Achilles opens Dubai office

Achilles – one of the world’s biggest providers of supply chain management services to the oil and gas sector – has opened a new office in Dubai, and appointed a new Regional Director to manage business growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Achilles works on behalf of the biggest oil and gas companies in the world – scrutinising their supply chains to identify and mitigate the full spectrum of risks – including compliance with regional laws, health and safety, and ethics. 

As part of this model, buyers from across the oil and gas sector have formed 10 industry ‘communities,’ which use standardised criteria to pre-qualify suppliers. The aim is to raise standards in a consistent way across all geographies.

Now Achilles has opened an office in Dubai Internet City, led by new Regional Director Gareth Palmer (pictured above, right).

The aims are to provide additional support to existing global buyers, via a local operations hub; and to help Middle East companies achieve a state-led push to encourage localisation of the supply chain.

Richard Collins, a Global Director at Achilles, said: “The Middle East and North Africa region supplies approximately one third of the world’s oil and gas is therefore of paramount importance to our existing global customers.

“In response to their feedback, and in line with Achilles’ ambitious growth plans, we are committed to further investment in the MENA region.

“This will be led by Gareth Palmer, who with six years’ experience working internationally – including in MENA – is of a suitably high calibre to drive business in the region.”

Gareth Palmer, brings six years’ experience working internationally in senior management roles at international Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses – including MessageLabs and Symantec.

He said: “Achilles was a natural choice of employer for me as the company shares my global outlook, and operates in a dynamic and fast-moving environment.

“Achilles’ industry ‘community’ model is truly unique and I am excited about offering customers in the MENA region the ability to achieve a balance between localisation of their supply chains, as well as access to regional and global information.”