Olga Alavanou

Olga Alavanou has over 32 years of business leadership experience in multinational environments. As a senior executive, she has led global Business Units responsible for revenue growth, profit, and customer relationship management in North, Central Latin America, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Africa. During her tenure, the business delivered significant revenue and margin growth, gained share, and outpaced the market.  

She is skilled in turnarounds and in organizing, managing, and developing global teams to achieve operational excellence. She is proficient in developing and executing business strategies across the globe to deliver bottom line results. She has led Supply Chain Management organizations where she led risk management, compliance, and business control initiatives to mitigate impact associated with supplier bankruptcies and workforce restructuring. 

Diverse experience gained from progressively increasing roles and responsibilities as well as Board service and M&A activities. Recognized as an effective leader who blends strategic thinking with tactical execution to deliver results and build relationships with the customer as well as within the organization. During her career she has built a reputation for operational excellence, strategic thinking, and a deep and passionate commitment to customer satisfaction, while working with the highest level of integrity. 

She began her career at Ford Motor Company as a product development engineer before she joined a global auto supplier of electrical distribution systems. In her first significant leadership role she was responsible for developing and executing the company’s global growth strategy with General Motors. She also oversaw several operations across the globe and created a “flawless launch process” as part of the company’s continuous improvement initiative. 

Currently she serves on the Wayne State University Engineering School’s Board of Visitors and as the Chair of the Executive committee focusing on increasing STEM pipeline through collaboration with the industry. She has previously served on the University of Detroit Mercy’s Business School Advisory Board, Winning Features Fundraising Board, and InForum’s Automotive Next Board. Ms. Alavanou holds an Electrical Engineering Degree from Wayne State University, an MBA from University of Detroit Mercy, and an Executive MBA from IMD Business School in Lausanne Switzerland.