Tariq Al Wahedi, newly appointed 7X CEO and Congress Chair-designate, shares insights on his vision for the UAE’s postal sector and his hopes for the upcoming Universal Postal Congress in Dubai, which will bring together decision-makers from the UPU’s 192 member countries.
Ian Kerr, host of the UPU’s Voice Mail podcast, spoke with him ahead of the quadrennial meeting, which will be held between 8 and 19 September and hosted by the United Arab Emirates.Al Wahedi joined 7X – the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) postal operator – in April of this year, bringing with him rich experience in the logistics and courier, express, and parcels solutions, as well as investment, venture capital and agri-food technologies. As part of his new role, he is expected to preside over the Congress as Chair on behalf of the UAE.
While his professional experience is diverse, Al Wahedi highlighted a key commonality, “My work has been in high-demand sectors that had no room for error.”
Combining his drive for excellence with the UAE’s global trade ambitions, Al Wahedi has a plan to drive ahead the operator’s work on what he calls the “seven core engines of commerce”: express, freight, post, quick commerce, fintech, logistics technology and fulfilment.
“7X is the multiplier … It’s the magic that combines all these engines in one integrated solution,” Al Wahedi explained, adding that over the next five years, the operator will prioritize domestic innovation, particularly in the “quick commerce” market, positioning the UAE as a hub for international commerce, and strengthening its role as a leader in logistics technology.
Al Wahedi shared his principle for managing high-pressure scenarios: “I always focus on what moves the needle.”
“I am a believer in avoiding analysis paralysis and I keep training my team toward that. It’s always best to make a decisive, well-informed choice rather than just wait for the perfect solution – we need to move very fast, always.”
UAE’s hope for Congress
It’s a principle that Al Wahedi may take with him to the Congress in less than two weeks’ time. On the key challenge the Congress should address, he mused that the sector’s fundamental barrier is its pace of adaptation.
“The postal world today has been outpaced by digital commerce – we are not fast enough,” he said.
He noted three gaps he believed were holding the postal business behind. The first is the digital gap, which he explained as the lack of a “unified digital backbone among all postal operators.”
Secondly, he highlighted an operational gap in delivering e-commerce items. “Cross-border bottlenecks really hurt SMEs. We need agile customs, we need data sharing, we need better last-mile options and that’s all efficiency,” he said.
Finally, he noted an environmental gap, urging the sector to embrace efforts to improve climate resilience and reduce emissions.
In terms of decision-making, he said the UAE hoped UPU member countries would find a way forward on a synchronized approach to postal transformation, nail down a plan for climate resilience for the sector and expand the UPU's financial services frameworks to allow for additional services and to implement new tools in support of SMEs.
Al Wahedi said he also looks forward to the opportunity to connect with other postal operators and partners outside the meeting hall.
He urged attendees to explore cooperation on several fronts, namely to integrate cross-sector delivery technologies, share and test climate resilience solutions, and forge new bilateral agreements.
“It’s really exciting for us to meet under one roof and have that dialogue together,” he said.
Asked what he hopes UPU member countries take away from their two weeks of discussion in Dubai, Al Wahedi answered, “The belief that postal systems are not legacy infrastructure, but vital platforms for e-commerce, digital finance and climate action.”
“The conviction that we are all connected is very important. That we are leading the change and creating the future is very important to the global economy.”
Listen to the full Voice Mail episode with 7X CEO and UPU Congress Chair-designate Tariq Al Wahedi here.