ALEX HOLMES: Managing Director for MAHLE Behr South Africa
Alex Holmes is the Managing Director for MAHLE Behr South Africa, a specialist component manufacturer of air conditioning and engine cooling products for both passenger and commercial vehicles.
Mr. Holmes brings 25years of experience in the automotive industry to the position, including serving as a Non-executive Director for the Durban Automotive Cluster (DAC), Chairperson for the Automotive Supply Chain Competitiveness Industry (ASCCI) and National Executive Committee member of the National Association of Automotive Component & Allied Manufacturers (NAACAM). As a qualified Mechanical Engineer, he has served across many engineering & project management positions within MAHLE, most recently being their Commercial Director for the last 9 years drawing on the experience gained for his current role.
Throughout his 25 years in the automotive industry, Alex has gained significant leadership experience. A key learning from this experience has been recognising motivated people can achieve amazing results and are always willing to go the extra mile; “In my early days, I focused on telling my employees what I would have done to achieve a better result. Nowadays I focus on reminding my employees that they are the subject matter experts; that it always amazes me what they can achieve and rather coach them in a way so that they can create their own ideas for improvement. It starts by building a team around me of experienced, educated and dedicated professionals.”
Discussing the #FutureofComponentManufacutring and MAHLE’s future strategic direction, “MAHLE’s strategy is to shape future mobility. With a 100 year legacy built on the successes of the internal combustion engine (ICE), it’s important for MAHLE to play a leading role in shaping the future of the eMobility “Green Curve” as the ICE slips down the “Red Curve”. For Africa & South Africa, we are still determining what this means because our “Customers who produce” will follow the Global trends more quickly as they predominantly export into them, whilst our “Local customers who buy” might stay on the ICE / Red curve for a longer time horizon.”
MAHLE Careers South Africa Facebook page: https://web.facebook.com/mahlesa/
