Zenyum's APAC CMO Bassam Abdel-Rahman steps down

Zenyum's chief marketing officer Bassam Abdel-Rahman is stepping down after four years at the smile cosmetics company. He confirmed the news to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

In conversation, Abdel-Rahman said he will be taking the time to step back and focus on more family time, in the short term.

In tandem, Abdel-Rahman will be open to exploring opportunities as a fractional CMO. "I'm looking forward to focusing on my family, and in between chasing after my sons, opening myself up to interesting conversations and taking on fractional projects for brands with exciting challenges to tackle," he told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

Don't miss: Yum! Brands' Kate Yu joins Jollibee as CMO

In his LinkedIn post, Abdel-Rahman added that he is "eternally grateful" to have expanded the breadth and depth of his practice, and for the friendships he forged during his time at Zenyum. 

Abdel-Rahman joined Zenyum in 2019 as an advisor during the brand's early stages as a startup. Since then, he rose through the ranks as the senior vice president of marketing in 2020 and later on as Zenyum's chief marketing officer in March 2023. 

During his four years at Zenyum, Abdel-Rahman was in charge of measuring the seven-day impact of every single dollar spent, owning and allocating an eight-figure budget across products, countries and channels and reporting to a board of investors, according to his LinkedIn.

His proudest moment would be growing a small unknown start-up to Asia’s biggest homegrown smile cosmetics brand, he said. 

"As cliche as it sounds, the hardest part of leaving Zenyum is not working with the team day to day anymore. Over the years we have built a culture that allowed people to openly collaborate, be their true selves and unlock the best in each other. I’m really going to miss all of that," Abdel-Rahman told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

Prior to joining Zenyum, Abdel-Rahman was a lecturer at RevoU, an online education platform in Jakarta, Indonesia and was the managing director of global creative advertising agency 72andSunny. 

His other past agency experiences include business development director at Blacksheep Live, business director at BBH Asia Pacific, account director for British Airways at TBWA\London Group, brand leader of Apple at TBWA\Media Arts Lab and account manager at TBWA\London. 

Meanwhile, in February this year, Zenyum hired former Carousell growth marketing director, Arun Kumar as its global vice president of growth.

In his new role, Kumar will be leading Zenyum’s performance, CRM, SEO and growth marketing teams to maximise the company's ROAS. Kumar was previously with Carousell for over six years, and spent another three years with Zalora prior to that.

Related articles: 
Zenyum bolster c-suite execs with CMO appointment, names new CFO
Zenyum hires growth marketing director
Marketing podcast: Not your usual...marketing invisible braces with Zenyum