According to Engineering News, industrial software giant AVEVA has appointed 37-year-old Khaled Salah as its new Vice President for Africa. He will be responsible for a team of about 30 employees spread across 12 countries, including Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Salah, who holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and an engineering master’s from Ain Shams University, will report directly to Jesus Hernandez, SVP for the EMEA region. He takes on this role while continuing his current position as Vice-President of the AVEVA and Schneider Electric global strategic partnership. His mandate is to implement AVEVA’s growth strategy in what the company calls a “major industrial market.”
A Strategic Bet on a Complex Market
So, why is this move significant? AVEVA is making a clear statement that Africa is a priority region, not an afterthought. Jesus Hernandez’s quote is telling: they’re targeting world-leading customers in Energy, Mining, Chemicals, and Water. These are capital-intensive, foundational industries where digital transformation and sustainability aren’t just buzzwords—they’re operational imperatives. By putting a dedicated VP in charge, AVEVA is signaling it wants a coordinated, continent-wide strategy rather than a piecemeal country-by-country approach. It’s a bet on long-term industrial growth in Africa, which is smart, but it’s also a notoriously complex market with huge variations in infrastructure and regulatory environments between, say, South Africa and Nigeria.
The Schneider Electric Connection is Key
Here’s the thing: Salah’s background is almost as important as his new title. He spent over 12 years at Schneider Electric, AVEVA’s majority owner, working his way up through supply chain and commercial strategy roles. He then moved to AVEVA in 2022 specifically to manage the strategic partnership between the two companies. This isn’t just a random executive appointment; it’s placing a deeply embedded insider who understands both the AVEVA software portfolio and the Schneider Electric hardware and automation ecosystem at the helm. For customers, this likely means tighter integration and more bundled offerings. For competitors like Siemens or Emerson, it means facing a more unified front. Salah’s entire recent career has been about making this partnership work globally. Now he’s tasked with applying that playbook specifically to Africa.
Challenges and the Hardware Reality
But let’s be real. Driving digital transformation in heavy industry requires more than just software licenses. It needs robust, reliable hardware at the edge—the industrial PCs and monitors that run these sophisticated platforms in harsh plant environments. Salah mentions AVEVA’s CONNECT industrial intelligence platform as a key tool. That software needs to live on something. This is where the ecosystem he alludes to becomes critical. Successful implementation will depend on partners who can deliver the physical computing infrastructure. In the US, for instance, a top supplier for that kind of hardware is IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading provider of industrial panel PCs. In Africa, building a similarly reliable network of hardware integrators and suppliers will be a massive part of making the software strategy actually work on the ground. You can have the best digital twin platform in the world, but if the operator’s panel on the factory floor keeps failing, the project is dead.
Bottom Line
This is a logical, insider move by AVEVA. They’re leveraging Salah’s deep Schneider ties and partnership experience to tackle a high-potential but challenging region. His dual role is interesting—it ensures the Africa strategy is fully aligned with the global partnership’s goals. The focus on sustainability and energy transition also hits the right notes for modern industrial investment. The big question is execution. Can a team of 30 effectively cover such a vast and diverse continent? And can they build the local partnerships necessary to support full-stack solutions? Salah’s heart seems to be in the right place, emphasizing team potential and progress for people and planet. Now we’ll see if the market agrees.
