MASA Opens New Office in Brazil

After more than five years of successful operations in Brazil, Colombia and Peru, MASA Group has opened a subsidiary company in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, consolidating its position in South America and increasing its customer outreach.

The new company, MASA do Brasil, which is fully operational, will employ local resources to closely support customers in the region, most of all the Brazilian Army, and to further develop business in the defense and public safety markets.

In April, the Secretaria do Estado da Defesa Civil - Santa Catarina (Santa Catarina state's Civil Defence Office) and Defesa Civil - Blumenau Brazil, trialled MASA's public safety simulations. The Defesa Civil used MASA SYNERGY to conduct crisis scenario training in Blumenau, Santa Catarina. The constructive simulation, dedicated to public safety and security training, was used to successfully perform a six-day crisis scenario in just nine hours involving over 15 city agencies.

Marco Blasich, responsible for North and South American markets at MASA and the new manager of MASA do Brasil, was closely involved with the opening of the new office and the exercise. He commented that, "MASA has built a positive relationship with Brazilian forces over the last few years. As this relationship continues to grow, opening an office here was a logical decision. While we have worked successfully with the Army, we also realized that we could help on the civil side as well. We already have clients in other countries using SYNERGY to help prepare for civil emergencies effectively. Brazil is such an expansive country, with so many different environments and regions, that we wanted to give them access to training tools which can help in all these diverse environments."