Ford Middle East has undergone its fair share of lineup changes in recent months, launching a bevy of new products that include the Ford Territory, all three Raptor models, and the Ford Expedition, all of which will be joined by an as-yet-unnamed group of all-electric models at some point this year. Earlier this month, Ford Middle East continued its ongoing revamp after breaking ground on a new parts distribution center in the Dubai Logistics District, which is part of Dubai World Central (DWC), too. Now, that same division has a new president to oversee these ongoing changes – Ravi Ravichandran.
Sami Malkawi
Ravichandran takes over this new role after spending the past three years as the Executive Director – Middle East Operations for Ford International Markets Group (IMG) – a role in which he was responsible for the growth and profitability of the Ford and Lincoln brands with its distributor partners across the region. However, he also has decades of automotive industry experience after originally joining FoMoCo back in 1997.
One of Ravichandran’s first moves in his new position was to promote Sami Malkawi and Pedro Simões to new roles within the company as well – Malkawi will serve as Ford and Lincoln Managing Director, Sales Operations in the Middle East after previously acting as the Managing Director of Lincoln Middle East, while Simões is now the Director of Ford and Lincoln Marketing, Commercial Vehicles, and Fleet, following several years of brand and product marketing experience – most recently, as Marketing Director at Ford Middle East.
Pedro Simões
“The automotive industry in the Middle East is expected to continue its steady growth into 2024, driven by increasing consumer demand for vehicles, easing supply-side disruptions, economic growth in the region, and government initiatives to promote the automotive sector, especially in Saudi Arabia,” Ravichandran said.
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