GE investing in young engineers: Mousallam
KUWAIT: General Energy (GE) recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of the College of Engineering and Petroleum of Kuwait University. Kuwait Times spoke to Salim A Mousallam, Country Manager, Power Services - Kuwait and Bahrain, GE Power, on the sidelines of the Kuwait Global Technopreneurship Challenge 2015.
“I have always been passionate about supporting young engineers, because we believe at GE that all new ideas and new innovations come from young minds, so the company has invested heavily in a lot of young engineers. It is my responsibility to make sure that I invest in young engineers everywhere GE sends me, and that is why we developed a great partnership with Kuwait University,” Mousallam said. “It truly is an honor for us to be an innovation partner and a part of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Kuwait University’s College of Engineering and Petroleum, and with the first Kuwait Global Technopreneurship Challenge,” he said.
Mousallam told Kuwait Times that this is not GE’s first time cooperating with Kuwait University, but GE had also participated in February at the Kuwait engineering innovation forum as an innovation partner. “We believe that competitions give students the opportunity to show their creativity, and that is what GE is searching for in the region,” he explained.
Mousallam added that 650 people from 70 countries in 65 teams signed up, noting that they started by submitting their products and ideas on YouTube in June, July and August. After that, the judging committee from Kuwait University in collaboration with GE shortlisted 17 teams from around the world to present their ideas in Kuwait City, and six engineers from GE are part of the 17 shortlisted teams. Seven teams are involved in making solar energy economical, five teams are focusing on advance health informatics and five teams on advance personalized learning. These teams are participating in the final challenge to compete for the first, second, third and fourth places.
The 17 teams were asked to present ideas on three global challenges among 14 that have been identified for the engineering sector by the National Academy of Engineering. “The shortlisted teams are being mentored by GE - especially in addressing a key challenge making solar energy economical. This is a great example of localization and youth talent development led by Kuwait University and GE,” Mousallam added.
Mousallam is the country manager for GE power services responsible for the financial performance, overall growth and capability-building for the power services business in Kuwait and Bahrain. He has been with the company for 11 years. In his role, Mousallam brings together the contractual services and transactional portfolios under one common strategy centered around customer centricity and execution excellence driven with speed and simplicity. In addition, he helps define and implement growth, talent development and localization strategies.
Design experise
Mousallam started his career at GE as a gas turbine engineering intern in 2005. In 2006, he joined the Edison Engineering Development Program (EEDP) where he developed strong gas turbine engineering design expertise. Upon graduating from EEDP in 2008, Mousallam joined GE Environmental Services in Atlanta as a thermal performance engineer.
In 2011, Mousallam moved to Saudi Arabia as a regional technical manager for PGS Global Operations, where he established and grew the regional performance testing and Inspections and Life Extension Services (I&LES) organizations in MEA.
Towards the end of 2012, Mousallam expanded his role as a regional engineering manager for PGS Engineering where he continued to lead the thermal performance engineering team, as well as the Edison Engineering Program.
Mousallam earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree from St Francis University, a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.