J PETER OBEYSEKERE

Peter Obeysekere has over 30 year’s management experience in the international aerospace industry. He has held senior management and Vice President Functions at British Aerospace (in the UK), Fokker Aircraft (Royal Netherlands Aerospace Industries) – Holland and Embraer Aircraft –USA/Brazil.

He has worked extensively at senior management level with both the global multi-nationals in aircraft manufacturing and with the end user airlines of the developed and developing worlds.

Over the past thirty years he has lived and worked in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, USA, Brazil, Australia, Mainland China, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

After graduating in the UK in 1978, he joined British Aerospace-UK for the launch of the civil BAe 146 jet program. As an Airline Analyst for BAe, he was responsible for the market development both in Europe and the USA. In 1980 he was seconded to the USA operation of BAe where he was instrumental in the initial sales of this jet aircraft program. He focused on airline fleet planning, performance analysis and marketing.

In 1982, he was invited to join Fokker Aircraft in Holland. From 1982 to 1987 he was the head of Jet Aircraft Technical Marketing. In this capacity he was partly responsible for the development of the new Fokker 100 aircraft and the successful sale of this aircraft to Swissair and US Airways. In 1988, he was seconded as an aerospace financing executive to Rolls-Royce & Partners Finance in the UK, which a joint venture aircraft financing company was owned by Rolls-Royce Aero Engines, Fokker Aircraft, Mitsubishi and NatWest Aerospace Banks. In this capacity he participated in many aerospace industry-financing projects and also gained experience in asset based financing. During this period he also worked on his PhD with Cranfield University – UK, with the focus on Japanese capital markets and the capital funding of the aviation industry.

In 1990, Peter Obeysekere returned to Fokker Aircraft in Holland as Director of Market Research for Asia Pacific. In this function he gained considerable experience of the airline markets in mainland China, Asia and Australia. Under his leadership the department developed IT based forecasting techniques for analyzing demand and economic criteria for aerospace products in the Asia Pacific region. In 1992, he was appointed Regional Director of Fokker Aircraft for Asia Pacific and managed multi-disciplinary teams of Fokker professionals involving the disciplines of engineering, finance, technology, product support and contracts.

In 1996, Peter Obeysekere joined Embraer Aircraft of Brazil as Vice President for Asia Pacific. He was initially based at the Embraer Worldwide Marketing & Sales Headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. In 1997, he was responsible for opening the first Embraer Asia Pacific regional centre in Melbourne, Australia.

During 1999-2001 he spent the majority of his time in mainland China, opening that market for Embraer. Under his leadership, in May 2000 the first Embraer regional office and support center for mainland China was opened in Beijing. He worked extensively with the Chinese Airlines and the Chinese Government Aircraft Manufacturing Agency – AVIC

In October 2000 he was involved in setting up the Embraer Aircraft Asia Pacific commercial headquaters in Singapore. This Corporate Head Office had responsibility for the entire commercial airline markets covering SAARC, ASEAN, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Australasia and the South Pacific.

In 2002, Peter Obeysekere joined the Aviation Consulting Group in the UK as Senior Partner. ACG-UK Ltd is a full member of Aerospace Wales Forum. He now focuses his time principally on the European & Asia Pacific Markets. With his vast Aerospace Industry background and key connections worldwide he now leads projects in the following areas:

Airline & Aircraft Industry – strategic consultancy projects and new airline start ups.
Airline & Aircraft Industry – management development and training programs
Aircraft Manufacturers – new aircraft market development.
Airports – forecasting, benchmarking, market development and management training programs
Technology – facilitation of aerospace technology focusing on the development of aero technology parks, military and industrial offset manufacturing projects and benchmarking commercial incentives
Industry – facilitation of industry conferences and networking seminars for the different segments of the international aerospace industry. Developing overseas business for UK/EU & Asia Pacific based aviation companies.
He is also a visiting lecturer at the Air Transport Management Faculty of the Cranfield University, UK. He is also an advisor to numerous aviation companies, airports, airlines, aircraft leasing companies and government agencies worldwide and is a regular speaker at major international conferences relating to the different segments of the aviation industry.

He is a European Union Citizen and fluent in English, Dutch, French and some Asian Dialects.

Peter Obeysekere was trained in Aeronautical Engineering by Hawker Siddeley Aviation in the UK. He has a BSc (Honours) Degree in Computer Sciences & Business Administration from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. His MSc in Air Transport Management is from the Cranfield University, UK.