Leadership

Meet NewCold's Leadership

Our international leadership team drives the company, guides our strategy, and empowers our people.

Share Holder Committee

Jordan Socaransky

Principal and Portfolio Manager at Westport Capital Partners

Mr. Socaransky is a Principal and Portfolio Manager at Westport Capital Partners and a member of Westport’s Investment Committee.  He is responsible for a broad range of property and operating company investments, including Westport’s innovative cold storage platform, NewCold, and Westport’s homebuilder inventory investments. Mr. Socaransky has 22+ years of real estate experience, including positions with Oaktree Capital Management and Salomon Smith Barney. Mr. Socaransky holds an Honors Business Administration Degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Peter Aronson

Principal at Westport Capital Partners

Mr. Aronson is a Principal at Westport Capital Partners and a member of Westport’s Investment Committee.  He has led Westport’s cold storage platform, NewCold, since its formation. Mr. Aronson has 25+ years of real estate investment and legal experience, including positions with Oaktree Capital Management and Paul Hastings. His experience dealing with multiple cultures, legal regimes and foreign business practices make him invaluable to Westport’s and NewCold’s overseas efforts. Mr. Aronson holds a B.A. degree magna cum laude from The American University and a J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center. He is a member of the State Bar of California.

Marc Porosoff

Principal and General Counsel at Westport Capital Partners

Mr. Porosoff is a Principal and General Counsel at Westport Capital Partners and a member of Westport’s Investment Committee. Mr. Porosoff has 31+ years of real estate legal experience, including with Oaktree Capital Management and Debevoise & Plimpton. Mr. Porosoff holds a B.A. in Economics from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. Mr. Porosoff is admitted to the New York State Bar and is registered as Authorized House Counsel in Connecticut.

Justin Reindel

Managing Director at Westport Capital Partners

Mr. Reindel is a Senior Vice President at Westport Capital Partners based in the Connecticut office. Mr. Reindel joined Westport in 2015 after graduating from Amherst College with a B.A. in Economics.

Bram Hage

Founder & CEO at NewCold

Bram Hage has a long history in frozen storage and co-founded NewCold with Westport and David Richardson in 2012 following the restructuring of Partner Logistics Group (PLG). Since then and along with a strong leadership team and dedicated employees, Bram has taken the company to 3 continents, ensuring growth as the company services an impressive portfolio of valued global customers.

Hans Otto

Chief Project Officer at NewCold

Before joining NewCold in 2016, Hans has been working in the field of organizational and financial consultancy, in leadership roles and as partner. Within NewCold Hans is building and leading the Development Organization as of 2018; this includes vertical integration and integration of new activities, further professionalizing of various disciplines that participate in projects and last but leading the project program and overseeing the realization of new warehouses worldwide.

Executive Board

Bram Hage

Founder & CEO at NewCold

Bram Hage has a long history in frozen storage and co-founded NewCold with Westport and David Richardson in 2012 following the restructuring of Partner Logistics Group (PLG). Since then and along with a strong leadership team and dedicated employees, Bram has taken the company to 3 continents, ensuring growth as the company services an impressive portfolio of valued global customers.

Abhy Maharaj

Chief Commercial Officer at NewCold

As a strategic visionary driving business growth with a proven track record in commercial leadership, Abhy joined NewCold in 2019. Prior to joining NewCold, Abhy was the Commercial Director & CFO at Fonterra Group’s Australian Division and served before that as a Director of Capital markets, Strategy and M&A for Fonterra Group, overseeing capital investment and M&A projects across the world. With Abhy as CCO of the company, NewCold is redefining the design, development, and operation of automated cold storage.

Frank Huckschlag

Chief Operating Officer at NewCold

During his career, Frank has always been active within the Food Logistics and Supply Chain, in various roles on the produce, retail and logistics side. As Chief Operating Officer, Frank is responsible for continuously improving operations and supply chain strategy for the NewCold warehouses around the world. Frank is committed to fostering a culture of collaboration and operational excellence for sustained organizational success.

Jos van Rijswijk

Chief Financial Officer at NewCold

Jos is an expert within the broad field of Financial Management with extensive experience in various dynamic, international environments. Jos has been operating as a group CFO since 2016 and is responsible for accounting, treasury, tax, business performance reporting and finance cost of equity. Committed to transparency, compliance, and results, Jos has been a big contributor in steering NewCold towards sustainable financial success.

Hans Otto

Chief Project Officer at NewCold

Before joining NewCold in 2016, Hans has been working in the field of organizational and financial consultancy, in leadership roles and as partner. Within NewCold Hans is building and leading the Development Organization as of 2018; this includes vertical integration and integration of new activities, further professionalizing of various disciplines that participate in projects and last but leading the project program and overseeing the realization of new warehouses worldwide.

David Sanders

General Counsel at NewCold

David was appointed General Counsel of NewCold in 2021. David has broad, international experience as a corporate lawyer in the construction, infrastructure & real estate domain. In his role, David together with his team supports the operations and rapid international growth of NewCold and oversees corporate matters, project contracts, M&A/Corporate Finance and protecting NewCold’s IP.

Stephanie Hain

Chief People & Culture Officer at NewCold

With more than 20 years of experience in international HR Management, Stephanie joined NewCold in April 2021, taking over the global responsibility for all People & Culture related topics within the organization. Having worked with several internationally operating companies before, Stephanie built a strong global HR team and developed professional HR programs for NewCold regarding Talent Acquisition, Employer Branding, Talent Management, Learning & Development as well as Succession Planning that are being rolled out globally.

Commercial Leadership

Jonas Swarttouw

Executive Vice President Commercial and North America Chairman

Jonas Swarttouw is Executive Vice President and North America Chairman at NewCold. Jonas has over 15 years of experience in the logistics industry. Originally from the Netherlands, Jonas relocated to Chicago, Illinois in 2017 as Country Manager to help lead the development of NewCold North America. Today he oversees Business Development and customer relations at NewCold and is excited about the continued growth of the region.

Adnan Bektic

Vice President Commercial Europe & India

Adnan is responsible for customer partnerships and growth throughout NewCold’s Europe and India markets. With nearly a decade of experience within the company, he epitomizes the ‘grow at NewCold’ philosophy. Adnan holds an MA in International Business from Maastricht University.

Vivek Rajendran

Vice President Commercial Australia & New Zealand

Vivek is responsible for developing customer partnerships and the execution of NewCold’s growth strategy in the Australia and New Zealand market. Vivek has more than 15 years of experience in senior commercial roles, strategy, and business development with Counties Energy and Auckland Airport in New Zealand. Early in his career he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and McGrath Nichol.  Immediately prior to joining NewCold Vivek was Chief Executive Officer of ECL Group, one of New Zealand’s leading energy and technology companies. Vivek has a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Finance and a Graduate Diploma in Commerce in Economics, both from The University of Auckland.  He is a certified Chartered Accountant and a member of the NZ Institute of Directors.

Porendy Ung

Managing Director Asia

Porendy oversees NewCold’s expansion across Asia. He has extensive experience driving commercial growth and implementing strategic initiatives across diverse industries and markets. Before joining NewCold in 2022, Porendy held senior roles at Verint and Fonterra. He was previously based in Japan and Australia with McKinsey & Company, where he helped companies with a range of strategic topics such as entering new markets and executing large-scale transformation programs.