Thales appoints Ashish Saraf Vice-President and Country Director for India
- He succeeds Emmanuel de Roquefeuil who takes up a new role within Thales
- Ashish Saraf joins Thales from Airbus where he served as the President and Head of Region for Airbus Helicopters - India and South Asia.
- He will lead Thales鈥 business in India and take forward its commitment to support the 鈥楢atmanirbhar Bharat鈥 vision of the government
Thales today announced the appointment of Ashish Saraf as Vice-President and Country Director for India with effect from 1 June 2021. In this role, Ashish will lead the company鈥檚 India business and will be responsible for the strategic growth of Thales in the country across all of its markets, further strengthening local teams, collaborations and innovation. He succeeds Emmanuel de Roquefeuil who takes up a new role as the VP and head for Thales in the Middle East.
Prior to joining Thales, Ashish served as the President and Head of Region for Airbus Helicopters - India and South Asia where he led Airbus鈥 Helicopters鈥 Sales, Services, Training, Innovation, Industrial Partnerships and Government Relations functions across the Civil, Parapublic and Military markets in the region. Ashish has also served as the Vice-President and Make in India Officer for Airbus, has headed the Tata鈥揝ikorsky joint venture in Hyderabad and also worked with Deloitte Consulting and Dassault Systemes, mainly in the United States and Europe.
Ashish Saraf holds degrees in Management and Engineering from University of London, Cornell University, Symbiosis Institute and NIT India. Additionally, he has also served as a Board of Director and Member of the Governing Council for Aviation and Aerospace Sector Skill Council (AASSC), a Governmental body dedicated to developing nationwide skills in the Aerospace domain in India.
Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global leader in advanced technologies, investing in digital and 鈥渄eep tech鈥 innovations 鈥 connectivity, big data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum computing 鈥 to build a confident future crucial for the development of our societies. The Group provides its customers 鈥 businesses, organisations and governments 鈥 in the defense, aeronautics, space, transport, and digital identity and security domains with solutions, services and products that help them fulfil their critical role, consideration for the individual being the driving force behind all decisions.
Thales has 81,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2020 the Group generated sales of 鈧17 billion.
Present in India since 1953, Thales is headquartered in Noida and has other operational offices and sites spread across Delhi, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai, among others. Over 1,800 employees are working with Thales and its joint ventures in India. Since the beginning, Thales has been playing an essential role in India鈥檚 growth story by sharing its technologies and expertise in Defence, Transport, Aerospace and Digital Identity and Security markets. Thales has two engineering competence centres in India - one in Delhi NCR focused on digital identity and security business, while the one in Bengaluru focuses on hardware, software and systems engineering capabilities for both the civil and defence sectors, serving global needs.
