Ali Wehbeh

Leading a team of revenue management professionals to steer revenue management across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe 'excluding Russia', focusing on high-value strategic projects to unlock incremental net revenue, expand profitability, and drive market share growth, & serving on MEA & Western/Center Europe Leadership Committees.

• Lead the development and implementation of revenue management programs focusing on optimizing strategic pricing, category price-pack architecture, gross-to-net, and commercial policy.
• Steer the strategic pricing agenda in collaboration with local leadership teams, considering factors such as brand price positioning, commodity inflation and currency fluctuations, and brand priorities and elasticities.
• Assess, steer, & optimize brand price-pack-architecture landscape for both the current & future product portfolio
• Assess, re-engineer, and optimize price-value chains across markets to enhance net pricing and expand margins.
• Empower business units by overseeing the deployment and adoption of gold-standard analytical tools, including trade promotion management software, ROI analytics, elasticity modeling, and more.
• Work closely with sales, marketing, finance, and supply chain teams to ensure alignment of revenue growth strategies.
• Establish standardized scorecards and metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of revenue management strategies and assess financial health.

Leading MENA commercial transformation programs by spearheading four verticals being: Strategic Business Planning (SBP), Revenue Management (RGM), Category Strategy & Operations, & 'OMNI Channel' Digital Transformation; reporting to MENA MD & serving on the MENA LT Committee.

• Designed and executed a two-year revenue management program encompassing 40 initiatives, spanning areas like direct pricing, price pack architecture, trade spend optimization, and commercial policy, which collectively unlocked $25M of price-led revenue growth.
• Developed and executed a Go-To-Market Strategy to profitably penetrate Discounters in Saudi, which involved the creation of a channel-specific portfolio & a comprehensive pricing strategy, which unlocked 52% growth with Discounters while expand gross margin by 1400 basis points.
• Successfully spearheaded and executed multiple cost-price increase & product down-count initiatives, safeguarding and enhancing margins despite significant input cost inflation in 2022 and 2023, resulting in a positive Profit Net of Commodity (PNOC) for two consecutive years.
• Re-engineered the price value chain in Gulf distributors-led markets, moving sales promotions away from temporary price reductions to on-invoice discounts, leading to a 300-basis points improvement in Gross Margin percentage.
• Orchestrated & deployed a cross-functional OMNI Channel enterprise strategy, consisting of four pillars: Commercial Excellence, Superior Content, Search Mastery, & Digital Integration, leading to record online market shares in KSA & UAE, outperforming offline, and over 30% online revenue growth in 2023 & 2024.
• Spearheaded category and shopper marketing programs, deploying category-channel strategies, crafting shopper-insight-based category stories, and enhancing point-of-sale execution through the 'Picture of Success' program. This led to KC being ranked #1 supplier in the Saudi Pharmacy Channel in the 2023 Advantage Group survey.
• Advanced commercial capabilities by institutionalizing gold-standard commercial tools and frameworks. These included the implementation of pre and post-promotion analytics to optimize trade spend investment, price elasticity models to refine pricing decisions, a 'white space monitor' to identify, prioritize, & commercialize white space opportunities, and others.

Managed a team of approximately 200 employees across Sales, Trade Marketing, Commercial Finance, Sales Support, and Supply Chain, reporting directly to the MENA Managing Director. Held full P&L responsibility, overseeing distribution, market share, and free cash flow.

• Transformation Program : Led a comprehensive transformation program that reignited growth, achieving a 14% CAGR from 2019 to 2022. This turnaround reversed a three-year decline and significantly expanded operating profit. The program included organizational resizing to fund brand-building initiatives, re-engineering the route to market for sharper channel focus, and a holistic overhaul of commercial capabilities.
• Market Share Achievements: Achieved record market shares in key categories: HUGGIES Diapers (+490 basis points), KOTEX Sanitary Pads (+450 basis points), and KLEENEX Facial Tissue (+250 basis points).
• Organizational Resizing: Restructured the Saudi commercial organization to reallocate resources for brand-building programs and achieve sufficiency in Advertising & Consumer Promotions (A&CP).
• Go-To-Market Strategy: Reorganized the sales force to expedite growth in winning channels, notably Pharmacy (50% of the addressable market), E-commerce, and Discounters.
• Route-to-Market Optimization: Streamlined cashvan operations within the small/large grocery channel by appointing a national reputable distributor, replacing several sub-distributors. This strategy expanded direct grocery coverage from 2,000 to 10,000 points of sale, improved productivity metrics, and resulted in a 4% net revenue growth at the total market level.
• Commercial Capability Enhancement: Realigned sales force incentive scheme KPIs with business strategy, emphasizing net pricing and product mix. Enhanced field sales force productivity by implementing a 'Sales Force Automation' (SFA) solution with Geo Fencing, real-time data collection, and order automation.
• Corporate Governance: Defined roles, responsibilities, and decision rights across functions. Enhanced internal collaboration, engagement, and execution discipline by establishing rigorous meeting cadences and protocols. Implemented stringent policies and procedures to harmonize cross-channel pricing, plan, authorize, and reconcile trade expenditures, and maintain high levels of business compliance and integrity.
• People & Culture: Inaugurated a new office to cultivate an inspiring working environment. Fostered a high-performance culture that recognizes achievements, encourages bias for action, and upholds organizational values, significantly improving retention and enhancing organizational health.
• Tactical Achievements: Overhauled legacy commercial contracts, resulting in a 7% reduction in rebate terms with one of the largest customers. Oversaw the relaunch of HUGGIES Diapers, leading to a significant increase in market share. Improved working capital by significantly reducing outstanding receivables to under 3% and enhancing sales forecast accuracy and mix.

Spearheaded the modern trade division comprising of top 9 Retailers, accounting to 40% of National revenue. Accountable for accelerating net sales & advancing market shares, through establishing strategic customer partnerships, overseeing commercial planning & sales operations, & implementing category strategies & shopper marketing initiatives

• Achieved a 15% 'CAGR' from 2015 to 2019, advanced market share positions, and elevated capability through embedding robust commercial frameworks 'Joint Business Planning, Key Account Management toolkit, Category Management Initiatives, & others'
• Oversaw best in class roll outs of strategic new product launches, including PURINA 'Petcare', DOLCE GUSTO 'Coffee Machines & Capsules', and Nescafe ARABIANA 'Instant Arabic Coffee'