Simon Read Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

United Kingdom

United Kingdom

Headed up Saab’s global Public Safety business with full P&L responsibility and annual revenues of £20m.Led an organisation of 150 employees, split 50/50 across Sweden and the UK, covering all roles required of the business, including sales and marketing, product management, software development, project delivery, support and service management. Member of the Board of Directors of Saab UK Ltd and a member of Saab’s ‘Top 250’ most senior managers globallyDuring this period, the business:- successfully deployed a new unified communications, command and control solution to An Garda Síochána (national police service of the Republic of Ireland).- secured new contracts with three UK Police forces worth £32m (South Wales, Gwent, Derbyshire) - successfully entered the UK Fire market, winning contracts worth £8m with two UK Fire & Rescue services (Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire)- drove business-wide transformational change program to significantly grow the UK based capability (50+ increase in headcount) to meet increased customer demand, reduce reliance on contractors/consultants and successfully migrated all business support functions (Finance, IT, Quality, HR, Commercial) from being delivered from Sweden to the UK

United Kingdom

Member of the Board of Directors for Saab UK Ltd

United Kingdom

Responsible for the global Product and Sales strategy for Saab’s SAFE command and control solution. Led a team of highly skilled Sales and Product specialists based throughout the UK and SwedenLed the campaign to launch the SAFE command and control platform into the UK public safety market; working with early adopter and innovator organisations to develop a highly competitive solution. Secured new contracts with numerous UK Police forces, with values totalling over £100m, taking Saab from being an unknown new entrant to being widely recognised as a leader in the UK emergency services market.Built a UK based operations team from scratch, culminating in a headcount of over 75 UK employees.Worked with colleagues in Saab Inc to introduce SAFE into the US Airport market, securing contracts with 5 large US airports.

United Kingdom

Brought in to the organisation to turn around a struggling business unit. Devised and successfully implemented a new business strategy to transform the business unit into a system integrator and service management provider targeting the emergency services market. Developed an exclusive partnership with an innovative product vender and drove a collaboration to jointly create a highly competitive and disruptive turnkey market offering. Developed a market strategy and led an aggressive sales campaign that secured a number of high value and prestigious contracts and developed a strong £multi-million pipeline of future business.

United Kingdom

A director of the company and member of the Senior Management Team. Responsible for leading the following business departments:- Sales & Marketing- Business Development- Product Management

United Kingdom

Managed a department of 40+ employees consisting of Project Managers, PMO, and Project Engineers responsible for delivering large, complex and bespoke software and IT platforms to emergency service organisations throughout UK, Europe and the Middle East

United Kingdom

Served aboard various British warships deployed around the world including operations in the Mediterranean, Gulf, Far East and CaribbeanHeaded a department of 30+ engineers specialising in Radio Communications, Command & Control and Electronic Warfare systems, covering a broad spectrum of sophisticated software and hardware solutions.