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Eddie Rae

Senior executive, Renewable Energy and Automotive industries

Highly capable, globally tested business leader with over twenty five years experience in the automotive and energy sectors including various overseas business development assignments in Europe, Asia and the Americas

Titles held: Head of APAC, VP Global and Strategic Supply Chain, General Manager, Senior Advisor

A globally experienced multi-industry executive, Eddie was for most of the last decade working in senior roles for Alstom renewables wind business, as Vice President for both global and strategic supply chain, and latterly in regional business leadership as head of the Asia Pacific group, operating out of China, with teams in the wider APAC region. Having left Alstom in 2015, he now provides consultant services and is currently acting as a senior advisor to a global consultancy clean energy practice.

During his Alstom period, he completely re-engineered the wind business supply chain group, then centred in Barcelona, into a globally present, strategic, and highly effective SCM organisation with teams in Europe, North America, Latin America and China.

Raised in Scotland, Eddie studied at university in England, before joining Peugeot Citroen Motors as a graduate trainee. He then joined Japanese vehicle manufacturer Nissan’s new organisation in the UK, based at their state of the art manufacturing set-up in the North East of England.

NMUK was the very first Japanese vehicle transplant facility in Europe, and is still regularly judged to be one of the most productive car manufacturing plants in the world, due in part to the highly effective SCM techniques learned from globally recognised Japanese experts.

Following a successful two-year business development assignment at Nissan’s European HQ in Amsterdam, and a later short period working for the Renault-Nissan Purchasing Organisation (RNPO) entity in Paris, Eddie joined Ford Motor Company at their European operations near London.

As a senior manager in Ford, he was responsible for teams with multi $billion spends, working in close collaboration with global partners in other Ford owned vehicle manufacturers (Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Lincoln, Mazda and Aston Martin) using innovative cross functional working (e.g. Team Value Management) and supplier management (SRM) approaches.

Following the return from a richly rewarding assignment in Istanbul, at Ford’s joint venture with Turkish conglomerate Koç Industries, Eddie decided to gain a completely different experience, when he agreed to join French energy and transport engineering group Alstom at their HQ in Paris.

Based in Paris, then Zürich, as a senior in-house SCM consultant, he worked closely with Alstom’s six different energy business units, realising cross BU strategic synergies, and helping to develop the organisation at sector level.

Eddie was then asked to go to the recently acquired wind business based in Barcelona, where he performed the roles referred to earlier above, including periods overseas setting up a wholly new local supply chain in Brazil, in critical support of Alstom's successful entry into the strategically important Latin American market, and latterly running the wind APAC regional organisation out of China. This included the winning and execution of projects in Japan and South Korea, and developing an onshore and offshore wind growth plan for the wider region. Was also deeply involved in various global M&A and business development initiatives, including the setting up of a new supply chain industrial footprint in France in support of Alstom's successful offshore wind entry with the Haliade 150 6MW turbine, and other cooperative opportunities.

A widely experienced and highly effective operator, he leads from the front, and gains greatest personal fulfilment from helping to develop people and organisations, unlocking individual potential and providing a strong platform for collective growth.

Operating at present out of London and Istanbul, Eddie suffers from afar the continuing travails of Scottish football, and is currently researching a book on the recent history, and future growth, of global wind.

What I do best