“We want to position ourselves as a trusted partner with which to collaborate”

Sandeep Kumar is a man on the move, continually expanding his horizons geographically, educationally and professionally. In his current role as Supply Chain Manager (SCM) for Linxon Saudi Arabia, he leads and organizes the Procurement team and activities at country level. He also believes in the success that comes from trusting and investing in people, whether that’s as colleagues, leaders, customers or partners.

“More than seven years have passed since I moved to Saudi Arabia, but I feel as if it were just yesterday,” says Riyadh-based Sandeep, who has spent nearly one-and-a-half decades working in the Middle East in total. Even if he concedes that time is flying, Sandeep considers it important to keep pace with the fast-changing trends in his core field, as well as to remain aware of how technology is advancing in other sectors. And beyond that, the culturally and heritage-rich country he lives in keeps him busy. “I’m certainly proud to be based in this part of the world,” he underlines. He arrived there from his hometown of Chennai in India, where he began his career. His first Middle East stop was Dubai, UAE, and a role at a substation EPC company. Seven years later, he made the switch to ABB in Saudi Arabia – where he held supply chain management and lead strategic sourcing manager roles – and then onto Linxon.

The value of learning and leadership

During his time at Linxon, he hasn’t rested on his laurels, holding two further global roles as Category Manager for Transformers and Cables and as Project SCM for Offshore Wind Projects. And outside of work, his roles as a husband and father of a young son also keep him moving!

It’s fitting, then, that his favorite motto to live by is from Seneca: “As long as you live, keep learning how to live.” This explains his passion for self-development and expanding his horizons – and this is also reflected in his educational growth, whereby he has added to his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering with an MBA and a PMP®(Project Management Professional) certification.

His journey doesn’t stop there. “This is one of the good things in Linxon: at every given opportunity I learn new things from my colleagues, teammates, functional heads, managers, business partners, suppliers and subcontractors associated with us,” he explains, adding that he has found himself in the fortunate position of working under good leaders throughout his career, including at Linxon.

“Today Linxon is well-positioned globally. This has come as a result of Linxon’s extensive investment in people, driven by strong leadership at global management and operations level,” he explains.

Building connections inside and outside the company

When it comes to Sandeep’s professional roles, he considers it important to align the procurement strategy with other functions and with the overall business goals. For example, he says, it’s key to harmonize with Sales & Operations to have the most competitive solution throughout the project lifecycle, to align with the Global SCM requirements and guidelines to ensure compliance with legal sourcing protocols, and to clarify any technical complexities with the Engineering experts in order to buy technically sound solutions.

Alongside supporting the value of collaboration inside Linxon, Sandeep believes in extending this to the supplier network. He explains: “With the effective processes and tools we have in place within Procurement, we want to position ourselves in the market as a trusted partner with which to collaborate. My focus will be to have a good pool of valuable sub-supplier and subcontractor partners downstream.”

And he continues: “We believe in trust and collaboration. It is this partnership model that we want to build in order to stay competitive and to differentiate our offering and the way we deliver our projects on time and on target.”

Meet the team

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Ahmed Alalawi

Head of Project Controls – Finance Global at Linxon

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Noor Rustam

Senior Logistics Specialist, Linxon in Bahrain

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Vinodkumar D

Engineering Group Manager, Indian Operation Center

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Kalpa V Murthy

HR Associate at Linxon HR Centre

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Muay’yad Ahmad Sbahi

Project Manager at Linxon in Jordan

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Sankaranarayanan Murugan

Senior Project Manager, Linxon UAE

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Sandeep Kumar

Supply Chain Manager at Linxon Saudi Arabia

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Luis Munoz

Director of EPC Projects

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Cilia Chong

Linxon’s Legal Counsel

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Amanpreet Singh

Proposal Manager for global offshore wind business

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Kshitish Raj

Legal Counsel, Asia Pacific Hub at Linxon India

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Saikat Kumar

Senior Project Manager at Linxon India

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Mohamed Talaat

HR Business Partner for the Middle East and Africa

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Luis Molina

Senior Project Coordinator, Linxon in Bahrain

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