second to none. I would highly recommend Ben for any CEO, board, or advisory role, especially in PE-backed, family, or fast-growth businesses.”