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Ibrahim Hassan is Head of Sales and Marketing at Sanabel Modern Motors, a company of the Mohamed Yousuf Naghi Group, which is the exclusive distributor of CHERY in Saudi Arabia. Ibrahim has played a pivotal role in building CHERY’s brand presence, driving sustainable growth in one of the most competitive automotive markets in the region. With over 15 years of experience in the automotive sector, Ibrahim is a certified marketer from The Chartered Institute of Marketing and has worked across some of the most respected brands in the region, including Toyota, Lexus, and CHERY. His expertise spans marketing, product management, sales operations, and digital transformation. At Sanabel, he has led strategic initiatives such as the launch of CHERY’s new product lineup – a Guinness World Record-breaking brand activation – and the integration of advanced CRM and customer data platforms to elevate customer experience. He has just been appointed to the CMO Council’s Advisory Board in MENA.

CMO COUNCIL: In what ways are you transitioning your organization in the AI-infused, data-driven era?

HASSAN: We’ve unified first-party data and campaign orchestration through SAP CDP + Emarsys, building real-time segments, next-best-action journeys, and closed-loop reporting from media to showroom to sale. Our KPI stack links brand activity to lead quality, showroom walk-ins, test drives, and retail conversion. Generative AI supports content variations, audience insights, and agent-assist in CRM — always human-supervised for brand safety.

CMO COUNCIL: What skills and qualities does a cross-functional marketing leader need today?

HASSAN: Commercial fluency, data literacy, and change leadership. You must translate your brand into pipeline, speak the language of finance and sales, and design operating rhythms that make creativity repeatable and accountable.

CMO COUNCIL: Where do you focus most of your time and attention day-to-day?

HASSAN: On the moments that move the number: demand quality, funnel health, and retail readiness. I spend time with sales leaders, CRM, and media partners to remove friction between intent, experience, and purchase.

CMO COUNCIL: What has been your biggest accomplishment in the last 12 months?

HASSAN: Re-platforming our lifecycle marketing and tightening sales-marketing integration — reducing lead time-to-contact, improving test-drive conversion, and lifting retail contribution from owned channels while protecting brand equity.

CMO COUNCIL: What career advice would you give to emerging marketing leaders?

HASSAN: Own the business outcome. Learn to price your impact in the P&L, build allies in sales/finance, and make data your creative partner — not your creative replacement.