A woman for all seasons…

‘If you never stop learning – and keep reaching for your goals – nothing can stop you’

Cleidy Haselow is a Miami-based Brazilian working for a French shipping company. It doesn’t get much more cosmopolitan than that. As CMA CGM America Trade D. Vice President, her focus is on Latin America and on the north-south Caribbean and Latin America trades. Here, Ms Haselow speaks to CM about her life and, more importantly, her work in the maritime sector.

Q. Where were you born, where you grow up and what did your parents do for a living?

A. I was born in Brazil. My father was a government contractor and worked over 30 years for a public Brazilian multinational corporation in the petroleum industry. We used to move a lot for assignments in different cities. My mom dedicated her full time to raise me and my younger brother. We were always based in port cities, including Rio de Janeiro where I grew up, and Santos, which is the busiest container port in Latin America. Although shipping was not my first career choice, it has always been part of my life.

Q. Where did you undertake your further education and what did you major in? On completing your education did you have a clear idea of a career path and, if so, did this career path include the maritime sector?

A. I have always been very curious about many industries and since I was young I knew that my desire was to major in several fields and never miss an opportunity to learn. My first bachelor's degree was in Journalism. Two years before getting my first degree in Communications I was hired by Panalpina, one of the world’s leading providers of supply chain solutions. It was there that I was first exposed to the industry and started to learn about the immense maritime world. Certainly, I was interested to learn more and took a second bachelor's degree in International Marketing and then a post-graduate course in Logistics.

I will always remember what one of my first managers in the logistic industry told me on my first day on the job. He joked: “Working in this industry is like drinking cachaça [a Brazilian spirit drink]. Once you’ve tried it, you will never let go.” He was very right about the industry, but as far as I am concerned not about the cachaça, which I don’t like at all. Jokes aside, going to my 21 years anniversary in the industry I understand well what he was talking about. 

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