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Life on the move with Christophe de Korver

30 March 2015 · Updated 26 August 2026 · 10 min read

A Frenchman by birth and an international by trade speaks about his new adoptive country, Romania, where he’s running a large logistics business, and where he got to discover beautiful, unexpected places, as well as less desirable traits. Christophe de Korver doesn’t call himself a Frenchman. But rather an European or an international: as though he was born in France, he has spent most of his life in other countries - UK, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and, now, Romania. Unlike other people, whose place of birth is one of the main anchors in life, de Korver’s main constant is movement. He works in an industry that moves things from one place to another. He also likes to travel. His desire for human connections and for meeting new people also drove him to this career path and lifestyle. Born in France, Christophe moved with his family to London when he was 4, returned to Paris at 12, but then left to Marseille to study engineering. His father was Dutch and worked in shipping, which probably also contributed to his career decision. “As a child I wanted to be a pilot. I did the studies for that, but I failed the physical tests as I needed to wear glasses,” says Christophe de Korver. So he chose logistics. “Logistics is a mixture between engineering and sales. I studied engineering, but I didn’t want to work in a lab. I needed human contact, so I chose this. I’ve been in this business since I was 25, which was 21 years ago,” he said. Christophe moved to Prague in early 1998, to run the local operations of another French logistics company. Then he was recruited by Gefco to run their Czech operations. He ended up spending about ten years in the Czech Republic, which became his second home. “While I was based in Prague, I visited all the countries in the region except one. For some unknown reason, I never went to Romania. I was just convinced it was just like Bulgaria or Ukraine,” he recalls. After spending a couple of years at the Gefco headquarters in France, de Korver felt the need to move again. “I told them that I’m a multicultural person and that my value added is abroad. So when the opportunity came, it was the first thing they proposed me, I said: ok let’s try.” That first thing was Romania. De Korver saw a good job opportunity in this move, as Gefco’s business in Romania developed differently than in other countries, where it was tied to that of French carmaker PSA-Peugeot Citroen. In Romania, Gefco built a relationship with the other big French carmaker, Renault, which was something new. However, he had no idea what to expect from the country. “There was a shock for me because I was expecting something so different. When I arrived it was July, so you can imagine it was hot and dust everywhere. For me, this was not Eastern Europe, it was Italy or Spain.” For the last four and a half years, he has been running Gefco Romania, the local subsidiary of French logistics group Gefco, which he turned into one of the local market leaders. Although he’s not satisfied with the slow pace of things in Romania, especially in developing infrastructure connections, he’s happy that he managed to increase the business and that he had the chance to experience new things in the country.