David Eyles British born 1957 Resides in Basra

David Eyles, British, born 1957. Resides in Basra, Bahrain and Spain. Contact details, phone Iraq +964 7811627496, email eylesda@gmail. com Relevant years; 1978 to 1984 worked with Serck Services in the UK promoting and overseeing heat exchanger repairs for industry, maritime and construction.

1984 to 2001 worked with Saudi British JV Al Mutlaq Serck Services having been sent there to build the business during one on Saudis five year cycles of boom and bust. I was charged with running their Southern Saudi areas comprising of air bases, military bases and military hospitals. My role was primarily selling and overseeing boiler and heat exchanger repairs and replacements.

From 1988 to 1992 I was with Al Mutlaq, who had by then bought out their partner Serck Services, as manager of their Eastern Province operation in charge of the industrial division and 5 workshops. During the run up to the Gulf war I secured extremely lucrative Blanket Purchasing Agreements with the British and US military. I quickly identified a market in amour plating Oshkosh transport trucks for the US Army and painting APV’s and Land Rovers for the British army in Jubail. They arrived painted green and black. We literally made millions of dollars from the war which opened my eyes to the opportunities out here.

In 1993 started Specialist Welding Services with a silent local partner in Dammam. We built a large professional client base by supplying fabrication work carried out to international standards for design, execution and quality. Clients included Halliburton, Schlumberger, Weatherford, Baker Hughes and most of the other major service companies. The company is still a registered Saudi Aramco vendor for welding and fabrication services.

Having been in dispute over the Saudi company fabricating for the Iraqi market, Sunni working with Shia, in 2010 formed a partnership with BBSARAF, Lebanese, to operate a welding and fabrication workshop in North Rumailah. This was very successful, so much so that the job of purchasing of materials was given to one of their own! That’s when the rot set in though we still made a decent profit in spite of the increase in prices for raw materials. It came to an end when the country manager decided my Iraqi workshop foreman was more amenable than me regarding “profit distribution”.

From December 2012 to August 2014 I was with Al Battat as consultant / contractor running a pipeline project at Zubhair and Rafadiyah gas plants. I am also involved with Al Hujen where Daniel and myself are jointly responsible for new business and developing bids. One of my prime personal projects is developing a waste disposal business utilizing the Basrah land fill sites. Having found a suitable disposal method for waste chemicals, contaminated oil and solid waste, all meeting international standards for disposal, I am ready to begin marketing to the oil industries. This is my project and will leave with me. I am presently working on a separate project in Libya which calls only for investment and a few visits each year. My main strengths are tenacity and willpower to get on with the job until it is either finished or flogged to death. I am also always on the look out for new and different projects to make money from. I am resourceful and able to take advantage of local markets for purchasing, manpower, transport, dodgy officials etc. Basically I get things done.