OREANDA-NEWS. April 14, 2016. GE (NYSE: GE) today announced the appointment of Ayman Khattab, an Egyptian national, as the President and Chief Executive Officer for Egypt, Libya and South Sudan. Khattab has held a number of leadership positions in the company between 2008 and 2013.

Khattab will lead the operations of GE, which has a heritage of over 40 years in Egypt, into strategic growth areas with a focus on localization and innovation. He will continue to strengthen the presence of GE in sectors such as oil & gas, power, grid solutions, water, transportation, aviation and healthcare.

GE’s strength today lies in its ability to globally exchange knowledge, technology and tools across all GE businesses that drive digital industrial growth and ultimately provides better outcomes for customers. This enables GE to offer holistic, more efficient solutions to Egypt that can support the country’s growing needs in a better, faster and more reliable way.

Khattab said: “Egypt is witnessing one of the most exciting developmental phases. Today, GE is transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that can support Egypt’s growing development and infrastructural needs. As a committed partner to Egypt, we will continue to work with our partners in the public and private sector to deliver better outcomes across industries that have a positive impact on the daily lives of Egyptians.”

GE’s focus on creating localized solutions and investing in long-term development will be strong assets in supporting Egypt. GE is keen on bringing its most advanced technological solutions to Egypt to improve the efficiency of systems, operations and facilities across sectors. As the world’s Digital Industrial Company, GE can help improve connectivity, responsiveness and predicitivty for our customers. This transformation is enabling GE to lead the next generation of industrial progress which will help GE become a stronger partner to Egypt to drive growth.

Khattab added, “Our investments in the country today have reached \\$340 million; we are confident that the Egyptian market will continue to grow over the coming years and we will continue to strengthen our existing partnerships to create more opportunities that will boost the economy, foster localized innovation and create jobs.”

Khattab has more than 30 years of industry experience. He started his career in Schlumberger, where he spent 21 years; he held various leadership roles in the Middle East, North Africa, France and South America. However, Khattab is not new to GE; he joined the company in 2008 and has held a number of regional leadership positions until 2013. He attended the American University in Cairo, and graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1986.

GE has been a partner to Egypt for more than 40 years. Today, more than 135 gas turbines are installed across the country, generating more than 14.8 GW of power, enough to meet the electricity needs of more than 14 million homes nationwide. 2.6 GW of GE’s total generated capacity was added to Egypt’s national grid during 2015 in a record time of 6 months as part of the Power Boost Program.

GE is also partnering with Petrojet, a leading EPC services provider, to locally manufacture API Certified Sucker Rod pumping units in Petrojet’s workshop in Idku, Alexandria. To date, more than 1,150 units have been locally manufactured in country serving oil fields in Egypt, the region and Europe. Petrojet is considered the first partner for GE Well Performance Services a sub-business of GE Oil & Gas, outside the United States for building surface-well pumps.

In healthcare, more than 14,400 GE Healthcare technologies are deployed across the country’s hospitals and clinics. Additionally, GE is partnering with the Ministry of Health on a number of initiatives including the plans to establish a Biomed Center of Excellence in Egypt. Also the RIS PACS program, a ground breaking initiative providing a paperless and filmless solution to ensure timely reporting and resourcing of radiologists.  The RIS PACS program links six strategic hospitals across Egypt to a Centre of Excellence in Cairo.

GE also plays a key role in Egypt’s transportation and aviation sectors. GE powers more than 110 of the Egyptian National Railways with GE locomotives that help move good across the country on a daily basis. GE is has also been a partner to EgyptAir for more than 35 years; more than 60% of the airline’s fleet is powered by GE technology.

Today, more than 550 employees work in Egypt with GE. The company is keen on creating job opportunities for Egyptians and continues to invest in building talents locally. GE has started its journey in Egypt in 1974; with people, services, technology and scale, GE will continue to deliver better outcomes for Egypt by speaking the language of industry.