Planning for future leadership reflects growth in PCS and ACS divisions

After almost 40 years with the company, Dirk Gladiator, authorized officer of DAKOSY, will retire on April 1, 2026. Since 1987, he has headed various departments, including Port Communication Services (PCS) which was under his management until the start of 2026. Among his many milestones is his tenure as managing director of the joint venture allivate (Frankfurt). 

From the very beginning, Gladiator’s work at DAKOSY has focused on the development and operation of IT platforms. These include the GEGIS hazardous materials information system, the ongoing development of the Port Community System for the Port of Hamburg, and the air cargo community system (FAIR@Link) at Frankfurt Airport. The last major project he initiated was German Ports, a cross-port digital release system. DAKOSY Board Member Ulrich Wrage is lavish in his praise: “Gladiator excels not only as a driver of change, but also understands better than almost anyone else how to inspire stakeholders from the worlds of logistics, administration, or politics to embrace forward-looking digitalization projects.”

Gladiator started at DAKOSY in 1985 in the work-study program, the eighth member of what is now a staff of 220. After completing his degree in industrial engineering in 1989, he began managing various IT projects related to the Port of Hamburg. This included the development of the GEGIS hazardous materials information system, which DAKOSY continues to operate on behalf of the City of Hamburg to this day. In 2002, Gladiator moved to DB-Systems, the IT service provider for Deutsche Bahn, but returned to DAKOSY in 2004 after just over two years. 

At that time, he took over the PCS department and played a key role in designing and launching the import and export management platforms for the Port of Hamburg. Starting in 2010, he collaborated with the Frankfurt Airport community to establish an air cargo community system modeled after the PCS at the Port of Hamburg. The platform, known as FAIR@Link, is now an integral part of air cargo handling at Frankfurt and Hamburg airports. 

To ensure FAIR@Link’s long-term viability and to strategically develop the platform in collaboration with the community, DAKOSY and Fraport founded the joint venture allivate in 2024, with Gladiator serving as one of the two joint managing directors. On January 1, 2026, he handed over this role to Matthias Hupka, and also transferred leadership of the PCS department to his deputy, Malte Kantak. To further focus on air cargo development, the new ACS (Air Cargo Communication Services) department was established at the start of this year, with Ronny Anten, who previously served as air cargo team leader in the PCS department, now the head of the new department. 

Gladiator is pleased with this succession plan, especially since he is confident that his colleagues will face no shortage of work: “The depth of processes and the number of sub-processes we integrate into our systems are constantly growing. At the same time, the geographic coverage of our platforms is expanding as we continue to integrate supply chain participants beyond ports and airports.”