Prior to Souq and Amazon, Ghobrial led business development for Prodea Systems with leading telecommunication companies in the MENA region, Asia and Africa.
Music streaming company Anghami has appointed ex-Amazon director of marketplace expansion and former chief commercial officer of Souq.com Mary Ghobrial as its new chief operating and strategy officer.
Ghobrial has more than 25 years of experience in building brands. Throughout her career, she has developed many new products within various sectors, such as fast-moving consumer goods, entertainment and online shopping.
Elie Habib, CTO and Co-founder of Anghami, said: “As Anghami prepares for listing on NASDAQ in Q4 2021, we are happy to raise the bar with a hire like Ghobrial who will help us to scale and will bring many of the Amazon leadership skills. What is unique about her is that she also has the experience of a startup like Souq while being an extremely creative tech leader.”
In her role at Amazon, Ghobrial led initiatives that enabled global selling partners to sell across the Middle East and North Africa and empowered local entrepreneurs to sell globally.
During her time with Souq.com, Ghobrial built up the regional retail company across many categories, including advertising sales, peak events and brand marketing. She was also instrumental in creating many of the events Souq.com became synonymous with in the region, including “White Friday” and “Singles Day.”
In 2017, Amazon acquired Souq.com in a landmark acquisition. At the time, Souq.com was present in three countries, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Egypt.
Prior to Souq and Amazon, Ghobrial led business development for Prodea Systems with leading telecommunication companies in the MENA region, Turkey, Asia and Africa. Her principal role was negotiating with all major studios in Hollywood, Bollywood and the Arab world for the digital on-demand rights to all new movies and original programming. She also helped build the Showtime brand across the region, leading the company’s advertising strategy and new product development.
Ghobrial added: “I am so happy to be back to the entertainment world, but more importantly to be part of building this amazing Arabic strong brand and scaling it further.”
Mary holds a Master’s degree in Strategy and International Business from The Business School, City University UK; and Online Marketing degree from London Business School.
