Post by Arkadiusz Putko

✨ A new chapter begins ✨ 8 years ago, together with Szymon Bohdanowicz and Roman Putko, we decided to leave our stable jobs in a modern Gdańsk office and join Kamil Biedrzycki and Marcin Kulawik Ⓥ, who were building a new team for the startup Twill Logistics. Twill, born within Damco under CEO Troels Randbøll Støvring, aimed to change the world of logistics. Maybe it didn’t quite change the entire world, but it certainly changed my life and career. After just a few months, and thanks to the encouragement of my amazing teammates and our CTO Jan Castelijns, I stepped off the developer path and became an Engineering Manager. It was a big change, but it allowed me to grow in new directions. With the support of great leaders like Jan, Troels, Trine Storgaard Nielsen, Barbara Peric, Anne-Sophie Zerlang Karlsen, and Søren Fosgerau Østergaard, I learned how to become a manager and a leader myself. Together with brilliant colleagues like Menno Veen, Aga Woja, Daisy Zhang, Katarzyna Putko, Minke de Haan, and many others, we built our product and grew our team—eventually making our Gdańsk tech team bigger than the headquarters in The Hague. During this time, Twill was acquired by Maersk, which opened the next chapter of my journey. While navigating the tough challenge of integrating systems, and after Jan’s departure, I had the opportunity to step up as Acting CTO. With the support of both the Twill and Maersk teams—special thanks to Angel Donchev and Carsten Frank Olsen—I eventually completed the integration as Head of Tech at Twill and Senior Engineering Manager at Maersk. Working at Maersk meant moving from the startup world into the corporate world. It was another big shift, but again, I was lucky to work alongside and learn from amazing leaders and partners: Bernardo Barbosa, Emanuele I., Wouter Groeneweg, Gabriele Balke, Sofie Magnusson, Søren Vedel and many more. 👉 Today, on my 40th birthday, after almost 8 years with Twill and Maersk, I am starting a new adventure as Director of IT at Hapag-Lloyd. 8 years in IT and logistics—and I’m still hungry for more. I believe that at Hapag-Lloyd I will find just as many friends, mentors, and opportunities to grow as I did at Maersk (and I’ve already spotted a few familiar faces like Declan Murphy—thank you for the support!). To everyone at Twill/Maersk: thank you for these incredible years. To Hapag-Lloyd: I’m looking forward to doing great things together. 🚀 Finally, I want to mention the people I had the privilege to lead, mentor, or simply work side by side with—from Gdańsk, The Hague, Copenhagen, and later India, the US, and beyond. If we worked together and your name isn’t mentioned here, please forgive me—I simply couldn’t fit everyone into one post. 🙏 but a special thanks to my core "first team": Marcin Kałdonek Piotr Giedrojć Adam Grabowski Kasia Jastrzębska Michał Kotarbiński Wojciech Sielski Przemysław Schultek