We’re continuing our introduction to our team of Government experts.
These are the guys that our customers interface with on a daily basis. Backed up by decades of experience in the government and military sectors, often with hands-on military service, each member of our global Government team brings their own unique insight to advise our customer base on the right solutions for their own very specialized requirements.
Let’s start with our Global Government Technical Lead and Inmarsat Systems Engineer, Dave Davis.
In the early 1990s, Dave Davis was part of the British Army’s first wave of troops deployed to Bosnia as a satellite terminal technician and he continued to work with satellite terminals until his final tour as a military satcom instructor in 2003. Dave is based in the UK and he is the lead technical advisor for the Global Government team.
Biggest Challenges: In his role, Dave must provide sound advice on when to use what types of connectivity and protection to deal with different types of threat. He advocates the PACE approach to critical connectivity. That is Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency; in order to mitigate risk and ensure resiliency of communications.
Away from his day job, Dave is Chair of the IET MilSatcom conference, he is a MilSatcom & basic principles satellite communications course lecturer, a mentor at the Institute of Telecommunications Professionals (ITP), RE:ACT Disaster Response volunteer and a career at the Newman Holiday Trust.
Typical industry requirements: “Above all, customers want simplicity of operation, functionality of equipment, a range of capabilities, the ARC triangle (affordability, resilience and capability) and of course, to feel supported.”
Superpower? “To understand the customer perspective and the ability to put across technology in a language that is understood by all levels of user, maintainer and manager. Whilst trying to inspire the next generation of engineers.”
Our Regional Director for Asia Pacific is Andrew Perry.
Andrew was part of the senior leadership and management team with the Royal Australian Air Force for 20 years and also operated sensors and communication systems, giving him invaluable, hands-on experience. Based in Australia, Andrew works closely with the Australian Defence Force and other regional defense contractors.
What are you looking forward to the most this year? “As the newest addition to the Global Government team, I’m looking forward offering my military and defense knowledge to the satcom industry and to getting out there and traveling to meet people face-to-face.”
Superpower? “Looks to meet the needs and requirements of the customer. Can also name 30 odd stars in the night sky. Learned to enable navigation via celestial bodies using a sextant, but then I was made redundant by GPS.”
Koen Willems is the Head of Global Government Strategy and Market Development
Koen has more than 20 years’ experience working in the technology industry and is a GovDef satcom technology evangelist, making regular appearances in satellite trade press, white papers and speaking engagements at conferences around the world.
Koen is based in Belgium where he focuses on the European Union and NATO.
Biggest Challenges: Koen must ensure that our strategy aligns with what is going on in the industry and to understand this, he talks to many customers and end users. Koen also supports EU government programs through the Belgian legal entity (proxy) organization ST Engineering iDirect (Europe) CY NV, leveraging the EU footprint and installed base in ground segment satellite networks.
What do you enjoy most about the job? “I strive to be proactive to build relationships and understand market needs. We are selling complex government systems and we have an opportunity to truly make an impact with our broad expertise and vast product and solution portfolio.”
Superpower? “Devising plans as cunning as a fox that used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but has moved on and is now working for the U.N. at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning.”
Finally, Guillermo Marquina is Director of Business Development, Americas for the Government Team.
Guillermo worked at ST Electronics for 7 years before joining ST Engineering iDirect in 2019. Based in Canada, he is focused on the Americas, excepting the US), Canada and Central and Latin America.
Typical industry requirements: “Every customer has evolving needs. Some are not familiar with us, so working on expanding our presence and educating them on all that we have to offer including synergistic solutions from ST Engineering, enables us to build trust and back-up what we claim with demos.”
Don’t forget to check out part one of our Government Team here.