The story has been updated to clarify that Khowaiter has been appointed as an interim CEO.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — One of the longest serving chief executives in Saudi Defense will leave be leaving his post this year, Saudi Arabia's Advanced Electronics Co. (AEC) announced Tuesday.today.

In a statement, AEC Chairman Al-Sharif Nasser al-Mansour, said that the president and chief executive of the company, Dr. Ghassan Abdulrahman al-Shibl, said during told a recent board meeting that he did not wish to renew his contract with the company when it expires at the end of 2015 due to personal reasons. as his current contract expires at the end of 2015.

Khaled Khowaiter, senior vice president and chief financial officer of the company, has been assigned as interim-CEO.

Al-Shibl has worked with the electronics integrator for the last 25 years, spending 14 years in his role as Ppresident and CEO.

AEC is part of Saudi Arabia's offset regime, a company that helps foreign contractors fulfill local partnering and technology transfer obligations.

Most recently, AEC signed a memorandum of understanding with Raytheon for collaboration on the development of weapon systems, integrated sensors, civil aviation and cybersecurity. The two companies have worked together for two decades on the F-15 program in Saudi Arabia.

Furthermore, Lockheed Martin announced at the Dubai Airshow announced a $263 million contract to partnering with AEC to sustain Saudi Arabia's F-15 sensor suite.

Under the contract, Lockheed and will join with AEC to sustain the sensor suite on the Royal Saudi Air Force's F-15 fleet: Sniper advanced targeting pods, which provide air-to-ground and air-to-air targeting capability; LANTIRN extended range navigation pods; and infrared search and track (IRST) systems.

The company added in its statement that the board has requested and approved the appointment of al-Shibl as a part-time consultant to "support the company strategy implementation and further development of the company capabilities in the commercial and defense areas."

Khaled Khowaiter, senior vice president and chief financial officer of the company, has been assigned as CEO. Chief Executive Officer.

Email: amustafa@defensenews.com

Twitter: @awadz

Awad Mustafa was a Middle East and Africa correspondent for Defense News.

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