Cassidian has appointed Peter Gutsmiedl as first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of its India operations. Based in Bengaluru, the heart of India's aerospace and defense industry, he will lead the next phase of Cassidian's engagement with India.

Before assuming this new position, Gutsmiedl gained 22 years of experience in various senior and Board level roles at Cassidian which is the security and defense company of EADS.

Commenting on the appointment, Bernd Wenzler, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of EADS DS India Ltd., said: “India is of utmost importance for us and we intend to create a long-lasting strategic partnership with this fast growing country. Appointing a top manager like Peter Gutsmiedl as first India CEO reflects our strong commitment to further deepen cooperation with this nation. His track record makes him the perfect choice to grow our business in close cooperation with Indian companies.”

Welcoming his new responsibility, Gutsmiedl stated: “I am looking forward to my new task of plugging India firmly into Cassidian's global value chain. We have started to establish a deep industrial footprint here in collaboration with public and private Indian entities such as HAL, DRDO, Larsen & Toubro and others. Cassidian's Engineering Centre in Bengaluru provides an excellent base, both for delivering tailor-made equipment to local customers and for supporting our global initiatives from India.”

Gutsmiedl has been instrumental in the success of Cassidian programs related to Eurofigher Typhoon, Tornado, F-18, F-4, A400M, AWACS, EuroHawk and several UAV programs. Before his move to India, he was Head of Engineering at Cassidian Air Systems. He also served as Head of Program Management for Strike Aircraft & Airborne Mission Systems. Peter Gutsmiedl holds a PhD in Physics from the Technical University of Munich. He is 54 years old, married and has two children.

In February 2011, Cassidian inaugurated India's first ever defense and security focused Engineering Centre owned by a foreign company. Located in Bengaluru, it is expected to grow to about 100 engineers by the end of this year. Cassidian is working closely with the DRDO on key defense projects including a consultancy agreement for India's LCA program and a system architecture design consultancy contract for India's Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) program.

In 2011, Cassidian announced the formation of a joint venture with India's leading engineering company Larsen & Toubro in the field of defense electronics.

On the homeland security front, Cassidian was awarded India's first major public safety TETRA network contract for Cyberabad by the Andhra Pradesh police. In 2009, Cassidian signed a contract to deploy a modern TETRA radio network to secure the Indian Parliament.