Alicia Jitaru, Innovation & Portfolio Director Health & Natural, Mars

Alicia is a passionate marketing professional with robust international experience having lived and worked in six countries. She successfully grew and transformed the businesses she’s led at P&G, COTY, LEGO and MARS. The things that set Alicia apart are her game-changing business accomplishments, her leadership and people skills and her relentless focus on self-development.

Alicia joined MARS in 2018 as Europe Innovation & Portfolio Director for the Health & Natural brands where she led the innovation strategy and pipeline delivering double digit growth as well as the development of a complex portfolio strategy exceeding OGSM targets. She’s been instrumental in advocating the consumer facing sustainability agenda on natural innovations and has been part of the MARS top talent pipeline after just 9 months of joining.

At LEGO, Alicia developed outstanding campaigns such as the Christmas, LEGO Masters and the LEGO Movie 2 in collaboration with Warner Brothers. She’s pioneered a unique collaboration partnering with John Lewis during the iconic retailer’s Christmas campaign.

Before moving to UK, Alicia worked in Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands for COTY and P&G where she started and spent most of her career. She’s led the Fairy brand in Benelux to market leadership and launched unprecedented brand equity campaigns contributing to social causes. As Global Senior Marketing Manager for Wella, Alicia accelerated global NPDs through championing bespoke business models, created short to long-term brand plans and innovation pipelines, pioneering new technological ideas.
Alicia has shown great passion towards building high performance teams and individuals throughout her career. She is a seasoned public speaker and has been a member of the Geneva International Toastmasters club.

Originally from Moldova, Alicia is a passionate traveller, having been to more than 40 countries. In her downtime she practices mindfulness meditation, yoga and sampling gourmet places in London. She speaks English, Russian, Romanian, Spanish and French.