Ruben grew up in the trucking and warehousing business in Germany and held various management and executive roles in leading shipping lines, NVOCCs, logistics firms and intermodal operators across Europe, China and the Middle East. Today he is consulting on strategy, digitalisation, internationalisation and logistics. He is the founder and director of OceanX, a network and think tank for NVOCCs and seafreight focused forwarders. Ruben teaches shipping, strategy and innovation at several institutions, advises startups and other industry companies, while being an investor in some.

He has a freight forwarding education, holds a German degree in business economics and an MBA from Aston University in the United Kingdom.