“I’m a Millenial third culture Woman”.

In this week’s article I interviewed Rawya Catto, General Manager at CPL Aromas based in Dubai. When we met last year during the Beautyworld Middle East trade show in Dubai, her knowledge and easy going manner convinced me she would be an excellent participant for the Esxence panel discussion, Unveiling the Middle East’s connection with Artistic Perfumery. * She is warm and friendly, an innovative executive forging a path in a part of the world typically considered as challenging for women. Let’s uncover her story and find out how she brings disruption to the workplace.

You were born in Syria and grew up in Dubai: tell me about your olfactive memories from childhood.

I was born in Damascus, the capital city of Syria which is known as the city of jasmine. I have a lot of nostalgia, as do many people from this region, the Levant, because we are all dwelling on a past that no longer exists. I do have a lot of memories that come from my childhood. The Damascus that I knew was a place where seasonality was very important, and smells of different seasonal fruits permeated the air. For example, every year in summer you would have the season of blackberries, which flourished in trees and bushes all around. So in every house people would make blackberry jam, blackberry jelly, blackberry cakes, and so the whole street would smell of that. Similarly in the winter, you have the bigarade citrus season so all of the citrus trees would be in bloom and people would start making preserves from the citrus peels.

Food is a huge part of the culture and there are foods prepared for special occasions. For example, when a baby is born we make a meal based on cinnamon, carraway seeds, a lot of spices and rice powder, which, according to grandmother’s tales, was supposed to help with lactation. It’s a special kind of scent that is only associated to this time.

My parents decided to move to the Gulf when I was six years old but I used to spend three months every summer between Syria and Lebanon in the mountains. The rest of the year we were in Dubai and this was back in the Eighties when all you had was sand, camels and date trees – and that’s it. It was very different from what you see today. I remember sometimes getting up in the morning to find a camel had wandered into our backyard. When you see the futuristic place Dubai has become, you can understand it’s been an insane development.

Let’s talk about your education. You are an ISPICA graduate – which program did you follow? As a student from the Middle East, did you face particular challenges?

After high school I got a scholarship to study in France which was a huge privilege and honor; I was very lucky to get that. I got my bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University in Lyon, and while working on my professional project, I discovered my love of fragrances and essential oils. My advisor told me, If you’re serious about this, the place to go is ISIPCA in Versailles. In fact, my father had gone to ISIP (Institut Supérieur International du Parfum) before it was ISIPCA where he studied industrial perfumery, so it all came full circle.

At the time, I wasn’t eligible for programs that included internships due to paperwork, but I applied and was accepted to do the European Fragrance and Cosmetics Masters in which we learned about perfumery, raw materials and accords, about cosmetics and color cosmetics as well as the business side including marketing, market research, how to create a business plan, read a P&L and such. The Idea behind that program was to create people who knew the technicalities but also knew the business aspect of launching a perfume and creating a cosmetic or fragrance brand. I was part of the fourth graduating class, it went on to become very successful and we recruit a lot from that program today.

Now let’s discuss the various positions you have held in your career. Were you strategic in getting to where you are today or was your path more serendipitous?

Once I graduated it was extremely hard to find a job in the perfume field. The industry was much smaller than it is today and it was less open to the International scene that you see today. Being Middle Eastern was more of a hindrance than a plus point. I started at Parfums Christian Dior where I was an intern in between Marketing and Regulatory Affairs. I had to vet all the claims that marketing was making and determine, are we allowed to say that, can we say it in Korea, in the UK? How deep could we go with claims, for example with anti-aging products.

I then decided I wanted to come over to the supplier side, and I got an opportunity at Givaudan. I got to work with the evaluators and the perfumers on projects, on reformulations, as well as the chemical and technical teams analyzing the products, what’s in them, how to talk about essential oils, and implementing the latest rules. I stayed with them from 2007 until 2019 both in France and then in 2010 I moved to Dubai to focus on fragrance evaluation which was my first love. At the time the region did not have as much focus but fast forward to today and it’s a buzzing region with so much interest from international brands.

Over the course of my career, I got to travel a lot. I was sent to consumers’ homes where I spent time with people and got to understand their olfactive landscape. I went to Egypt, I went to India, to Saudi Arabia, I got to know the region in depth. I remember a few trips to Pakistan that were extremely eye opening because you realize that the scents in their surroundings are very different and the way they perceive the smell of a soap or a shampoo or a fine fragrance is very different than what you would expect in Europe. It was a very interesting time where I got to meet a lot of people.

By 2019, I was ready to make a change. I realized I got into perfumery because of the emotions. You smell something and it takes you back, it makes you smile, it makes people happy. I ended up creating a consulting service and then COVID hit. I worked on helping my clients digitize their offer, I was part of a think tank on perfumery language with an independent perfumery community. Within my role, I was briefing fragrance houses on behalf of my clients, and eventually I met Chris Pickthall, the CEO of CPL Aromas. I had no idea at the time, and months later he told me he was looking for a General Manager for Dubai. I had the experience of working with big corporations as well as startups, and it was the soft spot of what they wanted.

How have you seen the industry change? In the best ways and in the worst ways?

There are a couple of important changes I’ve seen over my career and the first one is the acceleration in terms of launches. When I started out there were maybe 300 launches per year across mass, mid and premium, but today, I can’t keep up, no one can keep up. Flankers, big brands, a non-stop flux of fragrance which come and go and you don’t even remember that they were launched. Like fast fashion applied to perfumery. It means there is a loss in creativity. It would be really interesting if people in the niche community could bring it back to a craftsmanship, to a slow perfumery, farm to perfumery, to rethink the way we do things.

A second aspect which is actually positive, is that there are new voices being heard in the fragrance world. Historically, France was the heart of creation and perfumery, with Grasse, of course, as an important city when it comes to the raw materials and the influence it’s had. But we are now in an interesting time where it’s becoming international. There are new markets opening up such as the Middle East and China, and that requires you to be much more in touch and in tune with diverse voices, to be aware of ingredients and imprinting smells into these cultures. We’ve been working around tea notes and its beyond red tea, green tea, white tea. How do you translate lapsang? What about Matcha? The influence of international voices on creativity is really important.

What are some of the challenges you have had to overcome as a woman in the region?

I’m a Millennial third culture woman. Chris took a risk on me, and I feel the desire to deliver and perform. What I find is once you earn your customer’s respect, they don’t forget you, it’s a differentiator and a plus.

What matters is to have the experience, understand the culture and then listen to your customer. Let me nuance this as well by saying that over the years we’ve seen an immense opening with internationalization, with people from all over the world coming to the region, and with more women holding positions of influence. At CPL, we are gender-blind and color-blind – it’s about finding the best person for the job. We have a production manager who is a woman, my head of evaluation is an incredible woman as well. We are breaking ceilings for sure.

What do you enjoy most about your current role? Which part of what you do is the most rewarding?

Creativity & Disruption! I find the fragrance industry has been following similar patterns and ways of working for years. What I like about CPL is that we’re the independent thinkers out there on a lot of projects and we have to find new and innovative ways of doing things. We have to surprise, we have to disrupt, we have to be in places that are a little bit unexpected. To give you an idea, all of my team has within their objectives to dedicate 30% of their time to proactive projects and creative playgrounds, because I know it’s important to give people time to think, to be creative and to play. When you’re always rushed on projects and under pressure, that’s not where excellence comes through.

Another project we’ve started is called Share your Passion where each of our team members will organize a day where they share their passion with their colleagues. One of our evaluators took us to a coffee tasting experience so we went to a specialty roaster. It’s a great way to get to know each other outside of work but also to bring something back that you didn’t know before.

What are the big lessons that you learned that have served you well in your career?

What I’m most proud of is fundamentally bringing a culture of kindness and transparency within my team. At CPL we try to bring slowness into work and we give people the space where they feel heard. People come in to the office and they’re happy, they’re smiling, they know they can talk. If they make a mistake, that’s fine, we learn from it, we talk about it, we discuss what we can do. It’s going back to that listening skill!

CPL Aromas is the largest fragrance-only fragrance house in the world. Founded in 1971 by brothers Terry and Michael Pickthall, the company now has 18 international locations and customers in over 100 countries.

*For more information watch the video of the panel at this link

Unveiling the Middle East’s connection with Artistic Perfumery (youtube.com)