Mr David Pilkington ChairUPU POC Customs Group, Royal Mail UK

David is Royal Mail Group’s Director of International and Customs Policy for the group, with over 30 years’ experience in the international postal sector in a myriad of roles from Mail Centre Manager to Sales and Marketing Product Manager. David has worked in the UK and a number of countries as a senior consultant for the British Postal Consultancy Service (BPCS) part of Royal Mail Group in South America, the Caribbean, Africa and other regions. In his time in the Caribbean region he worked for the World Bank on development projects and assisted the British Virgin Islands in its transformation programs.

As the Head of the British Delegation to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) David takes a leading role at UPU forums such the operators council. He is active at a regional level, being a member of the PostEurop’s Board of Directors. David is the Chair of the UPU’s customs group and the co-chair of the WCO-UPU contact committee. His focus is on improving quality and the adoption of electronic customs. He is a strong supporter of e-customs working with border agencies to implement e-customs solutions (the PTC’s CDS) with partner posts. He is keen to ensure that the UPU family have the IT tools and applications to enhance interconnectivity, compliance and develop new services and features. His background in strategic planning and implementation has enabled him to drive change and commercial benefit for stakeholders.

David leads on RMG’s Customs policy within the UK, developing and implementing customs legislation with the engagement of the other major stakeholders like HMRC, Border Force etc. within PostEurop David is the chair of the security and customs transversal (which includes 52 member states). His internal focus is on the modernisation of RMGs commercial and postal Customs processes within the UK. He has worked with the Caribbean and African Posts, Customs agencies and regional customs Unions like CCLEC to implement e-customs.