SAQR CONSULTING - Key Persons
Gary Rich is a lawyer, accountant, and former United States Diplomat who served throughout the former Soviet Union. He established banking relationships and implemented electronic funds transfer (EFT) systems for the Department of State in Russia and the former Soviet Republics. He has interfaced with key US government agencies such as Citizenship and Immigration Services, Foreign Commercial Services, Treasury, Labor, and the FBI. Mr. Rich has organized, supervised, and participated in intricate international investigations. His duties as a Corporate Security Officer entailed dealing with fraud, conflicts of interest, malfeasance, and other sensitive issues.
Gary worked at Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, over the course of four decades. While there, he led teams in developing and negotiating contracts valued at more than $2 billion for engineering and construction work in Europe, the Middle East, and Japan. He has demonstrated success in building and leading diverse teams in a national or international setting, managing and completing projects, providing corporate security support, directing the finance and accounting function in a federal government agency, providing strategic immigration counseling, and bringing complex litigation to a successful conclusion.
Jim Reed flew helicopters for Aramco for twenty-one years, working as fleet captain, training captain, training supervisor, standards supervisor technical writer (responsible for writing the training program, operations manual, procedure documents, and checklists for the Bell 206L3, 212, 412EP, A109E, and AW139). He was the Aramco Aviation Department Standards Supervisor, authoring the General Operations Manual for GACA Part 125 certification. Jim is the authority on helicopter training in the Middle East and is passionate about advancing aviation knowledge and safety with the next generation. Prior to Aramco, Jim worked for the FAA as an aviation safety inspector. Jim also flew humanitarian missions for the UN and has lived and worked worldwide, including in Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Mozambique, and Cambodia. He is a member of HAI, AOPA, NAFI, and the Royal Aviation Society. Jim is a two-time Ironman finisher and a seven-time Cape Town Cycle Tour finisher.
Josh White is a lawyer with a keen business sense. He was a senior lawyer at Airbus in Toulouse, France, where he negotiated high-level multi-billion dollar agreements with aircraft engine manufacturers and advised senior Airbus management. Before joining Airbus, Josh spent nearly a decade at Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where he was head of legal at Saudi Aramco Aviation with the world's largest corporate fleet. Josh was also the lead lawyer for Saudi Aramco on the initial stages of the Jazan Economic City Project, where he was responsible for supervising multiple construction packages valued at over ten billion dollars with EPC contractors in Spain, Korea, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. He led the fleet replacement teams to acquire a new fleet of Boeing 737-800 aircraft and a Leonardo helicopter fleet. He also negotiated the purchase of a fleet of Gulfstream executive aircraft for Aramco.
Josh has structured and negotiated deals in various industries throughout Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, and North and South America. He is an adviser and strategic partner for the clients he serves. He started Saqr Consulting to bring clients value, experience, and common-sense solutions. All four of Josh's children lived in Saudi Arabia during their formative years, and his youngest child was born there. He cares about the Region and its people. He has built a worldwide network of contacts within a variety of industries.
Nick has spent over 30 years in the field of Asset Performance Management, at the intersection of machinery, data, and the new business models formed to operate and service complex machinery at the highest levels of performance, reliability, and safety. Nick most recently spent time addressing the rapidly growing distributed energy market, building long-term services to underpin Energy as Service agreements for virtual utilities. Prior to this, Nick spent time leading service development and customer engagement in major asset-intensive industries, including Aerospace, Medical Devices, Automotive, Oil & Gas, and Nuclear.
Benefiting from experiences gained from leading the development and commercialization of novel new digital services from the perspective of start-up ventures like Oxford Bio Signals (acquired by Rolls-Royce) and YASA Motors (acquired by Mercedes Benz), where Nick was CEO, to major OEMs like Rolls-Royce and Westinghouse and pure Technology providers like Uptake Technologies, Nick has a strong appreciation of cross-Industry practices and what successful adoption of digital technologies, including Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, looks like.
Nick completed a Rolls-Royce Engineering Apprenticeship and qualified as a Materials Scientist at Bristol in the UK. Nick has led extensive Engineering and Operations team and has held several Global Sales positions, with many years of experience in international markets, including North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.