A traveller comes a-calling

ICE PEOPLE

Henry Gilchrist, Elcoteq Asia Ltd's director of business development and marketing, has lost count of the number of times he's visited India in the last few months. His hard work has finally paid off and Elcoteq Network Corporation, the ¤2 billion Finnish company has announced its plans to set up a manufacturing base in Bangalore.

Gilchrist claims that Elcoteq is the first major electronics manufacturing services company to start operations in India. With an initial manpower strength of 1,000, it is setting up a mobile handset manufacturing unit as well as a communications network equipment plant in the city.

Gilchrist says that though he will continue hand holding the project by flying to India frequently from his Hong Kong office, four expatriates will soon be appointed to spearhead the Indian operations.

And though it is too early to divulge who Elcoteq's major clients in India will be, the fact that it manufactures mobile handsets for brands like Nokia, Siemens and SonyEriccsson in other markets leaves little to the imagination.

Gilchrist, who worked for IBM in China for many years, joined Elcoteq a year ago and expects the India factory to start rolling out products in six to nine months.

An avid traveller, he complains that he has not been able to travel much in India except on work. In December, he plans to fly his family down and visit Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

"I love travelling and my most memorable journeys have been to Tibet and northern Vietnam," he says. He loves hiking too and has been up to the Everest base camp.

A Scotsman by origin who migrated to Australia, Gilchrist is a cricket buff but it's a passion he's unable to enjoy in China where soccer and basket ball are popular. When it is not cricket, it is scuba diving.

He goes on scuba diving holidays with his two children, aged 15 and 12, and loves "bursting bubbles together," he says.