Ayla Ziz was appointed as the Managing Director of the Levant & Iraq Business Unit starting April 1st, 2018. Ayla started her career in 1992 as a sales representative at Mars Inc. in France, ultimately moving into Marketing as Brand Manager for Whiskas cat food followed by Uncle Ben’s and Dolmio brands. Her stint at Mars Inc. Allowed her the opportunity of working in various sales and marketing appointments in China, UAE, Australia and France. She joined Colgate Palmolive in 1996 covering French and European marketing positions within Personal Care and House Surface Care divisions. She thereafter joined The Coca-Cola Company where she worked in various functions including Brand Marketing, Shopper & Channel Marketing, Corporate Communication, Packaging Innovation as well as the Global Sales based in Paris, New York and London. She joined Unilever in 2015 and where for the past three years she has headed up Global Business Development with Carrefour, Tesco, Ahold Delhaize and Metro, leading the global customer strategy, contract negotiations and key growth drivers across 42 key Unilever markets. Ayla holds a Masters in Business Administration from EM Lyon, France with a major in Sales and Marketing and a bachelor degree in Applied Mathematics from Dauphine University, Paris. She additionally has a Executive Leadership program from INSEAD Business school. Ayla sits on the Leadership Team of Unilever MENA and is a key note speaker at the CMO exchange forum, and also represents Unilever at the LEAD Network group (Leading Executives Advancing Diversity) and has participated int the MENA World Economic Forum MENA. Ayla was born in Damascus, Syria. She is based in Lebanon, Beirut while her husband and 3 children, Rafael (14), Gabrielle (11) and Mickael (9) are located in the UK.
She took part of "A Step Towards Equality", the first conference in Lebanon tackeling the Gender gap, by participating in Fight for Equal Pay Today pannel.
Who Run the World is a series of conversations that explores what it means to be a female leader working and living in the Arab world. Each episode of this podcast focuses on one woman’s story. Our guests share the challenges and victories of their journey, and how they navigate the complexity of the workplace. Whether they realise it or not, each of these women, in her own way, is a role model for young women and girls in the Middle East and beyond.