Our Team
Our Team
Meridian Partners is deliberately boutique. When you engage us, you work directly with our founder — not a junior.
Ziad Jabre
Founder & Managing Director
Ziad Jabre is a dynamic global commercial leader with 24 years of experience driving strategic growth in Travel Retail, FMCG, and Luxury markets across the Middle East, APAC, and Europe.
His expertise spans P&L management, market entry strategies, and cultivating distributor partnerships — consistently delivering double-digit growth. He has personally built GTR functions from zero at two organisations, established Al Fakher as the first shisha tobacco brand in European travel retail, and managed retail distribution across 45 global airports.
Trilingual in Arabic, French, and English — essential in the relationship-led markets of MEA, Europe, and the Levant.
Years in TR, FMCG & Luxury
Volume growth built at Al Fakher
Profit growth in under 2 years
Global airports managed at Mars
Shisha at Dubai Airport · 4 consecutive years
Regions: MEA · Europe · APAC
Experience
Career Track Record
Al Fakher / AIR
2018 – 2026
Dubai
VP GTR & Heritage Markets (2024–2026) · Regional Director APAC & GTR (2022–2024) · Head GTR & Levant (2021–2022) · Head Global GTR (2018–2021)
- Built GTR from the ground up
- 400%+ volume & 600%+ profit in under 2 years
- #1 shisha at Dubai Airport for 4 consecutive years
- 108% profit growth in APAC
- 12.2% profitability boost in latest role
- 2022 F1 Air Global Award winner
App Development
2016 – 2017
Dubai
Founder (Self-Employed)
- Built a mobile app helping users track credit card savings, memberships and loyalty programs
- Negotiated monetisation model with banks via lead generation and data sharing
Patchi UAE
2016
Dubai
Acting General Manager
- Directed full UAE P&L including factory management
- Established travel retail department from zero
- Secured Cartier supply contracts across Gulf & Levant
- 8% retail sales growth YTD
Mars Inc
2004 – 2016
Dubai · Veghel · Beirut · Riyadh
Multiple senior roles across Finance, Supply Chain, and International Travel Retail
- Regional Director ITR — MENA & Indian Subcontinent
- Global Sales Development Manager — Valrhona €4M, 45 airports
- Supply Chain Team Leader — Levant
- Reduced out-of-stocks 58% as Lower Gulf Market Planner
Education
Concordia University
Bachelor of Arts in Economics · Montreal · 1996 – 1999
Certifications
- · Canadian Securities Course
- · Conduct & Practices Handbook
- · Dale Carnegie Public Speaking
Boutique Means Senior Access
You always work directly with Ziad. No handoff to juniors. No 40-brand portfolio where your brand gets lost. Every engagement gets our full attention.
Work directly with Ziad
We work with a select number of brands each year. If you'd like to explore whether we're the right partner, we'd be glad to hear from you.