60 Seconds with Matthew Ware

Matthew Ware, CEO at Courier Facilities Limited (CFL), has worked for around 25 years in logistics. (Which does mean he started while at primary school, yes). The bulk of that was spent with FedEx Express where Matthew held senior management positions before being fortunate enough to join CFL as MD just as it was embarking on a period of massive change and development. Matthew has been at CFL since 2017. He is also chairman of Aviation Services UK, the recently formed trade body for UK ground handling and aviation services.

How did you get into airfreight/logistics?
After university I moved to London, and I spent some time doing some terrible jobs that promised ridiculous riches but didn’t deliver any. My sister worked for a recruitment company and told me I had to get a real job and set me up with a role at Parcelforce – and the rest, as they say, is history. (Nepo sibling, right?)

What quote has most resonated with you?
Danny Blanchflower, talking about football, once said this: ‘The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It’s nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It is about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.’To me this applicable to any part of life. It’s not the end, it’s always really about the journey.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Do not covet your ideas, give away everything you know and more will come back to you. If you give away your ideas freely, it means you are left without any, so you must replenish and develop new ones. Rather than becoming stale, living off the stocks of ideas you have hoarded.

What is the most adventurous thing you have ever done?
On more than one occasion, I have worn odd socks to work, and sometimes I have no socks at all.

If you could have dinner with any three people, living or dead, who would it be and why?
Oliver Reed and Bill Murray and my dad, who passed away a few years ago, he was an incredible man and remains my favourite person to have a drink with. Three great titans of intellect, wit and hedonism – and me.

What’s something we wouldn’t know about you from your CV?
I once came second in a charity prose writing competition and had my submission read out by June Whitfield. It was even published in the Guardian newspaper. Heady days.

What hobby have you always wanted to try but never got around to?
Kite surfing – it looks majestic, and I am far too clumsy to ever successfully do proper surfing. Being held up by a kite looks like it might fix this.

If you had not pursued a career in airfreight, what field would you have gone into?
Something arty would be nice, but as I’m not particularly good at anything arty it probably would not be very successful.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
The ability to teleport anywhere – the low carbon transport mode the world is crying out for.

What’s your proudest moment and your biggest regret?
I was absurdly proud aged eight or nine when finally picked for the