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| The appointments of new members will drive Hochiki’s business forward and improve its offering to the market |
Hochiki Europe, the leading manufacturer of innovative life safety solutions, has announced three new appointments to its team that will drive its business forward and further improve its offering to the market.
Recognising the vast potential within Central and Eastern European (CEE) for its products and systems, Hochiki Europe is delighted to welcome Ian Bird as its new regional sales manager. With degrees in business and European finance and accounting, he also holds a prestigious Master of Business Administration (MBA) qualification, which he gained from De Montfort University in Leicester.
Bird has vast experience of CEE, having worked extensively throughout the region for over 20 years in developing business for international companies in the security sector. An expert in security technology, he was a co-founder of the Czech and Slovakian division of ASIS, the largest security professional association in the world, and will be looking to utilise his extensive contacts and knowledge within the closely related life safety sector. Helping him to expand Hochiki Europe’s presence in the area is the fact that he speaks fluent German, Czech, Slovak and Polish, and has a good understanding of Russian, Serbo-Croat and Slovenian.
Having gained an enviable reputation for the design excellence and reliability of its solutions, Neil Eves will be looking to help set new standards in their implementation as Hochiki Europe’s new systems manager. A qualified electrical engineer who has been in the fire detection industry for over 20 years, Eves joins the company from Chubb Fire & Security, where he was directly involved with a number of high profile installations as its major projects development manager.
Based at Hochiki Europe’s headquarters in Gillingham, Shakila Hussain will undertake the role of business development assistant and support employees working in this busy department. Entering the life safety industry represents a significant career change for Hussain, whose vocational background has been spent carrying out community, youth and social work. As well as being a trained anger management coach, she helped set up the Medway Black Minority Ethnic Youth Forum – a group consisting of over 350 young people – and was commissioned by Medway Council’s Medway Children’s Trust to conduct a piece of work relating to child poverty.
Tomoki Ikeda, managing director of Hochiki Europe, commented, ‘Given the tough economic conditions that prevail, we are pleased to be able to buck the general trend by appointing people to join our highly successful team. This is an incredibly exciting time for the company and I’m confident that having Ian, Neil and Shakila on board will help Hochiki Europe continue its upwards trajectory and achieve all of its strategic objectives. I wish them all the very best in their new roles.’
