Meet our leaders
Led by the people who built it
Abdul Sameer Mohamed and Ahmed Shakeer Mohammed have led Compass from the beginning. Both carry the same founding belief, that freight forwarding done properly starts with people who care about where the cargo ends up.
Abdul Sameer Mohamed
Founder and CEO
“I never set out to build a global company. I simply wanted to build a better life. What began as a matter of survival eventually became my passion.” – Abdul Sameer Mohamed
When Abdul Sameer Mohamed founded Compass Logistics International in 2000, he started alone, working from a small desk in the bedroom of his two-bedroom apartment in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He had virtually no capital, no employees and no grand business plan.
His career in logistics began shortly after college with Blue Dart in Mumbai. In 1991, he moved to Saudi Arabia, where he learned freight forwarding from the ground up, driving trucks, operating forklifts, handling cargo and working along with teams at seaports and airports.
Starting Compass was a leap into the unknown. He was the salesperson, operations manager, accountant and driver, all in one. When his younger brother joined as the first employee, they could not afford a second car, so the two shared one vehicle and took turns visiting customers and delivering shipping documents.
The breakthrough came through a major telecommunications project, which opened the door to larger international projects, led to new offices and established Compass’s expertise in specialized logistics. As the company grew, Sameer focused on building long-term customer relationships, developing people from within and reinvesting earnings into the business. Headquarters moved to Dubai to support international expansion.
Today, Compass operates 21 offices across 13 countries and employs more than 500 people. As CEO, Sameer pairs an entrepreneur’s instincts with hands-on involvement in strategy, sales, operations, technology and international expansion, guiding the company’s next phase of growth with a focus on technology, operational excellence and institutional strength. Yet his greatest satisfaction is not the size of the company. It is seeing how far the team has come together. Many colleagues who joined in the earliest years are still with Compass, having built successful careers and better lives for their families.
Ahmed Shakeer Mohammed
Chief Operating Officer
Ahmed Shakeer Mohammed joined Compass in 2001, bringing thirty years of experience across customer service, freight operations, sales, regional management, general management, and supply chain before stepping into the role of Chief Operating Officer. Nearly all of that experience sits inside the Saudi and GCC markets, where he has worked with shipping lines, vessel owners, the free zones, and the regulations closely enough to know them like the back of his hand. He holds a straightforward view of what makes operations work. The right people, supported by clear systems and trusted to make decisions, build a logistics solutions provider that performs consistently under pressure. As Chief Operating Officer, he built the operational backbone behind Compass's air, ocean, land and project logistics, customs clearance and warehousing, setting the systems and processes that hold pace and discipline in balance across every corridor the company serves.
