Daniel Pans

Daniel Pans is the founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of DPO International, a specialised food distribution company in the Asian region. In the business for over 20 years, DPO International takes great pride in their ability and experience to “Connect Local Markets to Global Food Innovations”.

Daniel’s consistency for strong leadership in cross cultural businesses goes way back to his schooling days when he used to volunteer at his father’s fruit-orchards in Haspengouw, Belgium. Being a skilful communicator (with the ability to converse in Dutch, French, English, German and Spanish), Daniel often had to communicate with over 150 fruit-harvesters of multi-ethnic origin. Always an enterprising individual, Daniel also made a considerable amount of money from a student guide published during his university years. By the time he graduated from the University of Antwerp with a Masters Degree in Applied Economic Sciences, Daniel had enough capital in hand to begin a plan for his new business. Daniel moved to Japan in 1993, where he secured a consultancy contract from three Belgian companies: de TienseSuikerrafinaderij (Tienen Sugar), the Belgian Pork Meat Association and NoordNatie, a stevedoring company from Antwerp, now owned by the Port of Singapore Authority. It was the starting point of DPO International.