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Ranim Atour

Field Marketing Manager, Infoblox 5

Ranim Atour, Field Marketing Manager, Infoblox says she enjoys creating trends in the market, and focuses on the uniqueness of campaigns

What made you choose this career path? How would you summarize your professional journey so far in terms of meeting expectations, both yours and the organization’s?

It’s all about the personality, skillset, and knowledge which helped to shape my career in a way I am proud of today. A marketing career is cool & fun, it involves a lot of creativity, being a trendsetter, understanding the customer's behaviour, monitoring market trends, and meeting the market’s needs. It is also about owning campaigns and projects while collaborating with other shareholders in the organization, like Sales, Channel, Solution Architect, and others; and is a main contributor to the organizations' sales and generated pipeline. The business environment changes quickly, this pandemic just showed us how fast the playing grounds can change in a matter of weeks! That’s why cybersecurity is very exciting, and you can easily get interested in it once you get a deep dive, as it is a hyper-growth field that expands to different verticals and progress along the way. Marketing got my attention at age 21 when I first did my internship in Germany. I felt that this career path suits my personality and energy. I have been lucky to work in different marketing roles for multinational institutes to this present day. Today as the Field Marketing Manager for the Middle East, Turkey, Africa, and Pakistan at Infoblox, every campaign and success brings satisfaction that I feel proud of. The Marketing career path, especially in Cyberse-

curity is tremendously motivating and very rewarding. I love this industry and what I do, and I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to live in different countries that gave me a huge cross-cultural background, which is much needed to grow in today’s world.

From your experience, is gender a differentiator in Marketing at all or are men and women similar in these roles in terms of the strengths they bring to these roles in conceptualizing and executing? Are women sufficiently recognized for their contributions?

What really matters is the quality, and value that marketing brings. I think any successful Marketer, regardless of gender, can show and reflect the strengths of what they do. Gender stereotypes are fading anyways and many organizations are adopting the modern mindset that emphasizes bringing fairness to the game and ensuring society’s representation is accurate in the work world, particularly in the cybersecurity space. I believe that building an equal-opportunity culture isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also the smart thing. So it’s really about the personality and expertise, that brings respect, regardless of age, nationality, colour, and certainly gender. Indeed, the absence of women involved in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is a big concern in many countries, but from what I have seen over the past 7 years in META region, women are making progress in technology/ cybersecurity industry as they rise through the ranks and take on leadership roles. And I am so proud to say that I had the pleasure to work in such an exceptional industry where there is the willpower to transform it to future generations. I think women are already strong and they don’t need recognition or empowerment; they just need inspiration, my advice is to look for a career that you are passionate about because really, there’s no single formula for success; so just follow your passion!

How has Hybrid work and accelerated digitalization challenged, changed and enabled your role in Marketing?

It’s definitely a game-changer. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated both planned and unplanned IT modernization across organizations to keep pace with hybrid work. It actually gave more space for creativity, and I think it showed the difference between a normal and successful Marketer. Not only in terms of keeping the marketing activities running, de-risk the process of generating leads that will influence the sales pipeline, and retain the brand awareness; but also it shows who was already ahead of the game! Digital marketing is a different level, and it certainly helped in the past 2 years. The pandemic did bring a new level of challenges, especially for women with kids, flexibility for women with families is key and the hybrid work model helps in finding the right balance to maintain or advance a career. For me personally, as a mother of a toddler, this model encouraged me to be doing more with less.

Briefly highlight some of the standout milestones from your current role and over the past?

I love creating trends in the market, and the uniqueness of the campaigns I have introduced to the different markets, with diverse cultural background and COVID regulations. Some of the best campaigns were the Deep Dive event in Dubai, the Raspberry Pi data exfiltration campaign in KSA, and the Taking off to New Egypt campaign.

What would be some of the goals that you have set for yourself in the years ahead in your professional journey?

Marketing is a dynamic role, you keep accelerating your skills and knowledge and facing new challenges every day, which is exciting! Add this to the cybersecurity world that is essential in today’s and future business needs; I think this mix is great. I have been taking care of META region for the past couple of years and would love to explore new markets with different cultural backgrounds. It’s very interesting how much a person can learn from diversity., I know this as I experienced it through the past years of my life, where I have had the opportunity to live in Germany, France, Turkey, UAE, and Jordan, which allowed me to grow on so many levels. I am planning to keep rising within my field while enjoying motherhood and providing the support needed for my kid and family.

"I believe that building an equal-opportunity culture isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also the smart thing. So it’s really about the personality and expertise, that brings respect, regardless of age, nationality, colour, and certainly gender."