International business solutions firm RWD Technologies expects to be involved in at least five countries in South America within a year, James Parish, executive VP of the company's Performance Solutions group, told BNamericas.
Last month, RWD's Houston-based energy division opened an office in Colombian capital Bogotá to serve Central and South America.
"Currently, our office in Bogotá has 14 Colombian employees who are all engineers and being trained in RWD methodologies. I would expect in a year from now this office will have at least doubled in size and have its own manager," Parish said.
"I also would expect us to be involved in at least five countries within South America and have expanded our activities from just to oil and gas into the petrochemical end of the business. Since we also support the power and utility industry, that could be another area of opportunity," he added.
According to the executive, new offices in the region would depend on the volume of business in a country.
"Once you get to a certain level of business, it's much more economical for everybody to have a local presence," Parish said.
Currently, 60% of RWD's business is in the US and the remainder overseas. The company is striving to expand outside the US and aims for a 50-50 mix.
"We see a lot of opportunities for the kind of human performance development that is our specialty, not just oil and gas, but also healthcare, financial services and other areas," he added.
To read the full interview with Parish, see this week's BNamericas' Oil & Gas Perspectives to be sent to subscribers on Friday.
