Every meaningful shift in business begins with a clear vision and steady leadership. Thomas Prom is one such leader, helping to reshape how sustainability is approached in the retail space across the Middle East. Rather than treating sustainability as a passing trend, he sees it as a long-term opportunity to redefine company purpose, customer behaviors, and business impact. In a region where tradition meets rapid innovation, he challenges the status quo to reinvent how they consume, how they define value, and how retail can inspire more responsible choices, not through sacrifice, but through desire.
As Regional Head of Sustainability, IT and Digital at Virgin Megastore MENA, every initiative he leads is guided by material impact and a readiness to challenge the very foundations of how retail operates. His story gives a glimpse into retailing as a business but also as a super force for good, where sustainability is a normal vision that inspires teams, drives customers, and reinvents success on a finite planet.
Recognition Through Consistent Impact
Thomas Prom work has earned recognition across the industry, reflecting his focus on systemic change rather than short-term wins. His approach at Virgin Megastore centers on embedding sustainability into core business operations, prioritizing impactful and measurable outcomes over publicity. These recognitions validate his strategy of leading through example and influencing peers across MENA to pursue sustainability goals that exceed basic compliance requirements.
He understands that sustainable transformation takes time and persistence. Long-term impact requires navigating setbacks while maintaining focus on the bigger picture. He leadership reflects this reality, he knows that changing industry practices requires ongoing education, innovation, and collaboration. His focus extends beyond quarterly results to building a foundation that future leaders can expand upon, ensuring Virgin Megastore remains at the forefront of sustainable retail.
Reframing Sustainability as Business Opportunity
Thomas Prom challenges traditional views that sustainability sacrifices profitability. Instead, he sees it as a catalyst for innovation and growth. With a background in environmental education through initiatives like the Climate Fresk, Thomas has seen firsthand that awareness alone isn’t enough; real progress comes when people are offered desirable, practical alternatives that make sustainable choices feel natural. Under his leadership, Virgin Megastore shifts its business model toward circular economy concepts, selling more repairs, extended warranties, and services rather than just products.
One example is the company’s decision to ban PFAs (“forever chemicals”) in cookware. Rather than waiting for regulations, Virgin Megastore used this as an opportunity to introduce safer, premium brands that strengthen customer trust and brand positioning. This proactive approach reflects his philosophy: activists and civil society often identify issues before they become mainstream concerns. He believes that if your mindset is compliance, you’ll always be late; if your mindset is impact, you’ll always be ahead. He cultivates a culture of curiosity and deep listening, letting purpose—not fear—set the direction.
This mindset of turning challenges into opportunities is central to Thomas Prom leadership. He encourages his teams to view sustainability hurdles as stepping stones to innovation — and as moments to question purpose itself. For Thomas Prom, environmental challenges are not just operational constraints but catalysts for reflection: Are we here merely to sell products, or to spark joy, fun, and entertainment in more meaningful ways? This creative problem-solving approach unlocks new business models and customer experiences that were previously unexplored. His leadership shows that sustainability and profitability can reinforce each other when guided by clear thinking and purpose. Virgin Megastore continues to find ways to deliver value that benefits both business results and environmental outcomes.
From Fear and Compliance to Hope and Ownership
One of the biggest challenges in any major transformation digital or sustainable is moving frontline staff from compliance to genuine ownership. Thomas Prom Prom strategy relies on understanding what drives change: urgency and opportunity.
He draws a parallel with the digital transformation of the 2000s, where the existential fear of digital-native competitors created urgency for retailers to move online. What sustained those transformations, however, was hope: the excitement of building new business models and creating new values. The same dynamic applies to sustainability. Thomas Prom contends that if one is not terrified by global warming, one has not yet grasped its magnitude. To truly ignite this urgency among employees, every single employee at Virgin Megastore goes through Climate Fresk training, a process designed to help them truly grasp what a +5°C world means. The realization that a five-degree difference is what separates the world today from the last Ice Age sparks a powerful sense of urgency.
Once the urgency is established, the focus shifts to hope. This energy is channeled into co-creating solutions, exploring opportunities, and turning sustainability into a source of innovation and pride. Alongside the fear, there’s tremendous hope—an incredible opportunity for businesses to reinvent themselves, to do good, and to unite employees, partners, and customers around meaningful projects. This is the fundamental mechanism that moves people from compliance to genuine commitment: they first feel the urgency, and then they own the opportunity.
Data as the Foundation of Credible Sustainability
Thomas Prom anchors Virgin Megastore’s sustainability strategy in digital systems and data transparency. He maintains that sustainability claims without data lack credibility and risk greenwashing. To address this, he leads a comprehensive carbon accounting initiative across the region, aligned with global standards like the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. This digital infrastructure tracks carbon emissions across operations—from electricity use to shipping to product purchases. The data informs strategic decisions, helps set science-based targets, and focuses efforts on meaningful impact reduction. Digital transformation becomes a tool for accountability and measurable progress.
Implementing this system across multiple countries with varied infrastructures requires significant coordination. His ability to align markets, IT teams, and sustainability experts demonstrates effective leadership and project management. He uses technology not just for tracking but for transparent reporting, ensuring stakeholders understand the company’s sustainability position and goals. This initiative makes sustainability quantifiable and actionable, enabling successful practices to be replicated across the region.
Building a Shared ‘Impact Language’ and Dual Bottom Lines
A key factor in aligning cross-functional teams with technology, operations, procurement, merchandising, and customer experience is establishing common language. From an early age, people learn the universal language of business: profit, margin, revenue. However, the shared language of sustainability is still developing. While most people can estimate the cost of a cheeseburger, few know its carbon footprint.
The first step is education, helping teams understand sustainability KPIs as naturally as financial ones. Once people speak the same ‘impact language,’ they can manage it with the same clarity. Thomas Prom applies traditional business logic to sustainable initiatives: performance is tracked just as it would be for conventional products. Critically, they add a second bottom line which is environmental impact. The goal isn’t just maximizing EBITDA; it’s maximizing value creation while minimizing footprint. When teams see sustainability metrics as integral to performance rather than add-ons, cross-functional alignment follows naturally.
Embedding Circular Economy Principles into Retail
Virgin Megastore’s product portfolio, with its short product lifecycles, presents sustainability challenges. Thomas Prom addresses these by embedding circular economy principles throughout the value chain. Initiatives like renting, refurbished electronics, trade-in programs, and enhanced repair services change how customers engage with products. These programs create new revenue streams while reducing waste. He believes sustainable retail should align with modern consumer preferences, making responsible choices natural and desirable.
His commitment to circularity reaches beyond operational initiatives. Thomas Prom actively cultivates partnerships with manufacturers and suppliers to encourage sustainable product design, focusing on durability, reparability, and recyclability. By influencing the supply chain, Virgin Megastore reinforces circular practices beyond its four walls. This systems-thinking approach ensures that sustainability is embedded holistically, from sourcing to end-of-life management. Thomas’s vision is for Virgin Megastore to become a circular economy leader that not only adapts to change but also helps shape industry-wide transformation. He firmly believes that circularity isn’t just an environmental imperative; it’s a business opportunity to align growth with planetary limits.
Empowering Employees and Customers Alike
Thomas Prom recognizes that transforming retail culture requires bringing people along on the sustainability journey. Internally, he implements educational programs like Climate Fresk workshops, helping employees understand climate realities and become sustainability advocates. “When culture shifts from ‘tasks’ to ‘purpose,’ the change is lasting,” he notes.
Externally, he enhances customer engagement by integrating sustainability into the shopping experience. Customers find accessible ways to participate through clear communication, secure trade-in programs with military-grade data wiping, and visible promotion of products made from recycled materials. This holistic approach nurtures trust and enthusiasm, turning sustainability into a collective movement supported across the value chain.
Learning from Civil Society: Early Warning Systems
For a sustainability leader, constantly scanning for emerging trends, regulatory shifts, and technology disruptions is crucial. Thomas Prom’s main source of foresight is civil society. He recognizes that activists and NGOs often see around corners, identifying issues years before they become mainstream or regulated. He has deep respect for their demanding work.
By seeing activists not as troublemakers but as early warning systems and sources of inspiration, a real strategic advantage is gained. This is precisely how the company decided to ban PFAs, long before any regulation required it, because protecting customers and the environment shouldn’t wait for a law. This commitment to proactive impact, not mere compliance, sets the tone for the entire organization. He nurtures a culture to stay curious, listen deeply, and let purpose, not fear, set the direction.
Regional Collaboration and Industry Leadership
Going beyond Virgin Megastore’s walls, Thomas promotes collaboration across the electronic goods sector and public institutions to drive systemic change. He initiated the Decarbonisation Alliance for Electronic Goods (DAEG), an industry platform designed to unite competitors and facilitate dialogue between the private and public sectors — including the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment — to accelerate sector-wide carbon reductions and align sustainability ambitions. His leadership exemplifies how individual company efforts can expand into regional ecosystems, multiplying impact and setting new industry standards.
Maintaining Transparency and Avoiding Greenwashing
In an environment where greenwashing threatens credibility, Thomas Prom maintains strict standards for transparency. His policy is straightforward: if the data doesn’t fully support sustainability claims, the company doesn’t make them. “We follow one rule: under-communicate rather than risk greenwashing. Trust is sustainability’s most valuable currency,” he explains.
This disciplined approach builds long-term trust with customers and stakeholders, demonstrating that sustainability is a genuine commitment rather than marketing narrative. This honesty protects the company’s reputation and strengthens its leadership position in sustainable retail.
Pioneering the Future: Circular Economy as Growth Strategy
Looking forward, Thomas Prom sees the circular economy as Virgin Megastore’s greatest sustainability opportunity in MENA. Moving from a take-make-waste model to a circular one creates opportunities for new services and deeper customer relationships. Repairs, refurbishments, rentals, and extended warranties become central to business strategy, closing resource loops and maximizing product value. Thomas believes this model is a win-win, beneficial for both the planet and the business. According to him, it’s a blueprint that other companies in the region can emulate to fuel a sustainable retail revolution.
A Realistic Call to Business Leaders
Thomas Prom message to business leaders resonates with pragmatic urgency: sustainability is not a choice but an imperative. He urges business leaders to move past the false divide between idealism and realism. For Thomas Prom
, sustainability isn’t an ideology; it’s a reality check. The truly unrealistic approach is to act as if resources are infinite or that climate change won’t affect supply chains, operations, and customers, because it already does. He opines, “I challenge the word ‘trade-off.’ Sustainability isn’t about loss; it’s about rethinking business models to turn responsibility into growth”.
Embracing sustainability means aligning with physical realities, responding to shifting values, and seizing the opportunities that come from responsible, forward-looking action. It’s not a constraint; it’s a strategic lens to future-proof business and create meaningful impact. His work demonstrates that responsible leadership grounded in data, transparency, and culture can produce powerful, profitable transformations. He urges companies to act today, not just for their own survival but for the well-being of communities and generations to come. Thomas Prom
states, “Regulations shape behavior, but culture changes the game”.
For Thomas Prom, sustainability leadership is an ongoing journey defined by courage, creativity, and collaboration. His vision inspires a new era of retail where business success supports planetary health, making sustainability a source of strength rather than constraint. “Our role isn’t just to sell products, but to deliver experiences and solutions. Sustainability should feel cooler, smarter, and more rewarding, never a compromise,” says Thomas.
