Airbus has appointed Andrew Forbes as the new Head of the Middle East and North Africa region of Secure Land Communications to maintain the growth and development of the MENA region’s advanced communications and collaboration solution markets.
Forbes will be based in Riyadh and oversees more than 95 employees in the offices located in UAE and KSA. He will be responsible for building on Airbus’ previous strong performances in delivering the latest Tetra technology in those regions, targeting new markets and developing mission critical solutions tailored to customers’ needs.
“We strongly intend to intensify efforts made in the fields of public safety networks, defence, transportation, energy and other critical industries such as the mining sector, in order to bring forward innovative and customised solutions that surpass competitors. In the Middle East region in particular, we can build on our excellent existing customer relations,” says Forbes.
“Our customers, particularly in the Middle East, are forerunners in mission critical technology solutions. They are expecting their systems to follow the same megatrends that the civilian ones are following while maintaining the most important features such as security, reliability, resiliency and of course, voice. Our aim is to bring forward hybrid possibilities, seamless connectivity, data-driven services and applications with extremely high security standards while maintaining flawless voice services,” he adds.
With a Master of Science (MSc) in Information Technology Service Management from Northampton University and a Diploma in Company Direction, Forbes has 36 years of experience in the implementation, operation and management of geographically dispersed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems and is an experienced communications and structured cable design engineer.
In addition, Forbes has extensive experience in military communication services as he started his career in the British Armed Forces and has also worked for the NATO Communications and Information Agency.
He has spent a total of ten years in Saudi Arabia and joined Airbus in 2014 to become Head of GPT Special Project Management Ltd., part of Airbus Defence and Space’s Secure Communications branch. He first served as Operations Director before becoming the Managing Director responsible for a 542-person team in 2017.
