From Self-Starter to Industry Shaper – Melis del Rey, GM North America Stores – Health & Beauty Amazon

You could say I was a born student — methodical, organized, and hardworking. I enjoyed learning, especially in STEM subjects. On the other hand, I struggled with social sciences and humanities. Those felt more like a chore. I developed a love for reading and storytelling at a very early age. By the time I was eight, I was entering and winning storytelling competitions in Turkey. As a prize, I got the chance to appear on a TV channel, where I told stories to children. That experience introduced me to performing on camera and further fueled my love for storytelling.

Throughout my schooling, I was involved in theater, particularly in musicals. Though I wasn’t a great singer, I enjoyed acting on stage, and I performed in shows like The Sound of Music and West Side Story. My love for storytelling and theater remains strong, and I still enjoy watching performances today.

My parents sent me to boarding school when I was 12, believing it would help build my character through independence and responsibility. Leaving home at that age was tough. Although I returned home regularly, I led an independent life from early on. My mother was an architect, and my father was an engineer who had his own business. I was really inspired by his entrepreneurship and drive. Some might say it’s quite an old-school way of thinking, but he had a firm belief that if you study engineering, you can do anything in life. He believed strongly that it would give me all the necessary skills to succeed. And since I was good at math and science, it made sense for me to study engineering at university.

I attended the University of Nottingham, in the East Midlands region of England. I was living in a completely different culture in a new country while pursuing a degree in manufacturing engineering. Those undergraduate years were foundational for both my personal and academic development.

I was raised with a strong sense of responsibility and independence, so I felt I needed to get a job and be responsible almost immediately after my undergraduate degree. So, that’s what I did. I got a graduate engineering job at Ford Motor Company. I was responsible for production planning of Ford transit vans. The role entailed coordinating and optimizing the production processes, from scheduling materials and labor to ensuring timely delivery of finished vans.  But deep down, I knew this wasn’t my destined path in life. This position did not fully align with my true passions and aspirations. I thoroughly enjoy being inquisitive, thinking big and building innovative solutions. The day-to-day nature of the production planning work felt too mundane for someone with those interests and ambitions.

I looked at other opportunities, and at the time, there were scholarships available for a PhD degree, sponsored by a company called BAE Systems in the UK, which manufactures Airbus airplanes. I applied, got the full scholarship, and also received a fully paid researcher position on the project.

It was a fantastic opportunity. Airbus was designing the world’s largest aircraft, the A380, and I got a position to work on that design project. It helped me develop my professional experience, gain new core skills, and propel my business experiences post-academia. It also helped me learn a lot about problem-solving, effective communication, and expanding my analytical thinking and technical skills. The four years I spent doing my PhD in engineering design were really interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

At the same time, I was in a long-distance relationship with my boyfriend — now my husband. After both of us completed our PhDs, we decided it was time to reassess our future. We agreed to move to London together and explore new job opportunities. It was my personal relationship that led me to reconsider my professional path. I started exploring non-academic jobs, casting a wider net. I looked at finance, consultancy, marketing, and a broad range of other fields. I eventually received a job offer from Procter & Gamble for a marketing role, as an assistant brand manager for the Pantene brand, responsible for the U.K. and Ireland.

The switch from academia to a professional environment at Procter & Gamble was a major change. The pace of work was much faster than in academia, and the level of responsibility I was given, despite knowing little about brand management, was daunting. P&G was very good at giving a lot of responsibility from day one, however, I always felt supported. It felt like a “school of brand management,” as they genuinely cared about nurturing talent.

I spent 11 years at P&G, across multiple beauty categories, doing marketing and sales roles. I also had the chance to take on international assignments. Out of those 11 years, I spent eight years in beauty, working in hair care, skin care, and cosmetics. That’s when I truly fell in love with this industry. I possess natural curiosity about all things beauty from ingredients to form factors to services. I am also a dreamer at heart and believe in the power of Beauty magic. Beauty is all about making magic happen, not only on the outside but also feeling it on the inside.

In 2014, I decided to join Amazon in the U.K. to help establish their consumables business, which was a key strategic focus. I helped build the health and beauty business for Amazon in the U.K. from scratch, as it was very underdeveloped when I started. For the past three years, I’ve been working in the U.S., continuing that work to expand Amazon’s presence in health and beauty.

Today, I feel that Amazon is genuinely recognized as a beauty destination — not only by our industry peers, which is very important — but also by our customers. We’re seeing strong customer engagement, with customers telling us that they’re no longer just coming to Amazon for replenishment. They’re now using it to discover trends, products, and brands. Being a beauty shopping destination has always been my vision for the business, and we are now fully on that path and working hard towards it.

I’ve always believed that growth comes from pushing yourself into areas where you can develop. For example, when I first joined Amazon, I was leading a category P&L and was also given the responsibility of managing the European Subscribe & Save program. I was new to the company and still figuring out how to navigate its culture and structure. That first year at Amazon was one of the toughest of my career. It was a huge learning experience in terms of navigating the organization, earning the trust of stakeholders, and just figuring out how to get things done.

Over the next 10 years, I realized that one of the biggest opportunities for growth was in becoming a better influencer and partner within the company. I had to focus on being more connected, understanding the complexities of the organization, and learning how to influence others positively. I knew that if I didn’t invest in developing those areas, I wouldn’t achieve the success I could. Although it was a gnarly experience at the time, it ultimately helped me navigate my career in a much more successful way. The best tip to cultivate positive power of influence is to prioritize building trust through genuine connection, active listening, and consistent actions, while also demonstrating empathy and a willingness to serve others’ needs.

I strongly believe in the power of mentorship and have greatly benefited from having mentors throughout my career. I think the magic of mentorship comes from finding the right person that you can relate to and having a clear understanding of how you want them to help you. Mentors are only as valuable as the way you leverage them. As the mentee, you have to invest the time to make it work.

As a leader, I tend to bias towards thinking and acting decisively. For me, decisiveness is an important trait because it leads to action, even in the face of uncertainty. I am naturally analytical, so I tend to make decisions based on an analytical framework. I never make off-the-cuff decisions. Whether it’s in my personal or professional life, I always rely on a framework to guide my decision-making process. It’s about having the right inputs, evaluating options, and weighing trade-offs.

For example, when I was offered the opportunity to come to the U.S. to lead the Beauty business, I immediately compiled an input and output matrix to enable the decision-making process for this move. I identified multiple parameters that would be important for my family and me and assigned weights to each parameter on a predetermined scale. Once I normalised all the data and added it all up, the decision to move was a no-brainer.

Del Rey speaking at a CEW event.

The most exciting part of my job is pursuing opportunities to improve the experience for our customers. As I look at the health and beauty business at Amazon in the U.S., there are countless opportunities to make the shopping experience better — whether that’s through personalization, innovation, or inspiration. What excites me is recognizing the limitless opportunities that exist and the empowerment I have as a leader at Amazon to think big and drive change. I’m a builder at heart, and I love creating new experiences and businesses. Being able to do that at Amazon’s scale is truly inspiring because we have the ability to impact millions of people’s lives and transform experiences — not just for our customers, but also for the brands that work with us.