SmartCity Malta's COO

Chris Cole has been appointed chief operating officer (COO) of SmartCity Malta. His responsibilities include the establishment of the necessary business infrastructure and the development of relationships with key stakeholders, including the government, local and international business organisations, local communities and educational organisations.

Mr Cole was previously chief human capital officer for Tecom Investments. Prior to joining Tecom, he was regional HR director for LogicaCMG, the UK-based IT systems integration company.

"I will be moving to Malta this month, where I will be involved with one of the most exciting projects ever on the Island," he said.

"I am honoured to be a part of the project that will enable Malta to become a leading centre of knowledge-based industries in the region and which will help to create thousands of new jobs," he added.

The announcement was made after a board meeting in Dubai to discuss project updates and the roadmap for the future.

The meeting was attended by Deepak Padmanabhan, chairman of the board and CEO of Emirates International Telecommunications; Fareed Abdulrahman, executive director of SmartCity; Claudio Grech, head of the minister's secretariat at the Ministry for Investment, Industry and Information Technology; and Falah Al Salman, senior director, Project Management, Sama Dubai.

The meeting also discussed the broad strategic outline for the development of SmartCity Malta and the master plan for the project.

"The board members expressed their confidence in the progress of the implementation of the project," Mr Abdulrahman said. "The meeting gave SmartCity an opportunity to explore how we can leverage even greater synergies between the government of Malta and our other partners, Tecom Investments and Sama Dubai, to help us achieve our aspirations for SmartCity Malta."