Maged Fakhry

Nowadays, many people talk about AI and even more talk about e-commerce, but very few have actually spoken about the combined power of both and what the future holds. We at The Growth Zone, Dubai, UAE, realized this opportunity four years ago and built a successful business around it. Our business model is mainly centered around penetrating new brands in the UAE through the e-commerce channel while driving the brand growth through data intelligence driven by AI. We focus mainly on healthy snacking, which is an amazing platform to realize this growth given the exponential growth of this channel. At the intersection of growth between e-commerce and healthy eating lies the heart of our business model. As a result, our business saw a massive growth since day one and continues to break a record every single month- 4 years and counting. We believe in this category and this channel and will continue to drive it with our customers and consumers. In a world where AI is developing on a daily basis, we are now assessing the future model of utilizing agentic AI to drive data that would enable our brands to to use insights to drive product, placement, marketing and the entire brand life cycle. Every day on this job is a new day- new AI development, new brand launches and new channels to penetrate. E commerce is the future of sales and we are here to be at the forefront of this growth!

Maged is an FMCG executive and entrepreneur with more than 26 years of experience in the industry, based in the UAE.
He spent 17 years at Mars, rising through the organization to become General Manager for the UAE market, a role he held until 2019. He then joined Al Safi Danone as Vice President for the Gulf and Levant, leading the business across the region.
In 2022, he founded The Growth Zone, a multidisciplinary FMCG business focused on healthy snacking. In just four years it has become an established and growing company, delivering year-on-year growth across three verticals:
- E-commerce distribution: helping new brands enter the region through the e-commerce channel
- FMCG consulting: advising brands and businesses on growth strategy and market entry
- FMCG trading

Maged is an active voice in the regional and global food and FMCG community. His recent engagements include:
Multiple engagements at Gulfood Exhibition
Food Security
Regular guest speaker at London Business School