Editorial team

Alex Lennane publisher

“Without doubt Alex is the best writer and editor working in the air cargo business today.” Stan Wraight, President and CEO, SASI

Alex launched a blog for the air cargo industry in March 2011. It was very well-received, and a year later it became The Loadstar that you see today. 

Alex is an experienced writer on aviation and logistics. After leaving The Guardian newspaper in 2002 she freelanced for many of the key logistics titles, including International Freighting Weekly, HeavyLiftPFIandCargo Systems. She was editor of the quarterly magazine, Airline Cargo Management for eight years, and Europe editor for the Seattle-based subscription news service, Cargo Facts, for four years. You can contact Alex on +44 7879 334 389, or [email protected]

Gavin van Marle managing editor 

Gavin co-founded The Loadstar after he joined from Lloyd’s List, where he was senior reporter. He was previously editor of International Freighting Weekly and before that Cargo Systems. He has also been a contributor toContainer Shipping & Tradeand hadone some consultancy for the sea freight industry, providing insight to shippers and other companies. Gavin is also the author of the acclaimed book ‘Around the World in Freighty Ways: Adventures in Globalisation’.

Gavin has won numerous awards, including Seahorse Awards’ Supply Chain Journalist of the Year. Gavin specialises in sea freight, supply chain management and the ports sector. You can contact Gavin at [email protected], or on +44 7825 908 924. 

Alessandro Pasetti head of Loadstar Premium

Ale spearheaded the launch of our subscription service in November 2018. Since then, Premium has become the essential financial news and analysis resource for executive teams, shareholders and investors of the major 3PLs and carriers, as well as investors and advisors to the global transportation industry. Currently, over 1,000 paying clients read Premium daily.

Ale also owns UK-based Hedging Beta Ltd, his family business, working with listed and private companies on digital optimisation and strategy. He previously worked for almost five years (2009-2013) at Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal in London, producing analysis for the investment banking community.

Prior to that, he contributed to the launch of London-based Loan Radar (2005-2009) and had stints in equity research at Bear Stearns in London and HVB in Munich. Ale completed his intermarket analysis research thesis with Unicredit in Milan (2003-2004). Ale can be contacted on +44 7402 255 512, or at [email protected]

Mike Wackett FICS sea freight correspondent

Mike Wackett joined The Loadstar after editing Containerisation International online for six years, writing a weekly opinion piece for Lloyd’s Loading List, and latterly working as a senior correspondent on Lloyd’s List.

Before a change of direction into journalism in 2007 Mike worked on ‘the other side of the fence’ as the managing director of a shortsea feeder line. In a 30+ year career he has been employed in various sectors of the shipping industry and held several commercial and operational senior management positions.

Mike is a qualified shipbroker and is a past chairman of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers’ East Anglia branch. He is also the owner of a shipping consultancy and in this capacity has advised many companies involved in the supply chain. You can contact Mike on +44 7808 481 816 or at [email protected]

Charlotte Goldstone, junior news reporter  

Charlotte is the newest addition to The Loadstar team and joins fresh from her studies at Cardiff University where she received a first-class honours degree in English Language. Working for The Loadstar is the first step in Charlotte’s professional journalism career, although she has had previous experience interning as a writer for Ibex Publishing and has dabbled in broadcast journalism with radio experience at Cardiff’s Xpress Radio and Bryn House Radio. She will shortly launch her own Loadstar Podcast series. You can contact Charlotte at [email protected], or on +44 7970 158 131.

Jack Riddick, head of Loadstar Premium DeskOne

Jack joined The Loadstar in September 2023, fresh from the completion of a master’s in philosophy at the University of St Andrews, after a bachelor’s degree in philosophy with French at LSE.

Jack got involved in journalism during a gap year before starting university, when he worked for two months as a writing volunteer at IIT Gandhinagar in Gujarat, India. His first academic essay was selected for the LSE-Bayreuth philosophy conference, and he has been published in the student philosophy journal ‘Rerum Causae’. Jack also volunteered as the managing editor for the Law Society’s pro bono publication. More recently, he wrote a master’s thesis on Ludwig Wittgenstein, who famously wrote “Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must remain silent”. Worthy advice for philosophers and supply chain commentators alike! You can reach him at [email protected] or on +44 7827 012 453.

David Badger, production editor 

David is the beating heart of The Loadstar – without him, we would have no daily news service. A journalist for more than 45 years, David began his career in local newspapers. In 1997 he joined Informa as Production Editor of International Freighting Weekly, later becoming Group Production Manager, running a 16-strong team producing a series of B2B titles for the logistics industry, including Containerisation International, Hazardous Cargo Bulletin, International Bulk Journal, Freight Transport Buyer Asia andAirtrade. David oversaw the move to online publishing of International Freighting Weekly and Lloyd’s Loading List, for which he served as associate editor.

Joe Ortiz, production editor of Loadstar Premium

Before joining the Premium crew, Joe was deputy news editor, banking and insurance, Europe, for The Wall Street Journal, having previously been part of the Dow Jones Banking Intelligence team in London. With well over 30 years’ experience, Joe spent most of his career at Reuters, where he took on several finance-related assignments. At Reuters, he worked in Madrid and, previously, was chief sub editor in London. He was also European banking correspondent, UK banking correspondent as well as senior correspondent covering fixed income and sovereign debt restructuring.