#INTHEAIREVERYWHERE
Tuesday November 11, 2025
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#INTHEAIREVERYWHERE |
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| Vol. 24 No. 47 | Tuesday November 11, 2025 |
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A Global Leader Making Payments
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 Todd Pigeon is a senior P&L leader with expertise driving revenue capture, operations, sales enablement, and customer experience initiatives for businesses with complex end-to-end supply chain and logistics challenges. He is Vice President of Sales at PayCargo, a leading service provider in logistics finance services. FlyingTypers had the opportunity to exchange views with Todd on his career and role in the company from his office in Miami.  Our talk started from Italy . . . I live in Turin and Todd lived for a period of his life in Genoa, actually to be precise in a wonderful village on the outskirts of Genoa called Bogliasco. He told me that he was regularly taking his train every morning from the station of Pontetto into Genoa to work. He also mentioned coming to Turin on repeated occasions with his family. Between 2008 and 2011 Todd was employed by Maersk in Italy and was the director in charge of developing commercially Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Malta. We can show a picture here that may bring back memories . . . Todd Pigeon has been employed in a great many countries, but for decades he worked for one employer only: Maersk, the great Danish maritime business developed through the integration of A.P. Moeller with other maritime assets in a development history that runs like a novel. We were talking of a great many countries . . . This is written on Todd’s profile, published on a popular social medium: “Global citizen who has lived and worked on four continents embracing diverse cultures and company values.” Our guest’s experience spans across markets in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. I asked Todd whether he had a preference. In a way his reply was predictable and surprising at the same time. He said: “Common across all of them is global trade, something I am addicted to.” This is a statement of facts with consequences; please continue reading and you will see that all the pieces come together in this case.  “Wherever you are working there will be China producing an endless array of articles that are exported to other areas that in their turn export their products to other commercial partners. Global trade is the communality for them all. The diversity of being bilingual in English and Spanish is an opportunity: I was able to experience and interact in different markets living in Latin America with depth of knowledge.“My greatest affiliation is probably Latin America, but . . . the Focaccia di Recco . . . What can I say? Food comes back to me from all these places . . . ” Todd and I continued chatting about food, his family experiences and, of all things . . . skiing in Chile! I think I have understood that Chile is the place where Todd’s heart beats faster. Easter Island, Patagonia, the Andes and the cities like Santiago with a distinguished style of life, a country that is impressive with its diversity all along the line. Bingo! That was the concept I wanted to talk about next and here it is served on my plate. I read in Mr. Pigeon’s CV a very interesting catch phrase: “Builds and empowers diverse teams.” I asked Todd to elaborate for me on this concept. In a way this is the area where Todd’s background comes in handy: reflecting the markets served, service is a multiple experience: not only air community, but ocean and multimodal. “I mean ‘diverse’ in all logistics ecosystems: working with colleagues who worked in airlines or in global ocean carriers, others who operate in intermodal road and rail operators. Emulating the voice of customers from a PayCargo perspective is the epitome of a service-oriented job.” Todd then spoke from a corporate point of view: “Our perspective is simple, we first need to allow the client relationship to develop; we pride ourselves in offering forms of integration, meaning integrating PayCargo’s platform with our customers’ operating systems. We empower customers to be able to conduct their business quickly and accurately through our platform. We work toward empowering the users of PayCargo more and more, so that they can proceed undisturbed with their operations.” I made a comment that the concept that Todd was offering so simply was not an ordinary idea, it required a mountain of work in the background: “it is easy to say it as you do, but not easy to make…” I said. Todd continued. “We are a platform built to continually earn our customers’ trust by enabling faster cargo release and more accurate, efficient payment reconciliation.” In his daily experience with customers, Todd noted that “customers adopt PayCargo instruments into their standard operating procedure. Unlike traditional payment methods, PayCargo provides immediate cargo release and detailed operational insights, helping customers streamline their workflows.” “Optimizing Payments and cargo flows” … sometimes words simply fly, even more than air cargo, more than airplanes or any other flying object. This is the initial and etymological meaning of the famous Latin expression ‘verba volant’, which we now use in a consequential manner, to imply that we need to write down what we wish to keep for the future. Originally it meant that words were giving concepts wings, hence they would travel far and fast. The words between Todd and I raised many concepts concerning air cargo settling systems, we touched upon CASS, CNS, the relationship between forwarders and airlines, FIATA and IATA and their long negotiations. Actually I think I did much of the talking in this. Todd suggested an important concept though: it all depends on the business requirement, PayCargo works on the incoming side at the moment, but there is nothing that impedes using the platform on exports, if that is required by the customers.  Todd gave me these examples: “Import and export are not coincidental; if you are not a large multinational, for a medium-size forwarder it is not possible to establish credit terms with all carriers, vendors and colleagues. Before you could settle an invoice by making a money transfer, which was normally long and costly, but now you just come to PayCargo and our process issues an immediate release for your goods. From an airline’s perspective, I get money faster and from a forwarder’s perspective I move cargo faster. On inbound settlements PayCargo is de facto the leader.”In regard of my question on how PayCargo is placed in a market of possible competitors, Todd was not prone to making big statements: “The options are driven by the market and ours is an additional service offering. There is however a growing demand for inbound cargo.” Todd Pigeon had served as Chief Commercial Officer in Sealand – A Maersk Company – between 2016 and 2021, so it was natural for me to ask him whether he felt a big difference between ocean and air cargo. He said it was not so different in the end. “Both encounter similar pressures, including global trade dynamics, sustainability, and talent recruitment. Some issues are the same either side . . . ” But there is a big difference indeed: “In ocean a segment of the market is composed by direct shippers and this does not exist in the air cargo business. “Understanding the supply chain from the shipper’s side is important. In air cargo direct shippers almost do not exist and this is a principal difference.” There you go… time took its toll and we had to leave it at that, but my appetite for more remains intact and perhaps we shall have another conversation not so far in the future. Todd Pigeon is a remarkably cordial conversation partner and a person you would always wish you knew better than you actually do. I am not surprised that the longa manus of PayCargo attracted this fine executive from a top level ocean player such as Maersk.  When all is said and done one thing emerged clearly from our conversation: PayCargo is an innovative and promising system that fills the financial gap between customer and supplier; in logistics all the stakeholders find themselves in either position sooner or later. It is of great assistance for everybody to be able to solve the issue of settling charges by a ‘click’ at a fraction of the costs that we were used to absorbing in the past. No wonder PayCargo seems to be facing a promising future! I hope our readers appreciated the opportunity to hear Todd Pigeon’s views on the increasingly crucial role that PayCargo is playing in modern air cargo transactions.We are looking forward to talking to Todd again soon, maybe nibbling on some Focaccia di Recco, looking at the coast of Liguria from one of the discreet terraces of Bogliasco. Marco Sorgetti |
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 Vol. 24 No. 44FIATA Unites In Vietnam FIATA Vietnam In The Picture More On FIATA Vietnam Happy Diwali! |
 Vol. 24 No. 45 Last Mile & Trucker Bankruptcies Chuckles for October 31 Kale Exceeds Need For Speed Great Lady At ATC India Focus On Unified Logistics System |
 Vol. 24 No. 46Jan Krems Still Loves Sexy Cargo In Dutch With The Dutchess Chuckles for November 4 More On More On TIACA |
Publisher-Geoffrey Arend • Managing
Editor-Flossie Arend • Editor Emeritus-Richard Malkin |
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