Business & Money | Tuesday 10 February, 2015 1:38 am |

RAK Ceramics, a global hi-tech manufacturer of premium lifestyle ceramics solutions with turnover of one billion USD, announced today the appointment of two new senior members to its management team in the UAE.

These new senior hires are in line with RAK Ceramics’ commitment to strengthening its management team by hiring top talent from the global industry.

The two new senior appointments are:

Stefan Schmied:
Stefan has been appointed as the President of Tiles and Sanitary ware at RAK Ceramics and brings to the business a wealth of industry experience. In his new role, he will be responsible for the sales and marketing of tiles and sanitary ware products both regionally and internationally. Prior to RAK Ceramics, Stefan held several key management roles within Geberit, one of the most successful and renowned brands in the sanitary industry, as Managing Director for the business in South East and North East Asia, based in Singapore. Before this, he was Managing Director for the Gulf Region within the firm; based in Dubai with responsibility for the growth of the Middle East and Africa business. Stefan started his career at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants where he was responsible for numerous international assignments focusing on restructuring, turnaround, M&A, PMI and Corporate/Business Strategy across different industries.

Raaqib Mutvalli:
Raaqib has been appointed as the Head of the Performance Management Office at RAK Ceramics and will be working closely with the leadership team to drive key projects, which will enable the business to achieve its 2017 vision. Raaqib joins RAK Ceramics after spending his entire career as a Management Consultant, most recently with PwC Consulting in the UK where he advised Fortune 500 companies on how to make sustainable improvements to their organizations and implement cross-functional changes in leading companies.

Abdallah Massaad, Chief Executive Officer of RAK Ceramics said: “As a global brand, we continue to take actions to ensure that we have the resources in place to support our new corporate strategy. These appointments underpin our commitment to strengthening our organizational and management activities. Stefan and Raaqib join RAK Ceramics at a key point in our on-going growth and I look forward to their valuable input in their respective roles”.

“I am confident that Stefan and Raaqib will strengthen our industry expertise and ensure that our people have access to the best guidance and insight possible from two industry leading veterans.” Abdallah added.

Creating value through corporate restructuring and devising clear responsibilities and reporting lines is one of RAK Ceramics’s Value Creation Initiatives that the company adopted following the investment of SAMENA Capital in June 2014. Other main initiatives include focusing on expanding “core business” operations in the UAE and Bangladesh, turning around the business in India, exiting from Sudan and scaling down of “non-core operations” such as contracting activities in the UAE.