THE SEEKER
A results-driven person, Fadia Abi Ayad, Regional Distribution Manager, Middle East, Dell began her tryst with IT in 1999, when local distributor, Aptec-Ingram Micro, appointed her as sales manager in French-speaking Africa. In this role, she was exposed to the distribution and channel business.
Then in 2004, she decided to get on the other side and joined Acer where she was responsible for various regional sales roles in Africa, focusing on channel sales, marketing and programmes.
Four years later, she joined Dell Middle East as Channel Marketing Manager in 2008, where she was given the responsibility to build the structure of the channel for the consumer and commercial business. “In this role, I had the opportunity to use the knowledge I had acquired from my previous experience to build the foundation of Dell’s value proposition to the channel,” she adds. With the vendor, she worked on recruiting, enabling and incentivising the channel.
This led to her promotion to her current role in 2010, where she manages the company’s commercial distribution business in the Middle East. Ayad strongly believes that her greatest strengths are resilience and positive attitude, “which is an asset when driving business and sales,” she says.
Advising young aspirants, she explains, “Knowledge of today will not be enough to be successful tomorrow; you always need to be thirsty and challenging yourself to learn more and to stay relevant. Stay true to yourself, and if you are authentic people will remember you.”
