Chief Marketing Officer · Adelaide
Marketing that answers to the P&L.
Twenty years building brand architecture, go-to-market and pricing that moved revenue — across retail, FMCG, property and digital commerce in Australia, the Middle East and Europe.
FMCG portfolio turnaround, 14.5% → 26.5%
400-person GCC organisation, five years
Negotiated and closed personally
New brand launch, Australian retail
Selected work
Six mandates. Six numbers.
Each of these started as a commercial problem, not a marketing brief. Summarised at the level a board would want it — growth and margin, not impressions and reach.
14.5% → 26.5% in two years
Turning a commodity flour business into a consumer food company
Took a low-margin B2B commodity business inside a $272M listed food and beverage company and rebuilt it around consumer demand. Revenue grew 38%, from $80M to $110M in two years, while gross profit rose from 14.5% to 26.5% — growth and margin at the same time.
Launched four new categories — two B2B, two consumer — reaching 47,000 tonnes and 12% of total business, against nil in the company’s previous thirty-year history, at gross profit levels of 28–44%. Delivered $4M in cost savings through product mix management and reformulation, introduced a 20+ SKU consumer range, and rebranded the business under the “Live Healthy” platform.
400+ people, five markets
Running a five-country regional marketing organisation
Led a 400-person field marketing, merchandising and media organisation across the Gulf, driving 275% revenue growth over five years and securing contracts worth US$15M+.
Accounts included Samsung Gulf Electronics, Red Bull, P&G, Western Digital, Nestlé and Zain. Separately, negotiated master distribution rights across 27 countries spanning Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, and built the five-year business plan behind a multi-million-dollar FMCG pipeline.
US$1.25M on a US$70K budget
Launching an energy drink into a national convenience network
Launched a new energy drink brand to 130% growth and US$1.25M revenue on a US$70K budget — roughly an eighteen-fold return on spend.
Built category marketing strategy across an AUD 1.5B+ portfolio spanning food and beverage, fuel, car wash and telecommunications, and wrote the promotional playbooks used across 225+ stores.
+43% order volume
Relaunching a three-brand direct-to-consumer portfolio
Led brand and marketing strategy across Zileej, Salam Sisters and 5Pillars through a full website relaunch and campaign. Net sales rose 32% and order volume 43% over the campaign period.
Built the company’s first integrated marketing KPI framework — consolidating Shopify, Klaviyo, paid media and organic social into one weekly source of truth — plus a three-scenario revenue forecast, and led pricing and promotional strategy balancing growth against margin protection.
Closed and delivered
Taking a real-time location platform to government scale in Europe
Owned the full commercial and corporate remit for a Belgian technology company building ultra-wideband real-time location systems: strategy, sales planning, integrated marketing, branding and customer experience.
Closed, led and managed execution of a €140M+ government project, built enterprise partnerships with Samsung, Huawei and Daimler AG, and represented the company as its official speaker at GITEX and CeBIT.
100M+ annual footfall
Rebuilding two loyalty programmes for a national retail group
Ran the commercial, operational, marketing and financial modelling remit for the group’s loyalty programmes, and led the reconstruction of two: Al Hokair Food & Entertainment, the largest foodservice company in Saudi Arabia with 250 outlets, and Arabian Centres, the country’s largest mall developer with 19 malls, 4,000+ outlets and over 100 million annual visits — including 2,300 group-owned stores (1,500 in-mall and 800 standalone).
Built the commercial and financial case for a single group-wide coalition programme and secured board approval for enterprise-wide investment; the approved case projected US$500M+ in incremental retail sales and US$56.7M in profit impact. I relocated to Australia ahead of full rollout.
Further results
- +25%Grew Nestlé Middle East’s FoodService hot beverage business to 60% of divisional revenue in two and a half years, and grew its second-largest regional client 75% in fifteen months. Six product launches introduced to the region for the first time.
- 2×Doubled lead generation at lower cost per lead as CMO of REQ Refrigeration & Air Conditioning, integrating AI-powered IVR with CRM to lift engagement 35% and cut response time 40%.
- −50%Halved customer acquisition time across three of six verticals at AIMS Holding, a US$3B diversified group, by rebuilding sales collateral standards and devolving decision authority to sales teams.
- +35%Lifted conversions 35% and signups 33% for ResVu, a residential property technology platform, through data-driven customer acquisition.
Track record
Where the work was done.
Two different things, kept separate on purpose — organisations that have employed or engaged me, and third-party brands whose accounts and campaigns I have led.
Organisations I have worked for
In-house roles, interim executive mandates, and agencies and clients who have engaged me directly.
Brands whose work I have led
Third-party brands whose marketing, distribution, media or in-store activation I have directed on behalf of an employer, agency or client.
About
I run marketing as a commercial function, not a cost centre.
Twenty years across retail, FMCG, property, digital commerce and services — starting in brand management at Nestlé and Agthia, then senior in-house leadership in the Gulf and Europe, and commercial and executive mandates in Australia since 2019.
What that adds up to is a specific kind of usefulness: I am comfortable in ambiguous or transitional environments, I build the reporting that lets a marketing function prove its contribution, and I have run the pricing and loyalty decisions that most marketing leaders never touch.
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Australian citizen, based in Adelaide, working in English and Arabic. Guest lecturer on marketing strategy at the University of Adelaide, and Treasurer of Glimmer of Hope Inc since 2019.
Professional bodies
Capabilities
What I am brought in to fix.
Five things, done to executive standard. Everything else is delivered through a network of specialists I have worked with for years.
Commercial & growth strategy
Where the growth actually is, what to stop doing, and a plan that ties marketing spend to revenue and margin.
Brand architecture & go‑to‑market
How the portfolio is structured, what each brand is for, and how it reaches the market — so a group of brands stops competing with itself.
Pricing & margin architecture
Pack, price, promotion and portfolio decisions built on evidence and tested — not set by gut feel or last year’s list.
Loyalty & customer lifecycle
Loyalty propositions and CRM programmes designed around the economics of repeat purchase, from proposition through to board case.
MarTech & commercial reporting
Hands-on with Shopify, Klaviyo and HubSpot. The stack, the data and the KPI framework that let marketing prove its contribution.
Record
Three regions, five industries, twenty years.
Qualifications
- CIM Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Marketing
- Certified Practising Marketer (CPM), AMI
- Certified Digital Marketing Professional (CDMP), DMI
- Cert IV Training & Assessment
- Guest lecturer, University of Adelaide
- Board member & Treasurer, Glimmer of Hope Inc
References
What the people who worked with me say.
“What I valued most was that Ahmad brought method rather than opinion… Ahmad thinks like a commercial leader who happens to run marketing. He understands that good marketing ultimately needs to translate into customer value and commercial outcomes. I believe he would be a real asset in a CMO role.”
“Ahmad has assisted the Frontier Team create a sound Business Plan and Marketing Base, defining the focus for the Frontier Business in the coming years.”
“Ahmad is an astute business mind with exceptional marketing acumen… As a visionary leader, he has the ability to assess a situation in a holistic manner and still pay attention to intimate details.”
“Ahmad was my mentor throughout 2021 and guided me through ways to showcase my skills and experiences… Being able to put this advice into play resulted in a promotion.”
“…he developed a comprehensive marketing plan for the launch and commercialisation of the business. His extensive knowledge and experience in marketing, along with his passion to help the company succeed was evident across all of our interactions.”
Contact
Open to a permanent CMO seat, and to advisory work.
Based in Adelaide. Available interstate or internationally. Working in English and Arabic.
ahmad@geminisolutions.com.au · +61 432 700 230
linkedin.com/in/ahmadhaji