the definer Asal Jafarzadeh
Asal Jafarzadeh, COO at EMT Distribution is armed with 15 years of experience, out of which, 10 years have been in the IT field. Her interest in dealing with different people, companies and culture eventually led her to transition from finance to IT. Working with large IT companies in the region and continuous interaction with channel partners further cemented this decision. She says, “Our team needs to feel at home, one of my main aim is to make sure the most valuable component of our company remains happy and at the same time is efficient, on the other hand our channel partners need proper back-end to be able to provide support properly.” For Jafarzadeh, new challenges, new technologies, friendly work environment and innovation keeps her motivated and excited about work. Another source of motivation, is her husband, who has been a great role model, she says. Describing herself as determined and goal-oriented, she says the main challenge in the channel business today is credit and competition. “On one hand, partners expect us to be flexible and on the other, we need to be very careful about our operations too, so it is not an easy job to satisfy both parties,” she explains. She is very clear about how to be successful—define a goal and focus to achieve it. “Everyone can achieve their goals by focusing on what they want to do and by separating personal and career life,” she says.
The seeker Fadia Abi Ayad
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.”
march 2014
Reseller Middle East
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