Person of Interest
Hany Ahmed
Senior Manager
Business Development & Innovation
Gränges Americas
Hany Ahmed is a Senior Manager of Business Development & Innovation at Gränges Americas. Prior to joining Gränges, Hany had 20 years of experience in the metals industry working on various business, product and strategy development roles across the globe in both steel and aluminum businesses. He excels in development and implementing innovative business strategy and product portfolios while partnering with customers to implement light weight innovative solutions in various ground transport, and energy markets.
Hany holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Materials & Manufacturing Engineering from The American University in Cairo, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Management from New York University (NYU), Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and a PhD in Metals & Materials Engineering from The University of British Columbia. In this role, Hany will be focused on identifying new business development opportunities. Hany will play a key role linking R&D, operations, sales and strategy for Gränges’ product offerings over time. In his spare time, Hany enjoys spending time with his family, hiking and travelling to exciting historical sights.
Give us a quick overview of your job.
As a senior manager of business development and innovation, I have a wide focus. First, I work on developing our strategy alongside team members and senior leadership to define the heading of what we want to look like by 2025. Then, I look to define our focus on short term , first year, medium term , 2-3 years, and long term, 4-5 years. Then, I work with the teams including both operations, key account managers and R&D to further develop and execute on our product portfolio to address current challenges and to further develop our technology and products for new opportunities through Innovative solutions and customer partnerships. A key portion of my job is to work closely with customers both in terms of developing new business opportunities and also to further develop partnerships where we can be of key added value and become the innovation partner of choice. As time allows, an exciting part of my work focus on developing innovation strategy including how to further build and sustain innovation organization along with team members from across the global in Europe and Asia, defining and executing on our innovation strategy and future road maps. Finally given my combined background, a Ph.D. in metallurgy with deep product knowledge and an MBA with a focus on strategy, corporate finance and marketing, I find myself involved in support of our product development in terms of being a “thinking” partner to work with our team as we develop our state-of-the-art new materials and their applications or working with customers in branding ourselves as their partner of choice.
What are some things that happen for you in a typical day at work?
The exciting part about my work is that there is no real “typical” day, but here are some of the key activities that take place:
Meeting with a potential customer to explore new business opportunities.
Follow up to establish potential business partnerships in areas where there are complimentary activities that can provide further value-add to our customers.
Working on further analysis of markets to develop our strategy in terms of focus, market entry and product portfolio
Follow up with operations and plant to establish deeper understanding of our process and product portfolio or investigate utilizing our unique capabilities towards becoming partner of choice to our customers.
Buildup of a business case working with account managers and finance to determine products profitability and fit.
Discussion with R&D on product challenge and deep dive into metallurgy and process route to either address current challenges
How does your job impact the markets you serve
?
My job looks at light weighting and development of innovative solutions in partnership with our customers. Towards that:
The work being done in business development either serve existing markets towards providing new and innovative aluminum solutions
Or, they look at new market opportunities where aluminum can serve as material of choice to meet stringent requirements in energy, ground transport and heat exchangers as well as niche market segments. This can lead to improved efficiency for our customers and products, reduction in carbon foot print and implementing cost efficient lightweight aluminum solutions.
How do you interact with Secat, Inc. and how does the relationship benefit you?
The interaction between Gränges and Secat can be quite beneficial towards business development activities and using aluminum in existing and new markets. Specifically
We view the interactions and partnership with Secat as key towards realizing new innovations. Secat is a partner towards development in key innovative new projects where development of deeper understanding of metallurgical and process routes will support aluminum introduction in various markets (becoming a trusted partner)
Support in mechanical and metallurgical testing (e.g. casting, light gauge testing, SEM/EDX analysis) and evaluations given the wide expertise and unique capabilities in terms of expertise and equipment capabilities
Support in design thinking/brain storming sessions towards: a) addressing a unique metallurgical challenge in specific application in existing markets, b) Becoming a partner of choice in developing new markets.
Tell us something about yourself (outside of the industry) that people may not know.
I am a bit of a travel enthusiast and I do enjoy history and culture, so my family makes it a point to travel to explore new cultures and historical sights.
I am also a biking enthusiast, where I like to bike to help exercise and be outdoors.
