Pomelo's CMO Jean Thomas takes on new role

Jean Thomas has left his CMO role at fashion retailer Pomelo to join eyewa in the same capacity. He is responsible for the entire marketing scope of both online and offline, as well as every channel including branding, and creative, performance, among others. He reports to co-CEO and co-founder Anass Boumediene.

Eyewa is an omnichannel eyewear retailer based in the Gulf Cooperation Council. It began as an eCommerce business in 2018 and completed its Series B funding of US$21 million in 2021. According to its LinkedIn, eyewa launched more than 35 physical stores in over 14 cities across Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Thomas told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the GCC has exciting growth potential for the coming years and a high level of complexity like Southeast Asia. Secondly, eyewa is also seeing "explosive growth as a business" and according to Thomas, is "completely disrupting the eyewear category in the region.

Meanwhile, Pomelo's spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that CEO David Jou will oversee the marketing team in the immediate term.

Thomas (pictured) was with Pomelo for three years and joined the team in 2019 from Lazada Group here he was CMO of RedMart, Lazada Singapore and head of LiveUp. Two years ago, the fashion retailer refreshed its logo to mark its transition from brand to fashion and lifestyle platform. The team thought about how it wanted the company to be portrayed as a platform and Pomelo aims to stay modern and minimal with its new logo, true to the original Pomelo design. It also moved from bold extended typefaces and all caps, to a rounder, softer capitalised approach, which feels more conversational and inclusive.

Before Lazada, Thomas was with Urban Walkabout as CEO as well as Vinomofo.com and SmartBuyGlasses Optical as CMO. He also has experience on the agency side with Ogilvy, Wego.com, and Beyond Media Global.

Eyewa completed its pre-series B bridge round of US$2.5 million from Wamda Capital, EQ2 Ventures and Nuwa Capital. It wrapped up its Series A funding round of US$7.5 million in mid-2019 and US$1.1 million seed round in 2018. With the pre-series B funding, the total capital raised by eyewa by August 2020 was US$11.1 million in the space of three years. Eyewa has since leveraged the additional capital to beef up its capabilities in the eCommerce scene and strengthen its position in the online eyewear space in the MENA region.

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