Garnet Arabia Company (GAC) General Manager Soni John celebrated10 years of service with GMA in November last year.
Soni relates on how he came to know about GMA Garnet 17 years ago and it sparked a journey that brought him from Doha, Qatar to Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
My journey began in 1998. My family and I moved to the Middle East from our homeland in India to begin my employment with a civil contracting and trading company in Doha.
I was working in Marketing & Sales for Industrial & Interior products and GMA Garnet abrasive was part of my product portfolio. The company was also the sole distributor for GMA in the state of Qatar.
Seven years later in 2005, Mr Torsten Ketelsen from GMA offered me an opportunity to join GMA Garnet Middle East as Sales Manager in Jebel Ali, Dubai.
During that time, Garnet Arabia Company (GAC) — a joint venture between GMA and Global Suhaimi Company (GSC) in Dammam, Saudi Arabia was established to meet the garnet abrasive demands of global oil producers, one of the companies being the largest in the world, in Saudi Arabia.
In 2007, I was offered the position of Business Development Manager with additional responsibilities of General Management at GAC and I would be required to move to Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
My family and I contemplated over the offer, giving careful consideration to the new adjustments to the culture and lifestyle of this new environment. For me, the shear challenge to tap into a huge market was too attractive to forgo.
Today, GMA is the leading garnet abrasive supplier in the Saudi region and I feel very proud to be a part of this achievement.
I like to thank my mentor Torsten for his invaluable guidance and the GMA and Global Suhaimi Management for the great support through the years.
To be with GMA all these years is like being with my own family. My motivations are and always will be to promote a unique product like GMA Garnet, venture into untapped markets and to be part of and enjoy a great family atmosphere at GMA.
Soni was promoted as GAC General Manager in 2009. The Group thanks Soni for his dedicated service and wishes him many more years with GMA.
By Stephanie Cheong, GMA Group
