ZLZia Lennard

Profile

A career built between technology and markets.

I’ve built my career at the intersection of technical innovation and the market. My role is rarely to be the deepest technical expert in the room. It is to understand highly specialised concepts quickly, identify what matters commercially, and translate that complexity into market direction, business models, investment propositions, partnerships and routes to uptake.

Common thread

Different sectors. Different technologies. Same role: make complexity understandable, commercially relevant and actionable.

The sectors and technologies have changed considerably, but the underlying role has remained consistent: understand the product or technology, understand the market around it, identify where value can be created, and align the people and resources needed to move it forward.

Career arc

New York → Shanghai → international innovation

  1. 2007–2009

    Consumer products & licensing · New York

    My career began with Nickelodeon / Viacom, coordinating around 20 home-furnishings licensees and learning how brands, products and commercial partners interact.

  2. 2009–2012

    Product development & supply chain · Shanghai

    I then worked independently with a US sports and entertainment home-textiles licensee, operating closer to manufacturing and execution across global sourcing, quality assurance, sustainable packaging and supply-chain delivery.

  3. 2014–Present

    Strategy & commercialisation · R2M Solution

    Since 2014, I have worked across highly technical, multi-sector innovation portfolios and increasingly led strategy, commercialisation, growth, partnerships and international programme execution. I am currently Strategy & Commercialisation Lead and French Branch Co-founder within a group operating across Italy, France and Spain.

How I operate

UNDERSTAND → POSITION → GROW → ACTIVATE

01

Understand

Make highly technical concepts commercially intelligible.

02

Position

Identify where innovation creates real market value.

03

Grow

Shape the business, partnership and investment logic.

04

Activate

Move credible opportunities toward implementation and uptake.

Leadership

Direction through clarity and alignment.

Much of my leadership is exercised through influence rather than hierarchy. I work across multidisciplinary teams, companies, research organisations, public authorities and technology partners, making simplification, alignment and clear strategic direction central to how I lead.

International perspective

Market context matters.

My work has spanned 45+ countries across Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America. Technologies do not move successfully between markets without adapting the proposition, stakeholder model and route to uptake.

Education

MBA, Global MarketingIAE Nice

BA, CommunicationsEmerson College, Boston

Multi-stakeholder Strategies: Analysis for Winning CoalitionsTU Delft