Altair Opens Offices in Greece, Israel

TROY, MI, Nov 11 - Altair announced the opening of two new offices, Altair Hellenic in Thessaloniki, Greece, and Altair Israel in Tel Aviv, Israel. The offices, which serve notable customers in the region including Hellenic Aerospace, EADE, Rafael, and Plasan, target manufacturers that can benefit from Altair's HyperWorks suite of computer-aided engineering tools, in-house product design services, and cutting-edge business analytics technology.

These locations will provide customers in Greece, Germany, Israel, Italy, and Turkey with multi-disciplinary computer-aided engineering (CAE) support for extrusion, stamping, forging, resin transfer molding (RTM), and crash simulations. In addition, Altair Hellenic will spearhead consulting and customer support services throughout southeastern Europe. Altair Hellenic is led by Lazaros Tsioraklidis, formerly CTO of InterFEA Engineering, longtime reseller of Altair software and services in Greece. Altair Israel is led by Sergi Chanukaev.

"Our offices in Greece and Israel will be very significant for Altair's growth," said Altair Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James Scapa. "The Hellenic region is particularly strong in the use of modeling and visualization tools, with a concentration of highly skilled talent. The Israeli region is a leader in the use of solvers, especially with respect to high-velocity impact and crash. Lazaros has built a magnificent consulting operation, and his group adds depth to Altair’s strength and domain expertise. Sergi will leverage the many promising high-tech start-up companies and academic research institutes in Israel to benefit Altair globally."

In addition to serving major European clients, both Altair Hellenic and Altair Israel will maintain a focus on strategic software development in conjunction with leading universities and outside partners.

"I consider it very fortunate to have a company like Altair in Thessaloniki. This creates excellent opportunities for direct cooperation between several of our engineering laboratories and Altair on challenging technical projects and research areas of common interest. It also provides an additional incentive to our students to work harder and become more competent in order to get a job in one of the top engineering companies in the world," said Professor Sotirios Natsiavas, Director of the Machine Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

"The uncertainty of the Greek economy has led many students to move to other countries to find a job," observed Lazaros Tsioraklidis. "In this environment, it is the right time for a very stable company like Altair to begin offering career opportunities to local talent, including the excellent pool of engineering students and other very skilled engineers in and around Thessaloniki."

Altair has 20 other offices in Europe, including France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the U.K., and Ireland. Sales of Altair software products to firms in Greece will continue to be handled through Altair offices in Italy and Germany. The Thessaloniki office is specifically focused on providing software development, benchmarking services, and engineering project support to European businesses. The Tel Aviv office will focus on defense applications providing guidance and support based on the accumulated expertise in this field. It will also broaden Altair’s search for new technological developments.

Businesses, software developers, and others who are interested in collaborating with Altair’s new offices should contact Altair Hellenic at Hellenic@europe.altair.com and Altair Israel at Israel@europe.altair.com.

About Altair

Altair empowers client innovation and decision-making through technology that optimizes the analysis, management and visualization of business and engineering information. Privately held, with 2,000 employees, Altair has offices throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific. With a 28-year track record for high-end software for engineering and computing, enterprise analytics solutions, and innovative product design and development, Altair consistently delivers a competitive advantage to customers in a broad range of industries. For more information, visit www.altair.com.