Stephen Pearce, the new president and country manager for ABB Malaysia
KUCHING: Despite holding the position for only six months, Stephen Pearce, the new president and country manager for ABB Malaysia Sdn Bhd (ABB) already has some ideas on what the next move for the company should be.
With the implementation of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) as well as Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), the energy sector was one that would need some attention, “the amount of investments being looked at (in terms of the ETP and SCORE projects), these areas are very beneficial to the company and we have the necessary tools to aid in the achievements of these goals,” he stated.
Born in South Africa, Pearce holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from a local University and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Stathclyde University.
Ambitious at heart, it wasn’t long before his talents were noticed.
Appointed to the position in April 2012, Pearce began his career with Reyrolle Switchgear, South Africa in 1985 before joining ABB in 1997 as vice president of the Medium Voltage and Low Voltage Switchgear business in Durban, South Africa.
Over the years, he took on various roles before being named group vice president responsible for ABB’s Power Products service portfolio in 2006 based in Zurich.
“ABB started in Malaysia in 1904 when MFO Oerlikon installed the first generator.
We have progressed much since then but locally now, we look to strengthen our presence by investing in local talents as well as providing better service for our current customers,” he stated.
“As a company which has been in Malaysia for more than a century, ABB remains committed towards developing our local talent and providing an extensive range from ABB’s port folio which are geared to boost productivity and efficiency.”
Working in such an industry, Pearce elaborated that finding talent was a challenge because despite being in such a technical field, he believed that being one of the world’s more ‘global’ companies, talents needed to accept a culture of openness, flexibility and inclusiveness because of the company’s diverse background in its staff.
“We’re looking on how to attract and retain engineering talents but its a competitive market and engineers are generally in demand,” he said.
Managing a company with close to 700 employees around Malaysia and over 120,000 in over 100 countries, heading one of the world’s leading engineering companies is no easy task and addressing the energy challenge of today is no stroll in the park.
“What we’re doing at ABB is addressing the energy challenge by focusing on efficient power supply and designing for efficiency.
We believe that reliable high quality power is vital to modern economies,” he enthused.
Pearce added that especially today, energy saving and efficiency has never been higher on the agenda.
People have become increasingly aware of the correlation between wasting energy and environmental damage.
With roots in power and automation that go back to the 19th century, Pearce mentioned that the key to the company’s success and also its future lies in the company’s ability to innovate.
“There are a couple of areas which I’d like to focus on (in Malaysia) and one of it is how we further develop support for our customers in maximising utilisation of their electrical assets,” Pearce noted.
“Reason being is the increasing relevance for our customers as they look to achieve the best return on investment and longest lifetime for their installations.”
He also touched on the other areas that he would like to push forward which were energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE).
The new president noted that several fiscal incentives, policy instruments and institutional mechanisms were in place to drive the nation’s RE and EE strategies forward and this presented enormous opportunities for ABB i n Malaysia.
The challenge was to identify the opportunities early and to respond to them with the right solution, products and engineering capacity.
“In addition we see specific opportunities to support investments planned in the oil and gas sector – for both upstream and downstream projects.
ABB has a range of products, solutions and services aligned to the needs of this market, where we can link our global expertise to meet local customer requirements,” he elaborated.
Pearce added, “I’m really optimistic about the future.
Investments in the government’s ETP will create significant demand for ABB’s complete power and automation portfolio especially in areas such as oil, gas and petrochemicals, rail and data centres which are aligned with key areas mapped out in the ABB Group Strategy 2015.”