Danone Egypt appoints Hesham Radwan as the Managing Director of Danone Egypt and Northeast Africa.
Radwan was previously the Country Director of Early Life Nutrition, North East Africa cluster, where he led Danone to achieve remarkable outcomes, and set profitable business strategies, across the transformation agenda, brand innovations and distribution management.
With 20 years of experience in Consumer Goods, Healthcare and Nutrition Industries, 14 of which were in Danone Egypt across different departments, Radwan greatly impacted the overall success of the company.
Under his leadership in 2018, as Country Director of ELN, Radwan contributed towards the country’s health agenda by initiating scientific studies in infant nutrition, in collaboration Universities, pediatricians, nutritionists, distributors and doctors towards creating health solutions catering every Egyptian. Most notably, he led Bebelac’s campaign in fighting iron deficiency anemia in Egypt.
Prior to that, Radwan held the position of Commercial Director for Danone Dairy Egypt in 2009, where he led the dairy sales organization in achieving topline objectives, with more than 1,000 talents in addition to establishing a 5-year transformational plan with new key objectives, visions and strategies. He participated in launching the business model of the OMDA project which launched in 2010 and was financed by Danone Egypt and the Danone Ecosystem Fund. The project aimed to improve the quality of life in Egyptian rural communities by providing access to a selection of healthy products and creating job opportunities through small distribution centers. The number of distributors participating in the project currently reached about 310 small distributors distributing Danone products to about 39,000 merchants, serving more than 3.6 million consumers.
Radwan said, “I am very honored with my new position and look forward to further participate in national projects that support Egypt’s Vision 2030, especially food security issues in all related sectors leading Danone Egypt towards achieving bigger impact, while continuing to create nutritious health solutions to cater every Egyptian’s needs.”
“I am looking forward to keep on working with Danone’s great teams, which have all been a major pillar in the great results and achievements that we have accomplished together in the past few years. These results are the outcome of an immense team effort that enabled Danone to become market share leaders. I am very confident in their skills, talents and abilities that will help us reach new heights as we embark on this new journey together.” Radwan added.
In 2011, Radwan was promoted to Danone’s Regional Sales Manager in Alexandria, Delta and Canal Zone, where he was responsible for leading the sales team in achieving business KPIs, and implementing commercial activities for 15 governorates in all channels, whilst tripling Danone’s customer base in these regions. Moreover, he developed a Micro distributors model in rural areas which won the 5th best project globally in Danone in addition to acquiring market leadership with a 40% value share and leading numeric distribution. Radwan first joined Danone Egypt in 2009 as Commercial Development Manager, where he was responsible for business and budget planning and commercial activities for all sales channels as well as developing the sales organization infrastructure. He also developed the customer loyalty program sponsored by Vodafone which contributed to 37% in volume growth in Q4 2009 and 25% in Q4 2010.
Prior to that, Radwan joined the sales department at Procter & Gamble in 2002, then later joined Nestle’s Marketing & Sales team, leading the Ice Cream & Dry Goods departments. During his position, Radwan was awarded the best communication campaign for 2005 in Nestlé for the Mega Ice Cream product. After that, he joined Boston Consulting Group’s financial services, real estate, and energy departments, which he operated in the UAE.
Hesham Radwan graduated from the American University in Cairo in 2001 with highest honors, with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Marketing. He also was nominated for the Ahmed Zoweil prize of honor in 2001 for top Academic performance in AUC and the Student Union Award for outstanding members.