Tim Steel 2024 Speaker

CEO

Copia

Biography

Tim is the CEO of Copia Global which brings the power of e-commerce & financial services to the emerging middle class, transforming this historically neglected market into empowered global consumers.

Tim is originally British and a Kenya permanent resident, he has a finance background and has 25 years transport and service industry experience leading diverse teams to deliver quality service and fast growth in emerging markets.

After starting his international career in Kenya in a voluntary role running the finances for the Salvation Army in East Africa, Tim joined TNT Express, the European leader in express transportation and headed up TNT’s owned entity operations in Cyprus, Egypt, Southern Africa and Kenya, living in the countries, managing business turnarounds, building strong teams and achieving accelerated growth rates often in very challenging environments.

In South Africa and Kenya he underpinned growth strategies by capitalising on the enhanced regional customs unions to implement first to market, cross border road distribution networks delivering speed, reliability and savings to customers. Whilst in Johannesburg, Tim championed and spearheaded the express industry association’s initiative to provide low cost primary healthcare cover for all employees with the aim of tackling the spread of HIV-AIDS in the transport industry.

From a base in Kenya, Tim then redesigned, built and managed TNT’s $100m franchise model and operation in 83 countries across Asia, Middle East and Africa working with partner agents, local and remote teams to bring a new service/growth strategy to multiple key markets simultaneously. He set up a back-office customer service and data centre in Bangalore India to support hundreds of franchise partners 24/7 across all time zones.

Tim graduated in History from the University of Ulster and has postgraduate management qualifications from the University of Warwick UK and IMD Switzerland.