PRIME is a member-driven organisation with a cooperative-like spirit. It consists of circa 160 UPU Designated Operators with the mission of working and collaborating to deliver cross border solutions for the e-commerce market. PRIME is business centric with no political approach and is governed by its members. We take pride in our work and are committed to keeping trustworthy long-lasting relationships within our community.
New joiners will find a professional, friendly welcome and will be supported to ensure they get the most out of their PRIME membership.
In the PRIME team, we try to give personal attention to our members’ needs and aim to support Posts in meeting their customers’ expectations.
We have proven ourselves with 25 years experience in worldwide postal collaboration and we will continue to be an innovative leader in global postal solutions in the future, in response to our PRIME members needs. Our members’ decisions process is simple and efficient, and requests from Posts are treated with the highest attention, in the shortest possible time.
You can count on the PRIME team for expertise, advise and support.
Our Vision
Our vision is to be at the forefront of emerging e-commerce developments and to be the leading global enabler of cost-effective, quality tracking and delivery services in the cross-border e-commerce tracked packets market.
To achieve this PRIME will facilitate greater collaboration with other Postal organisations to work towards a single set of tiered global e-commerce solutions.
Our objectives are:
- To improve tracked packet products in response to customer expectations.
- To boost the postal services’ competitiveness in the marketplace.
- To improve the quality of tracked packets, particularly in relation to delivery and the timely return of delivery information in an electronic format.
- To maximise the number of Postal Operators that exchange delivery information electronically in order to handle customer enquiries faster.
- To encourage members to use the web-based integrated Global Customer Service System for a more efficient enquiry service.
Our members
Any Designated Postal Operator that is a UPU (Universal Postal Union) member is welcome to join PRIME.
To date, circa 160 postal operators work with us. Some are already operational in all agreements and some are still at development stage. New members have 20 months to get up and start exchanging data.
Once PRIME Members are ready to exchange barcoded items, they will be able to see their items on the PRIME reports.
Below is a link to the PRIME Matrix that reflects the status of the PRIME membership.
Our Team
The PRIME Team is composed of a very small group, considering the amount and variety of tasks we carry out.
The group is comprised of 4 persons: the Head of PRIME, the PRIME Operations Manager and two Experts. All of us are driven by a strong passion and a high motivation. Our main objective is to support the Posts in whichever way they need us to help them develop the PRIME business.
Cinzia Neri has over 30 years' experience in the international postal industry. Having chaired and participated actively in many global working groups and committees for UPU, PostEurop, IPC and PRIME, she is an advocate for open collaboration and has negotiated many agreements across teams and borders. Cinzia has a strong background in sales and operations and has held senior positions in various corporate functions within Poste Italiane, such as Marketing, Regulations, and International Agreements & Relations.
With a Master in Business Administration from the Catholic University of Milan and graduated at La Sapienza University of Rome, she is also a qualified mediator for pre Court Controversies. Among her achievements, Cinzia has introduced new products to market, from initial concept to commercial launch, and promoted the development of e-commerce services. She speaks Italian, English, Spanish and French. Recognizing the need for international cooperation to create success in cross-border packets, Cinzia oversaw the Poste Italiane membership bid to PRIME. She was appointed as Head of PRIME in March 2016.
Joni Sunikka has a Bachelor degree in Business Administration at the Laurea University of Applied Sciences. He has a strong background in Business and Operations, having been working for over 17 years for Posti Finland. He covered various roles such as International Operations Manager, Development Manager, Sorting Manager and Operations Supervisor. Joni is native Finnish speaker, fluent in English and can speak also Thai and Chinese as he has been living in Asia for over a year. With his over 17 years’ experience both domestic and international postal industry and representing Posti Finland in IPC Upgrading Committee (OUC) and Interconnect Operations Working Group (IOWG) he was appointed as PRIME Operations Manager in May 2021.
Chair & Board members
The Board acts as the executive branch of the General Assembly to improve and fulfil the PRIME policy and activities. The Board also acts as advisory to the GA by presenting proposals for approval on governance and business matters.
WANG Dong, Deputy Director of International Business Division, has more than 15 years experience with China Post Group. He is primarily responsible for multilateral and bilateral cooperation with other posts and international postal businesses, developing commercial opportunities and building a stable international transportation network for all postal products. He has enjoyed contributing his experience to Product Development, Marketing, Operation, IT, Quality Control and International Cooperation. He holds a Bachelor degree in Electronic Information Science and Technology and earned his Masters in Engineering, Computer Science and Technology from the Ocean University of China.
Jorge Gutierrez is the Director of International Relations at Canada Post Corporation. He graduated from the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University with high honors in Commerce, and also holds an Associate Degree (Suma Cum Laude) in Banking and Finance from Northwood University. Jorge has also completed advanced graduate studies from the Supply Chain Management Association of Canada. Jorge has also co-chaired the PUASP Finance Group for the past six years and currently serves as the Vice Chair of PRIME.
Morten Rosengreen is a Manager of International Agreements and Products at PostNord. Morten has more than 20 years of experience in the Post and is among other things responsible for e.g. PostNord DK’s international letter post agreements, PostNord DK and SE’s parcels post agreements and all postal letter export products in DK and SE. He has extensive experience with the international postal business, and has during the past many years primarily worked with the development of the e-commerce business. Morten has extensive experience multilaterally being involved in international product development and remuneration negotiations during the past 15 years both in the European multilateral environment and the UPU. Morten currently serves as chair of the PRIME Merchandise Return Group and as Vice Chair of the PRIME Board.
Lee Hon Chew is the Director of International Affairs in Singapore Post for more than 15 years with the responsibility for multilateral and bilateral cooperation with other posts. He constantly looks for both postal and commercial opportunities for postal operators and strongly believes in the need for collaboration and cooperation. He is well known in UPU, chairing various Working Groups in the Postal Operations Council (POC) such as the Remuneration Integration Group, Quality Improvement Group and also the Digital Transformation and Innovation Group.
Before working on international postal matters, Hon Chew was also instrumental in many transformative projects in SingPost, working on retail automation, postal kiosks and parcel lockers, mail processing automation and letter sequencing. This past experience has given him a well rounded understanding of both domestic and international postal issues.
Perly Sher has been working as a legal counsel for a significant period (over 30 years) in Israel Postal Company, specializing in the unique domain of postal services.
She is an expert in legislative and regulatory domains with the particular specialization of postal field, has experience in regulatory structural changes including the latest reform in Israel postal sector (to a governmental company and preparation of the corporate documentation).
Perly Sher represented Israel Postal Company in various regulatory and government authorities as well as international organizations including the UPU.
As part of the extensive developments in cross-border e-commerce Perly Sher is responsible for the international legal aspects including bilateral and multilateral agreements and other international legal aspects as privacy, intellectual property and customers issues (as inquiries and liability).
Perly Sher is participating and representing regularly Israel Post Company in the UPU and in PRIME activities in all issues including legal operational and fiscal.
She has been elected for PRIME Board and is a Board Member from November 2020.
Rick Brown is the Manager Regional Business Development & International Operations at the United States Postal Service. He graduated from Campbell University focusing on Business Administration and Economics. He has more than 30 years of experience within the Postal Industry with the last 8 years focused on International Operations and Global Business. He has provided support to the 5 Office of Exchanges in the US, assisting with operational efficiencies and ensuring compliance with UPU, IPC, and PRIME standards.
In his current role he is responsible for multilaterals, specifically developing business strategies to grow e-Commerce within the international community. Currently he is chairing the Registered Task Force and was recently elected to the PRIME Board in February 2022.
Sayyid Nasr Albusaidi, the Vice President of Oman Post, has played a pivotal role in transforming Oman Post into a global leader in postal services. Holding degrees in marketing, public relations, and business administration, he possesses a wealth of experience in the postal and logistics industry, with a focus on innovative strategies and customer-centric approaches. Throughout his career, Sayyid Nasr has led high-performing teams and cultivated a culture of customer satisfaction and operational excellence, contributing to Oman Post's receipt of the Golden Award by the Universal Postal Union for Express Mail Services (EMS) which achieved the first-place global ranking in EMS performance during 2022.
Elected as a PRIME board member in May 2023, Sayyid Nasr looks forward to actively contributing towards enhancing the PRIME product to benefit all member organizations, leveraging his forward-thinking approach and collaborative mindset to drive further success and innovation within the postal industry.
Committees & Task Forces
According to the strategic review held on 2014, PRIME activities were vast and structuring PRIME in Committees was the way to make sure that all aspects would be treated at once and that the members would take on them part of their daily activities.
To face urgent tasks requiring the intervention by members, the Board agreed in 2018 to start working on ad hoc Task Forces chaired from time to time by different members or by the Head of PRIME. This was the case of the Renaissance TF, chaired by the USPS; USPS exit from the UPU chaired by Deutsche Post, Reports Enhancement Task Force chaired by the Head of PRIME, UPU progress on Tracked services and impact on PRIME agreements chaired by Royal Mail and the Remuneration chaired Post NL.
Therefore, Task Forces are created when there is a specific topic to be addressed which needs attention from the PRIME Team and the Members. There is the permanent Task Force on reports Enhancement, chaired by the Head of PRIME.
The participation on the Committees and Task Forces is open to all PRIME Members and they meet when needed.
The Committees and Task Forces report to the PRIME Board and to the General Assembly.
Committees
Finance Committee
The Finance committee was formed in order to discuss with members the details of the PRIME budget, especially on costs incurred with IPC and to make recommendations on the use of the deferred income.
Currently the Committee is without a Chair as recently it’s the Board that mainly discusses budget issues.
Quality and Operations Committee
The Quality and Operations Committee is chaired by Belgium. Its main tasks are to develop activities to improve the quality and operations of the PRIME products in order to improve the treatment of items. It also focuses on IT developments and advises the Board and the GA on the quality of the IT services offered by its providers and discusses potential updates to the annexes of the agreements on quality and IT related topics. Moreover the committee will investigate advanced solutions for monitoring services, designing, as needed, innovative services supporting and enhancing the PRIME business, its quality and its operations.
Product Development Committee
The Product Development Committee is chaired by Jersey. In order to achieve PRIME's vision and objectives, as described in the business plan of 2016, the Product Group plays an important role to enable meeting customers objectives to have a clear and well-defined set of products that provide consistent and reliable quality and value. The PRIME Group is working hard to ensure that we are responsive to customer and market demands, as well as keeping up to date with competitors activities, propositions and market offerings. The key objective for the PRIME Product Group is to ensure it’s fit for purpose and leading edge solutions meet our customer requirements. The key areas that the Product Group will focus on include:
- Review of the existing product suite to ensure it is fit for purpose
- Develop exciting products for customers to ensure that their demands for a full product set are being met
- Design, develop, implement and monitor new products to bridge any gaps identified above
- Develop the full cooperation of the other Groups within PRIME to ensure that the products receive a high quality and our customers are offered cost-effective international solutions.
Political Committee
The Political Committee is chaired by Germany. Its main objectives are the maintenance of the GA procedures, the relationship with service providers such as IPC, the development of strategic plans to enhance the commitment of the members towards the success of PRIME.
Customer Service Committee
The Customer Service Committee is chaired by Cameroon. The goal of the committee is to make sure Customer Services are aligned and effective to meet our customers’ needs. The committee develops the KPIs that are used for the recognition of our awards. It also undertakes studies on the improvement of reports and makes proposals to the Board on the most appropriate provider to produce the Customer Service reports.
Taskforces
PUDO
The last General Assembly meeting that met on December 12th in Lisbon had created the Task Force on PUDO which is chaired by Hong Kong. The first meeting is planned for March 13th and the second for March 21st. The aim to to present a proposal during the next GA meeting. Members interested to join should contact the Head of PRIME.
Report enhancement
The Task Force on reports enhancements is chaired by the Head of PRIME. It focuses on the reports, reckoners and Flat Files in order to improve the calculation rules of the performance both on the on time transmission and the on time delivery. Seeing the results from an inside perspective the Task Force aims to achieve the highest possible level of accuracy. It reviews the impact of possible changes to the rules of the agreements.
Remuneration
The Task Force on Remuneration is chaired by the Netherlands. Its main focus is to develop new remuneration for the PRIME Agreements. It agrees the impact of the Terminal Dues on the Pay for Performance for our PRIME agreements. It proposes changes to the signatories of the agreements for approval.