Aisha Alqabandi

Market Specialist @Meta

Meta                                                                                                                                        April. 2022 – Present

Market Specialist                                                                                                                               Dublin, IE

• As a Market Specialist, I am one of the company-wide point of contact for MENA-related projects, providing insights and analysis on the region with a specific focus on transforming Meta’s global policies, strengthening Trust & Safety protocols, and communicating contextual market knowledge of user behaviours:
  • Produced research and recommendations on the advertisement landscape in the GCC region, highlighting the SME and commerce ecosystem in the countries for better market penetration, providing comprehensive analysis on essential stakeholders, partnership leads, consumer behaviour, media analysis for scalable solutions.
• Created and implemented risk mitigation processes both proactively/reactively within the scope of high-risk events, the most recent being FIFA World Cup 2022 and Kuwait political elections:
  • Established and lead communication channels for Kuwaiti political elections by monitoring and providing internal stakeholders with risks to proactively/reactively act upon. As a result, I successfully created a centralised information-sharing process for cross-functional teams to be updated in real-time.
• Identified gaps in automation detection under key policy issues focusing on violence, graphic content and hate speech:
  • Collated and showcased patterns detected in data discrepancies within the wider MENA and African region market, highlighting necessary next steps in establishing reliable and valid internal tools for data extraction and analysis.

UNDP                                                                                                                                   June 2020 – Dec. 2020

Information Management and Community Support Specialist                                                               Kuwait City, KW

• Assisted in organising capacity-building workshops relating to gender-inclusive language used local media channels.
• Researched and mapped private- and public-sector enterprises for potential partnership opportunities in order to support and maximise UNDP’s country programme objectives:
  • Contributed to the development of a start-up accelerator to provide women business owners with trainings and opportunities for skills development from ideation to implementation phase.
• Developed and marketed roadmap for outbound lead generation to bring awareness to UNDP’s Q8vsCovid19 Hackathon event:
  • Established relationships with external experts to collaborate as judges and mentors to participants
  • Point of contact to participant and cross-functional teams for optimal operational workflow
• Produced UNDP’s Rapid Response report covering initiatives to combat COVID-19, with distribution being circulated amongst ministries, UN Regional Hub, NGOs and civil society organisations

Inovexus                                                                                                                                  Sep. 2019 – Jan. 2020

Operations and Marketing Analyst  Intern                                                                                                             Paris, FR

• Designed a strategic roadmap to establish the organisation in France’s startup ecosystem through marketing initiatives, creation of database of potential partners:
  • Interviewed over 20+ founders and accelerators worldwide to understand emerging markets and target audience.
• Produced a competitor analysis report to assist in conceptualising an acceleration programme the organisation could design and develop for both an offline and online programme.
• Managed CRM database used to align organisational objectives to annual work plan, inputting incoming leads, updating targets and ensuring availability of up to date information 
• Identified potential partners among angel investors, investment funds, banks and municipalities as part of organisation’s objective of decentralising accelerator programme

Mindspark                                                                                                                              Nov. 2018 – Jan. 2019

Marketing and Research Analyst Intern                                                                                                              Paris, FR 

• Conducted field and desk research as part of organisation’s marketing and branding consulting services with a focus on identifying consumer behaviour and patterns in relation to consumer products.
• Monitored focus group interviews and oversaw participant follow-up activities to ensure reliable, contextual data was gathered to showcase potential value creation strategies that could be implemented by our clients such as Facebook and Ferrero Rocher.
• Marketed the firm’s services through an outreach initiative and communication campaign, drafting sponsorship and marketing material (press-ads, briefs, brochures, magazine)

Baillie Gifford & Co                                                                                                             June2016 – Sep. 2016

Marketing and Intellectual Capital Analyst Intern                                                                                          Edinburgh, UK 

• Produced research report on the implementation of a socially inclusive framework that aligned with firm’s long-term investment strategy aimed at their retail clients:
  • Provided recommendations regarding the production of their quarterly magazine to target a more inclusive target group
• Involved in content creation, with a focus on emerging market data to assist Intellectual Capital and Marketing Capital Units
• Evidence-checked published materials to ensure adherence to local and regional laws and mitigate any liability through information presented
• Collaborated with Events team to market and communicate company-sponsored events for greater outreach

Sciences Po Paris                                                                                                                                 March, 2020 

Master’s Degree in International Public Management                                                                                               Paris, FR

• Specialisation: Project Management, Research Diplomacy, Middle East Studies
• Courses: Advanced Political Analysis, CSR: From Risk Management to Social Innovation, Innovation in the Public Sector

The University of Edinburgh                                                                                                                  July, 2017 

Master’s Degree in International Public Management                                                                                       Edinburgh, UK

• Specialisation: Social Research, Gender Studies, Middle East Studies 
• Courses: Designing and Doing Social Research, Global Politics of Sex and Gender, Research Design in Politics and IR, Politics of the Middle East