Avon Appoints Experienced General Manager to Drive Growth in Eastern Europe

Today Avon announced that Anna Yarvits has been appointed Group Vice President and General Manager, Russia and Eastern Europe, effective August 21, 2018. Dr. Yarvits will report to Miguel Fernandez, Global President.

Anna Yarvits has a strong track record of transforming business performance with over 20 years of experience within global organizations. She joins Avon from Teva, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, where she most recently served as SVP Cluster Head, Russia & Eurasia and General Manager, Russia. She helped execute Teva’s strategic merger with Actavis to create one of the largest pharmaceutical businesses in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, with sales of over $500 million. Before joining Teva, Dr. Yarvits held General Management roles at several global pharmaceutical companies, including Zentiva (a Sanofi company) and ratiopharm. She started her business career in sales and marketing at SmithKline Beecham/GSK.

“We are delighted to welcome Anna to the leadership team at Avon, where she will be responsible for managing one of our top three markets,” said Miguel Fernandez, Global President. “As a seasoned executive, Anna brings extensive General Management experience, successfully improving business performance across extensive product portfolios for some of the biggest international pharmaceutical businesses in the large and growing Eastern European region.”

“I am pleased to join Avon and excited to become part of an organization that prides itself on providing opportunities for Representatives to grow and adopt their business model to a new digital reality throughout Eastern Europe,” said Dr. Yarvits. “Avon is well known in the region for having a great branded portfolio of innovative products that meet the evolving needs of a diverse customer base, and I am eager to expand Avon’s operations in Russia and Eastern Europe and capture greater value in these large and growing beauty markets.”

Miguel Fernandez continued, “Elena Starkova, the current General Manager has decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. Elena has had an exemplary 22 year career at Avon driving the business to be number one in Direct Selling in Eastern Europe. I, along with everyone at Avon, wish her well in her future career.”

Dr. Yarvits has been recognized with numerous awards throughout her career, including most recently being ranked fifth in the “Top 1,000 Russian Managers” in the pharmaceutical executives of Russian and foreign businesses. She holds an M.D. in General Medicine and a PhD in Dermatology, from Ekaterinburg State Medical University and is a Fellow in Professional Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. In her new role, Anna will be responsible for Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.