Air Miles strengthens executive team

These changes will see the areas of responsibility of several members of the Air Miles Senior Team being redefined, as well as the creation of new roles, in order to position the business for continued growth as the Loyalty Management Industry develops within the region.

"It's now more important than ever for brands across all sectors to maintain and even enhance the customer value proposition. Retail Coalition Loyalty is an extremely cost effective and customer focused way to achieve this, allowing retailers to retain their existing customers and maintain profitable relationships with them, through knowing and understanding customer needs," said Dave Battiston, CEO, Air Miles.

"In response to this global trend, we have realigned our Middle East Executive Team to ensure that we can continue to provide excellent levels of support to our Business Partners in the region," he added.

Accordingly, one of the company's top management executives, Awny Ahmed, who has been with Air Miles since it's Middle East launch in 2001, has now taken over the position of Head of Commercial, a newly created position. Awny will be fully responsible for the acquisition of new partners, overall management and support of Air Miles' existing partners and rewards suppliers. He will also be responsible for managing Air Miles' regional businesses across Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Oman.

Previously, Awny played a key role in acquiring new businesses for Air Miles. He was responsible for the launch of the Air Miles programme in Bahrain as well as the launch of My Rewards Points, a stand alone loyalty programme for HSBC, in Egypt, Oman, Jordan and Lebanon.

"Awny possesses a unique blend of experience that will enable him to provide valuable insight into the dynamics of managing multi divisions. His expertise combined with proven competence makes us confident he will continue to achieve great things in his new role," said Battiston.

To deliver on this, Awny has assembled a strong and diverse leadership team including Jacque Le Roux, Yousef Al Sawalhi and Fazil Nazir, to ensure Air Miles continue to provide excellent service to its partners.

Jacque Le Roux has been promoted to Manager, Client Relations (with a primary focus of working with existing participants), Yousef Al Sawalhi as Manager, New Business (focusing on the expansion of the Air Miles retail programme), and Fazil Nazir as Manager, Incentives (focusing on the expansion of the Air Miles Incentives programme).

Regionally, Awny will be supported by Murtadha Qambar, who has been promoted to Country Manager Bahrain and Ashraf Sharqawi, Country Manager Qatar.

In addition, Air Miles will have on-the-ground support from Paul Lacey, International Programme Director from Groupe Aeroplan (the owner of Rewards Management Middle East, which operates Air Miles).

"Paul currently responsible for Frequent Flyer Programme development for Groupe Aeroplan, is a global expert in the frequent flyer and travel loyalty business. With his guidance, we are looking to extend our expertise, penetrate new fields and strengthen ongoing partnership development in the region," Battiston said.

Within the Middle East region, retailers taking part in the Air Miles coalition loyalty programme benefit from having access to the Middle East's largest, most active customer database of over 1.5 million members in the UAE. These retailers strongly believe in the power of database and loyalty marketing as a retention & acquisition tool and see the benefits of its implementation.

"With our extensive region wide coverage, global expertise, and refined internal structure we are well positioned to ensure our business partners achieve continued growth during the year ahead," Battiston concluded.