Orange Business Services names new Country Manager for Saudi Arabia

Marini will also serve as Managing Director of Orange Business Arabia (the local company established in Saudi Arabia by Orange Business Services) and as a Director of the board of Orange Business Arabia.

He will lead the Orange commercial teams in Saudi Arabia, covering strategy to operations.

Marini brings more than 15 years of commercial leadership in the telecoms sector, including from senior positions in Saudi Arabia and Jordan for organisations including France Telecom, Lucent Technologies, Equant and Devoteam.

He most recently held the position of Vice President Business Services at ITC in Saudi Arabia.

Laurent Marini graduated from the Institut National des Telecommunications (France) and holds a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications & Information Systems Engineering, a Masters in Marketing and Business Management from University Sud Paris (France), and completed executive leadership courses from Cranfield School of Management (UK) and EM Lyon Business School (France).

Part of France Telecom-Orange, Orange Business Services launched Orange Business Arabia, its local company in Saudi Arabia in April 2012, to focus on the key areas of Smart Cities, telecom operator transformation, and large infrastructure projects, in addition to serving the multinational companies that operate in the Kingdom.

This was followed late last month with an announcement of a partnership agreement with Saudi Business Machines (SBM), a leading systems integrator. The agreement established a platform for the two companies to cooperate as preferred partners on bids for major ICT projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to jointly identify and bid for major projects in the rapidly expanding ICT market there.

Commenting on the appointment, Mr Jean-Luc Lasnier, Vice President and General Manager, Middle East and Africa, Orange Business Services, said: "The first year of operation for Orange Business Arabia has been very encouraging and well received by customers. Laurent Marini will lead the next phase of our development as we continue to build our business ecosystem and drive growth in the market."

France Telecom-Orange has more than 2,000 people working on the business-to-business market in the Middle East and Africa. As part of the Group, Orange Business Services supports enterprise customers across the strategically important Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states from the Middle East and Africa regional headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.