Industry veteran will lead the company in one of its most important markets in the Middle East and Africa Zone

Schneider Electric has appointed Sebastien Riez as the Cluster President for the North East Africa and Levant region, which includes several countries that are key to Schneider Electric’s presence in the Middle East and Africa, including Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Malta. Sebastien, who has over fifteen years of experience in energy management with a strong international background, will be responsible for accelerating Schneider Electric’s growth across the region and supporting customers with the company’s range of digital transformation and sustainability solutions.

A French national, Sebastien’s experience includes energy management, power transmission and distribution. Sebastien joined Schneider Electric (former Areva T&D) in 2007 as area sales manager for the EAJ region. Since, he has held various business-related positions in tendering, project management, business development, marketing and business VP while being exposed to several geographies (North America, Africa, Europe, EAJ) and living in France, Germany and most recently in the UAE, where he has been leading the Power Systems Division of Schneider Electric for the Middle East and Africa Zone.

“Sebastien has proved his commercial expertise over the past decade and has done a tremendous job in leading his teams to profitable growths whilst shaping the future for the Power System Division for Middle East and Africa,” said Walid Sheta, Middle East, and Africa Zone President for Schneider Electric. “The NEAL cluster is one of the most important regions for us as a company, given our customers there as well as our manufacturing hubs, and I’m confident he will take us to the next level in terms of what we can do for our customers throughout the region.”

The Northeast Africa and Levant cluster is one of Schneider Electric’s largest regions in terms of presence, with over 1,500 employees based in the region: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Malta . The company’s Badr plant, which is located in Cairo, is known for producing high-quality technical medium-voltage hardware which are used both locally as well as exported abroad. The Badr plant is supplying significant amounts of equipment for Egypt’s national smart grid project.

“I’m excited about this new role, partly due to the opportunities throughout the region as well as the quality of the people we have at Schneider Electric,” said Sebastien. “There’s so much happening in the areas of digital transformation and sustainability, and I can’t wait to take up this responsibility and work with our customers to help accelerate and improve how they operate through the technologies and expertise that we can provide to them.”

Sebastien has a double MBA from France’s Institut d’Administration des Enterprises, in Business and Project Management, as well as a BSc in Physics from IUT Montpellier.