Deone Blignaut grew up in South-Africa, she finished her school education at 18 and started her career at a freight forwarder company in Johannesburg. She relocated to Cape-Town where she joined MSC and was part of the “FRUIT BOOM” in the late nineties moving 100’s of weekly reefer containers all over the globe. As a young adult she was presented with the opportunity to travel and work overseas.

She joined a mid-size forwarding company in London, and after 2 years were head hunted and joined Hamburg Sud in their Manchester branch. Working her way up through most of the different departments ,she felt most comfortable in the Projects division dealing with Out of Gauge and Breakbulk shipments, she later settled in the India and Pakistan commercial trade department. After 16 years at Hamburg Sud, it was time for her next adventure. Rekindling her love for projects she joined a freight forwarder specialising in project cargo.

This new chapter gave her the opportunity to move to Felixstowe, and as they would say the rest is history. With hard work and dedication Deone’ Blignaut quickly established herself and continued to expand the AAI brand by driving the AAI Projects division and setting up the South-African branch.​

Relationship building and networking is a strength and passion for Deone’ her continued dedication to assist customers, partners and friends across the world enables he r to use her contacts to connect and engage in new opportunities. ​

In 2023 she was one of the main founders of “Females In Freight” a local support group focussing on the obstacles females face within the freight and logistics industry. Please visit their LinkedIn page for more details.