Shazia Syed serves as Chief Executive Officer of Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited since March 7, 2016 and its Executive Director since April 20, 2014. She joined Unilever as a Management Trainee in 1989 and since then, climbed the corporate ladder to now become the chairperson and CEO of Unilever Pakistan.
Syed has recently also taken over as the President of the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) for the 2019 term. In her 26-year tenure at the global FMCG giant, Syed has worked in almost all departments and divisions of the company such as Customer Development and Home & Personal Care to name a few. Shazia is also a Director of the prestigious Pakistan Business Council.
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Given her story, Shazia is on the top of the glass ceiling breakers list of Pakistani women. She hails from a small village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where at the time, there was no electricity.
Her father was in the army, who stretched himself to educate her and her siblings. He later moved to a big city to enable his children to continue with their education. With all these obstacles, Shazia outstandingly managed to go abroad for her education.
She holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Clayton University and is now married with 2 children and enjoys golf! Syed, like her interests in sports, has proven time and again, that she can defy all gender norms. Shazia sees Mother Teresa, Razia Sultana and Jinnah as her role models. She acknowledges and admires all three of them for the dreams they brought to life, their resilience and unique leadership skills.