PepsiCo Vice President and General Manager for GCC and the Levant Tamer Mosalam joins Atlantic Council empowerME Conversations host Amjad Ahmad for a conversation about innovation and emerging opportunities for the food and beverage sector, the increase in women’s employment in Saudi Arabia, and ways governments and corporates can support entrepreneurs. 

Key Takeaways:
0:00 Intro
1:58 Tamer talks about the change in consumers over the last 24 months, and how they've now been defined as consumers at home
4:05 Tamer talks about the the younger population in the Middle East and how they are the key to shaping the future
6:04 Tamer talks about the effect Covid has had on innovation and supply chain of manufacturing materials for companies
8:36 Tamer details the importance of startups in the region and how growing the economy is reliant on their success
10:38 Tamer explains how PepsiCo is working with these startups and the programs they have created to help them launch and grow
13:35 Tamer talks about his excitement in the growth of e-commerce and digitization for entrepreneurs
16:16 Tamer talks about women empowerment and participation in Saudi Arabia
19:48 Tamer talks about consumers in the Middle East and how they are driving investors and companies into the region
25:30 Tamer explains the importance of the coming five years for healthier innovation
27:50 Tamer talks about how direct to home will transform supply chain in various industries and regions
32:14 Tamer details their recent investments in US plant based companies
33:35 Tamer talks about recycling and how it is a key factor for companies in the future


Resources Mentioned:

PepsiCo - PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of its products.

 

Quotes Mentioned:
"The first advice I would give that you have to read a lot. You have to educate yourself about the area where you're building your idea about. You're learning the different trends across the region and the world is very important and critical for ideas to shape up. And the minute those great ideas are shaped up, the appeal of funding is more comes their way as well."

"That also will make you think whether you replace your own delivery trucks with the delivery companies or that you will have more friendly and more environmentally friendly trucks going around the city or the consumer will go and pick their products from a distribution hub that will work with technology as well. I think the sky's the limit when it comes to that."

 

Guests Social Media Links: 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamer-mosalam-6a996348/?originalSubdomain=sa
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmosalam?lang=en