[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]Bombardier Aerospace announced today the appointment of Torbjorn (Toby) Karlsson as Vice President, Sales, Asia-Pacific, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. Reporting to Chet Fuller, Senior Vice President, Commercial, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, Mr. Karlsson heads the sales team that covers the entire Asia-Pacific region except China, Japan, and South Korea.

“As part of our mandate to expand our global reach and regional sales presence, we are pleased to welcome Mr. Karlsson as we look to increase our proximity to customers in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Mr. Fuller. "The placement of a local sales team in the region is a key strategic Commercial Aircraft business objective that will further open new markets for our optimized family of aircraft.

“The economic growth of this part of the world is expected to outpace the rest of the world over the next 20 years and Mr. Karlsson is ideally suited to lead our sales initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. We are confident that his extensive experience and leadership attributes will further position us to serve our customers successfully,” added Mr. Fuller.

With over 25 years of aviation experience and based in the Asia-Pacific region for the majority of that time, Mr. Karlsson was a Regional Managing Partner with Heidrick & Struggles Industrial Practice in the Asia-Pacific. Based in Singapore, Mr. Karlsson worked closely with many local airlines and aviation suppliers to place executives in a variety of airline-related assignments. Before this, Mr. Karlsson worked with Honeywell Aerospace as Vice President, Commercial Aerospace, Asia Pacific. Mr, Karlsson developed and nurtured Honeywell's network of OEMs, airlines and operators resulting in a two-fold growth of revenue as well as the improvement of the customer satisfaction scores.

Earlier roles which contributed to Mr. Karlsson's business acumen in the Asia-Pacific region include tenures as head of Business Development for Cathay Pacific Aircraft Trading Ltd (Hong Kong); Regional Director, Rockwell Collins (Singapore); Sales Director, SAAB Aircraft International, Hong Kong; and President of ET Aviation Thailand, based in Bangkok.

“I am thrilled and flattered to join Bombardier Commercial Aircraft's dynamic global sales team,” said Mr. Karlsson. “We have a superb range of technologically advanced products in the Q400 NextGen aircraft, the CRJ family of aircraft and the exciting all-new CSeries jetliner. With the emergence of these products in the Asia-Pacific region, I look forward to executing a solid business plan for global expansion, customer satisfaction and success.”

Born and raised in Sweden, Mr. Karlsson holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from European University, Jakarta, Indonesia and Brussels, Belgium. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Stockholm, Sweden; and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

Mr. Karlsson replaces Trung Ngo who was recently appointed to the position of Vice President, Commercial Operations, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. In this capacity, Mr. Ngo will lead a new department focused on sales strategies and on developing the tools and processes to help Bombardier Commercial Aircraft build skilled regionalized sales operations teams. Based in Toronto, Mr. Ngo continues to report directly to Mr. Fuller.