Payam Behnam

Engaged to guide the established, premium fragrance, cosmetic and personal care business in new market expansion into Central Asia and Eastern Europe, providing valuable insights on product demand for new regions in alignment with market dynamics and regional preferences. To date, I have led the successful entry into two emerging markets, selecting the right distributor partners, recommending go-to-market strategy, and established robust processes and KPIs to safeguard continued profitable growth.

Applying my skill set to a start-up, I have played a key role in driving the commercialization of a disruptive sports health offering with unique value to both government and consumers. Taking the role of an MD, I have driven stakeholder engagement including educating schools on the benefits associated with Sportify programs, established the first assessment facility, a dedicated gym and assessment center located in Dubai, and secured key collaborations with the Dubai Sports Council and UAE Olympic Committee, along with major corporate partners. This has given me invaluable entrepreneurial skills and leadership agility in responding to all aspects of a start-up business, including working with limited resources to drive maximum return. Sportify Academy is a cutting-edge technology and data company focused on sports wellbeing. Their services include sports talent identification for children (covering 55 sports disciplines), physical fitness, assessment for professional athletes (across 53 sports disciplines) and posture analysis.

An urgent turnaround role, I was appointed to recover the company’s position as the country’s leading edible oils provider and return the bakery business, facing considerable distress, to growth. Leading a large team of 700+ to deliver a significant P&L, I successfully turned around and expanded sales and market share of the edible oil business by 6% and led a comprehensive GTM transformation of the bakery business, driving 4x growth in the first six months.

Tasked with leading several relaunch programs in emerging markets, while maximizing opportunities across the remainder of the territory. My efforts contributed 30% of overall business growth in the MEA in my first 2 years. I played a key role in rolling out the parent group Berkshire Hathaway’s global strategy to the region and developed and trained our distributor team on brand and tactics while ensuring incentive programs aligned with defined KPIs. I also increased Central Asia market share by 5 points while reducing promotional budget 50%, reviewing entire GTM to cut spend in inefficient wholesale channel and reinvesting funds in in-store POS/shopper engagement. I led the relaunch of Duracell into Iran and Pakistan and boosted sales in existing market Iraq by 20% YoY for three straight years.

Held responsibility for unified oral care brands category management for CEEMEA region and setting go-to-market strategy across central European countries I successfully delivered 8% sales growth through innovative pricing, sizing, and shelving strategy, engineered million-dollar savings through multifactor analysis and category optimization in the top 10 markets, and grew customer category profit by 3% through leadership of the Tesco centralization program in Central and Eastern Europe.

Responsible for driving commercial strategy for the most important emerging markets (Iran, Afghanistan and other emerging markets) to maximize market size, profitability and growth potential. During this time, I focused on expanding and improving our distributor base and localizing strategies to market nuances, resulting in achieving the highest value share and market share worldwide for Gillette (64%, 90%) and Oral-B (56%, 64%). I also placed Braun amongst the top 10 countries in the world and increased the direct coverage from 25,000 stores to 60,000 stores in one year.

Responsible for identification of market opportunities, distribution expansion and global GTM development for new product launches for Gillette, Oral-B, Braun and Duracell. For three consecutive years, I exceeded profit targets by 10% and delivered record 20%+ sales growth through best-in-class launches with limited ATL investment, with an example doubling the sales increase over 4 years following the 2004 Duracell re-launch.

IMD is an independent business school, with Swiss roots and global reach, expert in developing leaders and transforming organizations to create ongoing impact. In the TOP 3 worldwide for 7 years in a row (2012-2018) Financial Times. No. 1 outside the US (2017) Forbes. No. 1 in Europe (2018) Bloomberg Businessweek

PED - Personal Executive Development, Business Administration and Management The class is individually put together through a selection process to ensure that you experience the most impactful learning with a truly diverse group of global peers. The class will become a trusted resource, encourage your learning journey and surprise you in many unanticipated beneficial ways both during and beyond your classroom experience.

Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university with a distinctive, experience-driven approach to education and discovery. The university is a leader in experiential learning, powered by the world’s most far-reaching cooperative education program.