This month’s Member Spotlight

Fiona Liebehenz

November 2017

Fiona Liebehenz, Manager Vendor Management, Amazon EU SARL

Can you tell us a bit about your background and your role?

I am a North German and had the wonderful opportunity to work in various business functions and countries in the recent years. Eleven years ago, I started my career at Unilever where I held different roles in Customer Development, Marketing, General Management in Germany and Switzerland. This summer, I took the chance to move from the FMCG to the Retailer side and joined Amazon, where I am now leading the Personal Care Appliances Core categories Vendor Management Team.

Constants in my career are to put myself outside my comfort zone, coach and develop others, create and drive innovations and build networks. I enjoy having these opportunities, supporting younger talent and peers to develop their careers as well as broaden my own horizon.

Why did you decide to take on this new role as Chair of the LEAD Marketing Committee?

The Marketing Committee consists of a fantastic group of creative, passionate and diversely skilled people and when I was asked a couple of weeks ago if I want to take over the Chair role as of now, it wasn`t hard for me to take the decision. It is a big honour and I feel excited and privileged to serve now in this role. I am sure that we will continue to do great work and make a difference.

Originally, I joined LEAD in 2016 because of my own experience of being inspired by a panel discussion lead by the nowadays over 80-year-old Lore Maria Peschel-Gutzeit, a famous German judge who invented several laws for advancing gender equality in Germany. And she is still raising her voice for driving diversity. At this point of time, I first realized that based on my experiences, I assumed wrongly that gender equality always was the case and we already have fully achieved it. I felt that I want to contribute to raise the bar for diversity further and want to serve as a role model for younger leaders and peers.

Last year, the LEAD Marketing Committee nominated me already to join for the vacant Media & PR role. Since then, I have been actively involved with LEAD and been inspired by the passionate work of all Committee Chairs & Members. I still believe that we can make a difference and raise the bar for diversity in our industry. I am particularly passionate about it, because 1) from a business perspective, seeing the compelling business case, and 2) being a woman, wanting to ensure that for the next generations diversity is no topic to discuss about anymore but 100% reality.

What is your vision for the role of the LEAD Marketing Committee and how can it help LEAD to bring its mission to life?

My vision for our LEAD Marketing Committee: SPREAD.ADVANCE.CREATE.

First, I feel that it is important that we spread LEAD’s mission to a broader and broader audience of people, companies and associations to help grow the network and develop it to a strong voice of our industry.

Second, it is one of our pleasures to support the other committees and chapters by communicating and advancing their initiatives and achievements in and beyond LEAD.

Third, it will be relevant to ensure that we create inspiring and convincing content to accelerate the move towards true diversity.

These strategic pillars will support us in reaching the 2020 targets:

  • Reach out to more LEAD members to proactively activate LEAD’s mission
  • Reach out to more potential members to attract them to join and grow LEAD
  • Reach out to more potential companies to make them partnering for our targets
  • Making LEAD the voice of our industry to drive diversity and change
  • And last but not least, raise the Bar for Diversity in our industry