General Manager, Partner
RAK Marine LLC
Total years of experience :28 years, 9 Months
I established a small scale yacht charter company, called RAK Marine LLC, in 2011. This activity is more like a hobby to me, but it has still been an extremely interesting journey to run an SME within UAE, very different compared to the corporate world. I've learned quite a few new things concerning the local culture and business climate. Now I’m motivated to get back again into the corporate world, as soon as the right opportunity arises.
ABB is the leading Power and Automation company worldwide, with more than 100.000 employees. Nigeria is the most populous country of Africa, with large oil reserves. After a dialogue with almost 50 people all around Europe, Middle East and Africa, I created a new strategy to ABBNG that was approved within the executive committee of ABB Group. I restructured ABBNG according to the strategy, hired and fired people, closed down some offices and opened new ones. Resolved most of the pending compliance issues arising from the past. Led the new sales force to build an impressive pipeline of new sales cases.
Head of Consulting and Systems Integration, Middle East and Africa, Nokia Siemens Networks
April 2007 - December 2008 (1 year 9 months) Dubai, UAE
This was a turbulent period due to the merger of some parts of Siemens with Nokia Networks. In spite of the turmoil, we managed to grow the Consulting & SI business remarkably within MEA and reached all our business targets. There were 11 different nationalities represented in my regional management team of 12 people. It doesn't get much more international than that.
Head of Consulting and Integration, CEMEA region, Nokia Networks
September 2006 - March 2007 (7 months) Istanbul, Turkey
A few major project contracts were signed just before my arrival into the region. To put it mildly, the contracts with the customers were very vague and consequently the implementation was becoming a real mess. I insisted on putting a structured resource allocation process in place and got gradually rid of the expensive European contractors who were basically running both projects. In the end, the Consulting and Integration part of these projects were delivered in time, with substantially lower cost by using local expertise and/or Nokia internal expatriates where needed.
Head of Software Business, CEMEA region, Nokia Networks
January 2006 - August 2006 (8 months) Istanbul, Turkey
We reached the regional sales targets, thanks to a few excellent sales people.
Head of Consulting & Integration, Latin America, Nokia Networks
January 2005 - December 2005 (1 year) Mexico City Area, Mexico
Restarting the Consulting and Systems Integration business within Latin America. Closing some small but strategically important deals. Raising the awareness about the CSI business among the new local management.
Head of Systems Integration in Southern Europe & Mediterranean, Nokia Networks
October 1999 - December 2004 (5 years 3 months) Rome, Italy
Turning a loss making "research center" activity into profitable business. Growing the business into new countries across the whole Mediterranean. Reaching a remarkable improvement in the employee satisfactions scores obtained via a company-wide annual survey. First ever VAS contracts in-between Nokia Networks and the global Vodafone group.
We exceeded our sales targets. We also closed the first ever contracts for Lotus in the Baltic states. Global frame agreement with Nokia Group worth millions.
Turning a struggling Systems Integration business unit into a profitable business. Converting a loss making Solution Engineering unit of +200 people into a profitable activity. Starting a new Consulting business unit that was profitable right from the beginning, i.e. we made a profit already the first year after we started the business.
Exceeding my sales targets as an Account Manager. Helping Oracle Finland win some major contracts as a Pre-Sales Engineer. Leading the functional design of a major Project Management system for Jaakko Poyry Group.
Supporting the launch of HP-UX into a market leading position. Helping HP to close some of the first Artificial Intelligence deals in Finland.
The faculty of Production Economics has been considered the most valued and demanding one in Finland with annual intake of only 20-25 top scoring individuals nationwide. The target of this Master's degree has been to give readiness for a managerial career, and has thus included elements of Strategy development, Operations Management, Marketing, Human Resources Management, Psychology, Finance & Control and Information Systems. All this in addition to a substantial amount of mathematics combined with a chosen technical specialty. In my case the last one covered Information and Communication Systems.