British American Tobacco Bangladesh - Leadership at BATB

In the 113-year history of BAT Bangladesh, Mr. Shehzad Munim is the first Bangladeshi to hold the position of managing director. He just finished his tenth year as managing director at the helm of BAT Bangladesh.

Mr. Munim was appointed to the Board of Directors of BAT Bangladesh in the year 2010.

In 1997, he started working for BAT Bangladesh as a territory officer, immediately after graduating from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka. He worked in a variety of marketing capacities within BAT Bangladesh as well as abroad.

Because of his exceptional work ethic and business acumen, he was seconded to BAT New Zealand as Group Brand Manager in 2003 and subsequently, he took over the role of Head of Brand Marketing at BAT New Zealand in 2005.

He took on the challenge of creating BAT Australasia's innovation process in 2006 as the Product and Packaging Innovations Manager. In 2007, he returned to Bangladesh as Head of Brand Marketing completing a successful four-year stint in New Zealand & Australia.

In 2010, he has assumed the challenging position of Area Head of Marketing, South Asia, positioned in Islamabad, Pakistan.

In 2013, he became the managing director of BAT Bangladesh. With his visionary leadership abilities to ensure sustainable value creation and to increase the company's contribution to the nation's economic development to achieve the SDGs, in line with the government's vision, he has made a significant contribution to swiftly propelling the organisation to new heights. From this time to now, the company's gross turnover has grown by more than 268% to reach forty thousand crores.

In keeping with his cutting-edge corporate leadership, BATB began exporting finished goods in 2018, which resulted in a notable increase in the company's revenues. This drastic step opens the door to new opportunities for the company. As a result, BATB expanded their manufacturing capacity in 2021 by constructing the Savar Factory in order to meet opportunities and demand on a worldwide scale.

He has been honoured by multiple awards for his remarkable performance over the years; one of them is the "CEO/MD of the Year Award" (for business revenue per annum over 1000 crore) at the first ever Bangladesh C-Suite Award, organised by Bangladesh Brand Forum.

In 2023, Ms. Nirala Nandini Singh became the Finance Director of BAT Bangladesh. She has been a financial specialist for more than 22 years and at a reputable international corporation, she has proven her capacity to produce commercial success.

In 2001, Ms. Singh began working with BAT as an internal auditor for the British American Tobacco Caribbean Area. She was given a promotion to Planning Analyst in the same area after two years in 2003, and two more years later, she was still in the same position but covering the Caribbean and Central America.

At The West Indian Tobacco Company Limited, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco, she was elevated to Financial Accountant in 2006 and Finance Controller in 2008.

She returned to her position as head of marketing finance at BAT, Central America and the Caribbean Area, in 2011.

In 2013, she came back to West Indian Tobacco Company Limited, based in Trinidad and was elevated to Finance Director. In her capacity, she oversaw the finance function for the BAT operations in Trinidad. She was also a member of the local board of directors.

In 2013, she got a promotion and transferred to BAT Vietnam as a finance controller. During her tenure there, she oversaw transparency and accountability in marketing decisions and investments. She was a driving force behind analysis and opportunity assessment for marketing investments since she was an integral part of the Finance Leadership and Marketing Leadership teams.

In 2015, she transferred to BAT Central America & the Caribbean, based in Costa Rica, as a finance controller. In her capacity, she managed financial results for Central America and Caribbean Business Unit and efficiently led the team that successful implemented SAP for 22 business entities.

In 2017, she became the Head of Record to Report, BAT Shared Services Europe, based in Romania. She oversaw Global shared services environment, leading a team of 250 people.

From 2020 to 2023, she oversaw the commercial strategy for more than 30 markets as Head of Commercial Finance for BAT Latin America and the Caribbean, which is based in Mexico.

Mr. Jorge Macedo Pavon has recently been appointed as the Head of Operations for BAT Bangladesh. He completed his masters in manufacturing (MDM) from EGADE-ITESM, Monterrey, México, and his bachelors in industrial and systems engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiors de Monterrey, México. He began working with BAT Mexico in 2003, and during the subsequent 20 years, he rose through the ranks to become a resilient business leader.

In 2003, he began working with BAT Mexico as a management trainee. During his two years in the position, he implemented over nine projects that led to significant cost reductions and process development.

He was elevated to the position of Manufacturing Supervisor for BAT Mexico's Primary and Secondary Manufacturing Departments in 2004.

In 2006, he was promoted to Transformation Manager. He led the Strategic Leadership Agenda journey, attained the first place to work within BAT, the third best place to work in Mexico ('07 GPTW) and implemented work-life balance and recognition initiatives while serving in this capacity.

For a brief while in 2007, he took on the role of SMD Production Manager, overseeing the accountability of domestic cigarette production and putting strategic plans into action. He had introduced self-directed work teams by this point.

In December of the same year, he began working as a Quality Assurance Manager and within six months, he took over and promoted to the role as Logistics Manager, Supply Chain, May 2008 and he held this position for two years.

After that he was assumed the position of Planning Manager, Supply Chain, in 2010.

In 2012, he was promoted to TaO AMR, Lead for Operations and Logistics Planning for America's region. During this time, he provided the Target Operating Model (TOM) and One SAP (ECC) for Logistics and Operations Planning, successfully endorsed the E2E Supply Chain Integration and SNO Costa Rica Planning Hub (project lead).

His appointment as Regional Planning Manager-SNO (BASS Americas-Costa Rica) occurred in 2016 and in 2017, he was promoted to Canada Head of Supply Chain (Imperial Tobacco Canada), where his duties included secondary supply chain operation and the synchronised supply chain deliverables.

He was elevated to SNO Head of Plan, ENA (BAT-UK) in 2019. Where, he was responsible for the Europe and North Africa Region's multi category supply network planning execution, ensuring product availability to enable commercial growth.

Mr. Sudesh Peter has assumed the position of Head of Legal at BAT Bangladesh in 2023. He started his journey with BAT in 2011 at Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC as the Corporate and Commercial Counsel and held a range of senior positions for a 12-year period before joining BAT Bangladesh. In 2014, he earned his Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Business with Information Technology and Intellectual Property from Cardiff Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom.

As an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, Mr. Peter commenced his legal career in the Law Chambers of Mr. K. Kanag-Isvaran, President’s Counsel and later became an in-house Counsel at F. J. & G. de Saram, Attorneys-at-Law, a leading commercial law firm in Sri Lanka. He oversaw contentious litigation and arbitration during his time there, specializing in business, commercial, banking, intellectual property and labour law. Notably, he represented Citibank in the Singapore Oil Hedging Arbitration with the Sri Lankan Government.

Mr. Peter joined Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC, Colombo, Sri Lanka, (CTC) as Corporate and Commercial Counsel in 2011. On account of his marked performance, within a span of a year, he was designated as Litigation Counsel in 2012, in which role he was successful in challenging the excessive graphic health warning regulations and reducing the size of the health warning on cigarette packs for the first time in the world.

In 2015, he was promoted as Regulatory Affairs Counsel in which role he managed External Relations, Regulatory and Fiscal Affairs. in 2017, he was recognized with the coveted Chairman’s Award for outstanding delivery in pricing and excise engagement.

In 2019, Mr. Peter was elevated to Director Legal & External Affairs and Company Secretary of CTC. As a member of CTC’s Leadership Team, he played an integral part in developing and advancing the organisation's strategic leadership agenda as well as extending people leadership to develop and transform key talent in the organization.

Mr. Jashim joined BAT Bangladesh in 2006 as a Territory Officer after completing his Bachelor of Business Administration from Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka. In 2008, he moved to the role of HR Executive, Industrial Relations & Welfare, and, since then, has performed a number of business partner roles across all functions of BAT Bangladesh. In 2013, he took over the role of Organisational Effectiveness Manager in BAT AsPac before taking over the role of HR Business Partner - Marketing in 2015. He eventually moved to the role of Senior HR Business Partner Operations & Corporate in 2016. He was appointed as the Head of Talent, Culture & Inclusion in February 2019.

Mr. Syed Mahbub Ali began his career with BAT Bangladesh on October 2000 and over the course of more than 22 years, he worked both domestically and abroad within BAT. He has extensive experience in all facets of marketing, including trade marketing, business & brand portfolio strategy development, activation, marketing planning, route to market strategy development, total customer investment, P&T, and project management. Currently, he serves as the Head of Marketing of BAT Bangladesh. Before taking this role, he served as Commercial and Business Transformation Director at BAT Japan, one of the largest new category markets in the BAT APMEA region.

He started off as a Territory Officer for BAT Bangladesh. Over the years, he had several positions in trade and brand marketing. In 2009, he oversaw the first-ever successful milestone entry into the sub-value segment as Brand Manager (Domestic Value for Money Brands), reclaiming BAT Bangladesh's market leadership.

He was seconded to BAT Vietnam as RTM Project Manager in 2013 following years of consistent performance in several roles within BAT Bangladesh. In the middle of 2014, he relocated to Bangladesh as Group Brand Manager. Under his direction, BAT Bangladesh's low segment volume increased during this time, and JPGL Switch became the first successful new variant launch in the AP consideration area. By employing effective communication to foster knowledge, acceptance, and compliance, he played a crucial role in ensuring that Bangladesh's transition to a 50% graphic health warning proceeded well. He also served as chair of the BAT Bangladesh gender diversity platform "Symmetry" for two years at this time.

He was named the Head of Trade of BAT Bangladesh, the largest Trade team in the BAT group, in the middle of 2016. Later, in January 2020, he was appointed Head of Trade and Planning and joined the BAT Bangladesh Leadership Team. He contributed to the creation of the new SLA and the establishment of a clear priority for the organization during COVID as a member of the BD leadership team.

During the pandemic, he compassionately handled a large workforce and made sure that vital business deliveries were made, which was crucial to the growth of the business. Along with automating the trading systems, he also worked with DBS teams to develop highly affordable solutions that were quite helpful during the pandemic. Additionally, he promoted ground-breaking trade solutions including microcredit for retail and the B2B2C model to advance trade loyalty systems.

Mr. Numayer Alam, head of Commercial of BAT Bangladesh, has over 20 years of working experience in BAT with around 6 years of leadership role experience in Marketing & Sales of Bangladesh & East Asia Area (Vietnam, Cambodia) Business.

Back in 2004, Mr. Alam started his journey with BAT Bangladesh as a Territory Officer. In 2006, after two years of strong performance, he was first elevated to the position of Area Manager and subsequently moved to the role of Channel Development Executive in 2007.

Following a successful three-year stint in this capacity, he was promoted in a cross functional position of Enterprise Programme Manager (PMO) in 2010 where he closely worked with the Leadership Team in shaping organizational leadership agenda, and two years afterwards, he was promoted and assigned in a Global Project Deployment Role as the Project Manager – Bangladesh for the TAO (Target Operating Model and OneSAP) programme in 2012.

The most challenging years of his career were from 2014 to 2016, when he held three very distinct senior & important positions in quick succession. After completing the global project role, he came back to Marketing function and took over the role of Regional Manager of Dhaka in 2014 where he led the biggest business nationally and then moved to Strategy, Planning & Insights Manager in 2015. Based on his strong commercial and leadership strengths, he was elevated to the role of Head of Strategy, Planning & Insights in 2016 where he actively worked in long term business simulations and strategies.

His unwavering work ethic, leadership inclusivity and commercial acumen created a great opportunity for him to embark on a new journey as Head of Trade Marketing at BAT EAA (Vietnam & Cambodia) in 2017 and later took over the role of Head of Brands also. Under his leadership, the Vietnam business has witnessed strong volume, share and turnover growth which was driven by key strategic works around route to market, trade activations, portfolio enhancement and talent development.

In 2022, he returned from Vietnam and joined the BAT Bangladesh Leadership Team and currently serving as Head of Commercial. For his outstanding performance in the field of trade marketing, he was awarded ‘Sales Director of the Year’ by the Bangladesh C-Suite Awards 2023.

Mr. Sarzil Sarwar joined BAT Bangladesh as Head of Information & Digital Technology (IDT) in January 2020.

Prior to joining BAT Bangladesh, he was the Group Head of Technology Programme and Performance Management at Axiata Group Berhad.

During his tenure at Axiata Group Berhad, Mr. Sarwar served in several management roles in Robi Axiata since 2012, overseeing various functions. He was also the Chairman of the Business Operations Committee for the past 2 years. He played a key role in transforming the company into a digital player.

Besides Axiata Berhad, Mr. Sarwar has also served other leading telecom companies such as Ooredoo, Airtel and Veon in various IT, B2B & Strategy functions across the Middle East, Africa and South Asian markets. He started his career with Telvista, a leading ICT company in the USA.

Mr. Sarwar completed his Executive MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology and his Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas, and he has completed several leadership programmes with INSEAD & IMD Business School.