Q&A with Marisa Blasco Bayona, Director of Analytics, Performance, and Programs for EU ATS

Everyone, meet Marisa! ?? Marisa leads our Analytics, Performance and Programs team and has been at Amazon for three years. Marisa’s team is responsible for data technology, application development, and data science models for ATS. Marisa took time out of her busy schedule to tell us about her Amazon journey, her love of travel, and favourite movie.

Marisa, can you tell us more about yourself and your Amazon journey?

I am from Zaragoza, Spain. With a degree in Economics and an executive MBA, I started my career working for Iberia Airline. I worked for different airlines across Europe, experiencing different business models and customer segments, as well as taking on different responsibilities, including Network Planning, Business Intelligence, Online channel, Sales and Pricing. One of my last assignments was being responsible for all the Commercial aspects in the launch of a new airline. I joined Amazon in November 2018, with the goal of setting up a Business Intelligence team for EU ATS. I built the team from scratch and ended our first year with nine people on the team. Our team now has more than 100 people, including Software Developers, Data Engineers, Applied Scientists, Business Intelligence Engineers, Technical Program Managers and Product Managers.

How did your past experience help prepare you for working at Amazon?

I was used to working and managing big projects that involved tech (systems migration, functional analysis, gap analysis) plus, having worked through many reorganisations, I was used to managing change – a must at Amazon! It also helped that I had worked in different countries and experienced different cultures so was used to working in diverse teams.

You spoke about working in different countries and experiencing different cultures, what is the most rewarding or challenging aspect of working in a diverse environment?

The opportunity to learn new things from each other is the most rewarding……it could be a tradition, a new way of understanding things, a saying... or how different we can be when facing challenges, providing feedback, or giving a presentation. The most challenging thing in a diverse environment is communication and understanding the best way to communicate messages and create opportunities for everyone to participate and have a voice.

What excites you MOST about your role and team at ATS?

What excites me most at ATS is the opportunity to shape the future; we come up with ideas and we implement them to the benefit of our stakeholders and customers. And I like how ATS changes year over year and this means we need to be flexible, create solutions that can evolve with these changes, and build teams that are flexible and adapt to new challenges.

What is your favourite ATS memory?

I think one of my best memories is going to be the latest team event that I held (virtually) with more than 100 participants. It was very rewarding to see almost everyone on the team on Chime!

Marisa, can you finish the sentence for us? "When I'm not at work, you can find me..."

…travelling abroad with my family, visiting my family in Spain, or somewhere in London with my children.

What is your favourite place in the world?

That is a very difficult question! I don't have a favourite place; I enjoy being in Spain, almost anywhere in Spain makes me feel like home. But I love Italy because of the amazing culture, landscapes and food. I have amazing memories from Belgium. And from the countries I have visited, I found Namibia really spectacular... I could mention so many more…

What's the last movie you watched?

The last move I watched was Knives Out – I loved it!