Ramona Furter
See the plan
Application · WHOOP · GCC Marketing Sr. Lead

I grow brands the way an athlete trains. By the data, all in.

Twenty years building brands and growth, from a CHF 100M+ business to ventures I helped found from zero. I plan with consumer insight, run integrated campaigns across brand, partnerships and experiential, and prove the work moved a number. I'm also the member you're marketing to: an endurance athlete who built a fitness community of my own. This is my application for GCC Marketing Sr. Lead at WHOOP, and I'm relocating to Dubai.

See how I'd build the GCC plan Read the CV
20 yrsbrand, marketing & growth
CHF 100M+business brand owned, ifolor
+9% / +15%conversion & checkout lift
0 → 23team built, founding side
Portrait of Ramona Furter Member & marketer
Why I fit

What the role needs, and where I've done it

This role owns a region's brand: the plan, the integrated campaigns, the partners and communities, and the numbers that prove it worked. That's the shape of my career. Here's how it lines up, point for point, with what you're after.

01

Owning a brand and its plan

I've been the person accountable for a brand's strategy and growth, not a contributor to someone else's. I set the direction, guard the consistency, and decide where the high-impact bets go, the core of building and owning a country brand plan.

Proof: owned the e-commerce ecosystem and strategy for a CHF 100M+ business at ifolor, reporting to C-level.

02

Integrated campaigns, end to end

I've run campaigns that span brand, media, partnerships and experiential together, then localised and executed them, owning budget and agencies. I know how to take a global idea and make it land in a specific market.

Proof: led cross-functional teams and external agencies at ifolor; built the full go-to-market for WePractice and ventures at Sparrow.

03

Cross-functional, in matrixed orgs

My best work is getting a mixed group, internal teams, agencies, external partners, pointed at one outcome inside a larger organisation. Aligning PR, creators, media and commercial around a single plan is the part I'm best at.

Proof: aligned senior stakeholders and product teams at Brixel; founding team that grew WePractice to 23 people across 10 locations.

04

Partners, communities and regulated rooms

I've built and owned partnerships with major institutions, and I've grown a real community around a fitness brand. I've also spent much of my career inside regulated organisations, where stakeholder and compliance constraints are the norm.

Proof: owned UBS and Baloise partnerships at Brixel; ran innovation inside Die Mobiliar (insurance); built the Pedal Peak cycling community.

05

Data-driven, metrics into action

I define success up front, instrument it, and let the evidence decide, comfortable in analytics, A/B design and the numbers behind acquisition and retention. I turn what the data says into the next move, not just a report.

Proof: +9% conversion and +15% checkout lift at ifolor through research, A/B testing and analytics on a CHF 100M+ business.

06

AI-native, and a real WHOOP member

You ask for a commitment to AI tools in daily work: I lead AI business models at Swiss Post and build my own products with AI end to end. And I'm genuinely your user, an endurance athlete obsessed with recovery and performance. I'd market WHOOP as someone who lives it.

Proof: AI Project Lead at Swiss Post; built the Pedal Peak cycling platform end to end with AI workflows.

Curriculum vitae

Ramona Furter

Brand and growth marketer in Zurich with twenty years of experience, relocating to Dubai. I turn ambiguous goals into brand plans, integrated campaigns and measured results, increasingly with AI in the workflow. German and Swiss German native, English fluent, French conversational.

Jan 2026 to present

AI Project Lead, Business Development

Swiss Post, Advertising · Zurich

  • Lead AI-driven business models for Swiss Post Advertising, from sizing the opportunity to building and running the roadmap.
  • Turn AI ideas into go-to-market plans and new revenue, tracked with clear KPIs.
  • Run cross-functional work from concept to launch across product, tech, data and commercial teams.

Oct 2024 to Jul 2025

Senior Product Manager, Lead E-Commerce

Ifolor Group · Zurich

  • Owned the e-commerce ecosystem, brand and growth strategy for a CHF 100M+ business, reporting to C-level.
  • Lifted conversion 9% and the checkout step rate 15% through research, A/B testing and analytics.
  • Led a cross-functional team and external agencies, owning budget, resourcing and KPIs.

Jun 2023 to Sep 2024

Lead Project Manager

Brixel · Zurich

  • Owned the partnerships with financial institutions, UBS and Baloise, that drove growth.
  • Was the main bridge between senior client stakeholders and the internal team.

Mar 2020 to May 2023

Marketing & Growth Lead, Founding Team

WePractice · Sparrow Ventures (Migros Group) · Zurich

  • Founding team of a health venture. Closed two funding rounds and grew it to 10 locations, 23 people and 170+ customers.
  • Generated 1000+ client matches in year one and built the full go-to-market on a hypothesis-and-data approach.
  • Built and led the marketing and sales team after Series B, owning budget, KPIs and growth.

Sep 2019 to Sep 2022

Growth & Venture Builder

Sparrow Ventures · Zurich

  • Built and ran growth and go-to-market for several internal startups, from early validation to scale-up.
  • Used research and experimentation to improve conversion, lower acquisition cost and raise customer lifetime value.

Jan 2017 to Aug 2019

Intrapreneur, Innovation

Die Mobiliar · Bern

  • Ran market pilots for new products (Smide, now BOND Mobility, plus XperCheck and Lizzy) from MVP to launch, inside one of Switzerland's largest insurers.
  • Coached cross-functional teams and explored new data and partnerships.
A worked example

How I'd build the GCC brand plan

Not a slide of buzzwords. The method I'd actually run, laid out like a WHOOP dashboard: read the market, set the growth bets, build the activation engine, and measure it. The figures here are illustrative placeholders, the questions and the structure are real. Click through the four steps.

Worked example · illustrative figures

Read the market before writing the plan

I'd start where I'm honest I have ground to cover: the GCC consumer, the culture, the media landscape and the competition. The plan is only as good as these answers, so I'd get them first, from data and from people on the ground.

The first question

Who is the GCC member, what does performance and recovery mean to them, and where does WHOOP earn a place in that?

Consumer behaviourWho trains, how, and what they already wear and trust, segment by segment.
Cultural nuanceWhat lands and what doesn't across the GCC, so global campaigns are localised, not pasted.
Media landscapeWhere attention actually sits: platforms, creators, channels and the cost to reach them.
Competitive setWho owns the wrist and the mindshare today, and the gap WHOOP can take.
Market readiness · illustrative
69Opportunity

A placeholder score. The point is the habit: turn the market read into one honest number you can move, then track it.

Fitness & wellness momentum High
Wearable penetration Mid
WHOOP brand awareness Low
From day one

My first 90 days

Roughly how I'd spend my first three months as GCC Marketing Sr. Lead: learn the market and the brand cold, write the plan, and get a first localised activation live.

Phase 1 Days 1 to 30

Learn the ground truth

  • Meet the teams I'd align: PR, creators, partnerships, media, experiential, plus commercial and retail.
  • Get into the consumer insight, competitive set and media landscape across the GCC markets.
  • Start building relationships on the ground, with partners, communities and stakeholders, and keep up my Arabic.
Phase 2 Days 31 to 60

Write the country brand plan

  • Draft the plan: the two or three high-impact growth bets and the budget behind them.
  • Localise the global campaign calendar and line up the activation partners and creators.
  • Agree the targets and the measurement dashboard with commercial and leadership.
Phase 3 Days 61 to 90

Ship and measure

  • Get a first localised activation live in-market, with PR, creators and experiential aligned.
  • Stand up the weekly read on awareness, acquisition cost and retention.
  • Report early signal honestly, wins and misses, and set the plan for the year.

Straight about the fit

I'd rather be honest than oversell. Two things in your posting I don't yet have: fluent Arabic, and years on the ground in the GCC. I won't pretend otherwise. I'm learning Arabic, I'm relocating to Dubai, and I'd move fast to learn the market from the inside, but I'd be doing that learning in the role.

What I bring instead is twenty years of owning brands and growth, running integrated campaigns and partnerships, and proving the work with data, plus something harder to hire for: I'm a genuine endurance athlete and community builder who'd market WHOOP as a member, not an outsider. If that trade is one you're open to, I'd love to talk.