Food and beverage manufacturing firms GFI and IBFI taps seasoned F&B industry specialists to form new leadership team

Food and beverage manufacturing firms Global Food Industries (GFI) and International Beverage and Filling Industries (IBFI) have taken a bold step in driving forward its business to a whole new level of growth by appointing a new leadership team comprising F&B industry experts.

GFI is the manufacturer of well-known frozen food brands Al Areesh and Arctic Gold, as well as snacking brands such as Glen’da and Amara. On the other hand, IBFI produces the widely popular Star carbonated beverages and juices.

Ahmed Bayoumi, whose three-decade long professional career includes having held key management leadership positions under brands such as Procter&Gamble, PepsiCo, Mars and Americana, has been appointed CEO of GFI and IBFI. 

Since taking on the role in February 2020, Bayoumi, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the American University in Cairo and a Master’s degree also in Economics from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, will be mainly responsible in turning into reality Sharjah-based GFI and IBFI’s aspirations to double up its business in the next five years and lead its new management team into working together towards achieving such goal.

“GFI and IBFI are part of the Albatha group, a major business conglomerate in the UAE, with over 32 operating units,” Bayoumi said. “As leaders in the pharmaceutical, medical equipment and automotive sectors in the region, with brands such as Pfizer, Johnson&Johnson, BMW, Rolls Royce and MINI under its wings, Albatha aims to turn its food and beverage portfolio into a major player in the UAE and beyond.

“I totally believe in this vision and have signed on to it,” Bayoumi added. “As the food industry showed its resilience throughout the difficult and challenging period of the COVID-19 pandemic, this has also revealed how important the food business is to Albatha. With a new team of experienced specialists leading BFI and IBFI’s key departments, who all possess a renewed vigor of taking on new challenges and opportunities brought about by the resumption of local, regional and global economic activity, there is an even greater passion to double GFI and IBFI’s business over the next five years and make Albatha a leading player across the food supply chain.”

Joining Bayoumi in steering the GFI and IBFI brands to greater heights are Fawad Hayee as Chief Financial Officer; Haytham El Bendary as Sales Director; Tina Siegismund as Head of Marketing and Innovations (Frozen); Mahmoud Fouda as Head of Supply Chain; Parvin Banu as Head of Quality; Hasan Rashed as Head of HR & Administration; and Mustafa Saeed as Head of Marketing and Innovations (Beverages & Snacking).

Fawad Hayee is a Chartered Accountant and graduate of Accounting and Finance from the University of Manchester. Fawad joined GFI and IBFI in August 2020 as Chief Financial Officer after holding key financial management roles with brands such as KPMG, EY, and Omnicom Media Group in the UK and Dubai.

Haytham El Bendary has held managerial positions for more than 25 years in corporates and multinationals like The Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Kraft Foods International, and PepsiCo, as well as MenaBev and Masafi. An Adjunct Professor in Marketing, a Master’s degree holder in Research Methodology and Quantitative Methods and a PhD candidate in Business Analytics at the IE Business School, as well as an Executive MBA degree holder from the Brown University – School of Professional Studies, Haytham has joined GFI and IBFI in June 2020 as Group Sales Director.

Tina Siegismund has 18 years of professional experience in FMCG, 17 years in the UAE and 10 years with Brasil Foods (BRF) holding various marketing roles across the region and locally. With an MBA from the University of Oxford, a BA in Marketing from the Accadis University of Applied Sciences, Bad Homburg, Germany, and a BSc in Marketing from the Florida Atlantic University, Tina has joined GFI and IBFI in May 2020 as Head of Marketing and Innovations of GFI’s frozen products division.

Mahmoud Fouda has 25 years of experience in managing various aspects of Supply Chain Management, including sourcing, planning, logistics and warehousing. Having held key managerial positions in supply chain management for various brands such as Savola Foods, PepsiCo, Unilever and Procter&Gamble, Mahmoud has joined GFI and IBFI in July 2020 as Head of Supply Chain.

Parvin Banu is a biotechnologist by education with extensive experience in the food manufacturing industry having joined Al Islami back in 2002, holding various managerial positions that ensured Quality. Parvin has since joined GFI and IBFI in the middle of 2017 as Head of Quality.

Hasan Rashed is a quality, financial and HR management systems expert who first joined the Albatha Group under the Gulf International brand back in 2004. Throughout the group’s expansion into the food industry, Hasan then moved to become the Head of HR & Administration for the GFI and IBFI brands in 2017.

Mustafa Saeed holds an MBA with major in Marketing and had previously led marketing and branding strategy for brands such as Kraft, Tang and Tetly in Pakistan, and IFFCO (Igloo Ice Cream) in the UAE. Mustafa, who first joined GFI as Marketing Manager for the snacking division back in 2011 and then as Marketing Manager for IBFI in 2017, now assumes the role as Head of Marketing and Innovations for all the snacking and beverages brands under GFI and IBFI.

© Press Release 2021