British American Tobacco Bangladesh - Syed Mahbub Ali

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.