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The 50 most powerful people in the media, marketing and advertising industry A Mediaquest Corp publication
POWER
LIST Contents Letter from the editor Here comes the Power List 2012
Methodology The keys to understanding our rankings
Top 10 Who’s at the top of the list? The ten most influential individuals of the year
From 11 to 40 The ones that matter, and shouldn’t be overlooked
From 41 to 50 The last ten names that have the power to make a difference
4 I Communicate I Powerlist
Through the course of our research, we have used many sources to find the information and photographs in this publication. We have done our best to make sure that we have the rights to use all the photographs we have published. If we have accidentally infringed copyright, this was unintentional and we will strive to rectify the error. If you wish to contact us about any such error, please e-mail editor@communicate.ae.
06 08 12 34 81
Elegance is an attitude
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Letter from the editor More and more
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s you surely remember, Communicate’s first Power List, released in the spring 2011, generated what we can, genuinely call, a buzz – as was intended. Obviously, some of the individuals featured were satisfied, others were disappointed, a few were surprised and a handful got really upset. Such reactions were to be expected. One doesn’t play with power without causing sparks. A lot of comments were made, both in public and in private, but more strongly voiced in private. The Power List left no reader indifferent – as it was intended to. Obviously, some of these comments were constructive, others were harsh, a few were frankly amusing and a handful were almost threatening. Again, this was to be expected. We listened carefully, understood the various points that were made, took in consideration the many remarks that would help make the list better, and decided to go for this 2012 edition, regardless of all we had been told – and maybe even because of that. In fact, not to take this forward would have been simply unconceivable. Power has to be wielded wisely and shouldn’t serve to provide unchecked liberty of action; this list humbly aims to remind its readers that with power comes responsibility, and accountability. Interestingly, you’ll see many new faces in this 2012 edition. The past months were loaded with action on many levels: a number of prominent names moved on, handing over the baton to a different generation of communicators. Needless to say that when Sheikh Waleed Al Ibrahim – our 2011’s number one – steps down from his CEO role at MBC, a lot of shifting around is bound to happen. Also, the tremors caused by the Arab Spring could still be felt, translating into new, more developed marketing approaches for some, restructuring for others, a different focus for most. Whereas only one woman, Tecom Business Parks’ CEO Amina Al Rustamani, made the list at rank 27 last year, we’re glad to see that we’ve quadrupled this number in 2012, with more women – namely Hala Badri from du, Rustamani again, Noura Al Kaabi from twofour54 and Charlotte West from Mars Inc – being not only entrusted with more responsibilities, but also getting more recognition for it. Lastly, we gladly realized that the diversity of companies presented in the list has increased compared to 2011; we now have more FMCG firms, more banks, more automakers, mostly because these categories of advertisers have started to spend more, and spend more smartly… A sure sign that intelligent communication is increasingly perceived as a need that must be addressed by brands in the region, and not a luxury anymore. Words have power, indeed. Nathalie Bontems, group managing editor, Communicate
6 I Communicate I Power List
Our inner working The methodology behind the Power List
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he concept of the Power List is to come up with a ranking of the people who hold the most power and influence in the Middle East’s media, marketing and advertising industry. The selection process is complex, as from the start, our priority is to move subjectivity out of the equation and use hard data as much as possible to design this ranking. This list represents a good snapshot of the business over the past 12 months, although of course, the industry has many other influential people; some are not here for either lack of hard data or because they did not make the cut. We chose to limit the list to 50. Communicate worked hard to find industry data and personal data on the entrants, and collate existing data. We also requested companies and people disclose data to us. Some did; others did not. If certain data could not be verified, we had to remove it from the equation. Data gathering As we started gathering data, our initial list had more than 150 companies and people on it. We relied on estimates and Ipsos figures to find the monitored corporate data in terms of revenue and ad spend for the region. Who is on the list? Most of the people on the list are either chief executive officers or chief marketing officers. They are people that control the advertising and marketing budget of their companies, or professionals whose jobs are to manage advertising and media-related companies. There are a few exceptions on the list – for example when companies split their marketing activities according to each of their divisions, in which case we chose to feature the chief operating officer instead, his role being to oversee the general end result. The points system We allocated points according to the criteria below. Some criteria earned more points than others (for example, company revenue earned more points than membership of associations). But even the categories in which we awarded fewer points made a difference in some cases. Some of the people in our final list were very close together. Since much of the information we used to put our list together is sensitive, we have chosen not to publish our raw data or our weighting, but simply to explain how we worked out the list. Company data The first step was to evaluate the various companies that operate in the business as the more important a company is, the more influence the people within it wield. The criteria we used to evaluate companies were: • Number of employees in the region • Size of monitored advertising budget for clients • Billings for agencies and media agencies • Revenues for media companies • Numbers of years the company has existed in the region Size: The more employees a company has in the region, the more it can influence the industry. However some companies could have thousands of people but very limited influence as their core activities are not in the marketing and advertising industry. We awarded extra points to companies whose core business is in marketing and advertising. We then awarded points based on the number of employees, until a company reached 700 employees. That was the maximum. Budget: A client that spends a marketing/advertising budget of $100,000 doesn’t have the same voice in the industry as a client that spends $100 million. The bigger a company’s spend, the more points we awarded it. For agencies and media agencies, we had to use estimates and data provided by Ipsos, as well as industry intelligence to find the amount of money agencies were bringing in. When creative agencies were shareholders in media agencies, we only measured their income from the creative side of their business, as we measured their media agencies as companies in their own right. For the media, we had to rely on monitored figures as well as industry estimates to see how much revenue the media owners were bringing in.
8 I Communicate I Power List
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Years in the region: The longer a company has been in the region, the more people have worked with it. Calling upon people who have worked with you or your company is easier than calling on those with whom you’ve not worked as closely. Some companies group agencies under a mother company. In those cases the mother company with the officially consolidated figures was taken into account, and individual units were also listed. Personal data The next step after the company ranking was done was to evaluate the power of individuals and the influence they have on the industry. We decided to stick to the regional heads of the companies, or regional CMOs and their equivalents. Many in the industry are very influential, but the regional head is most powerful in terms of crafting the future of his company and having a strong voice in the industry.
The 50 most powerful people in the media, marketing and advertising industry A Mediaquest Corp publication
The personal criteria we measured includes: • Years in business • Years in the region • Shareholding • Google effect • Associations • Social media Years in business: The more time a person has spent in the industry, the more he has developed his network of connections, friends and colleagues. Therefore he is better able to move the industry. Any person with fewer than 10 years in the industry would not get points on this criteria. We awarded more points to those who have been in the industry longer, up to a limit of 30 years. Years in the region: Even the person most knowledgeable about a particular industry can be puzzled by the region and the way it works, so the more time someone has spent in the region, the more important his network of colleagues, business associates, friends and enemies. We saw some powerful firms headed by newcomers with limited experience of the region. They are ranked lower than some might expect, as the connection factor is important in this part of the world. Shareholding: This was an important factor, as major shareholders in large companies in the region have an important impact on their companies and the industry. This was one of the most difficult criteria as this information is not readily available and we had to rely on industry intelligence. Google effect: We used Google searches to see how many times people were quoted in the media and on websites. The more a person was quoted, the more points we gave them. We capped this at 5,000 Google hits. Associations: Involvement with industry bodies, NGOs and other associations earned people points. Social media: This was a good view on the connections people have developed in the industry and beyond.
DECEMBER 2012 GROUP MANAGING EDITOR Nathalie Bontems JOURNALISTS Pashma Manglani, Priyanka Pradhan CHIEF SUB EDITOR Elizabeth McGlynn ART DIRECTORS Sheela Jeevan, Jean-Christophe Nys ART CONTRIBUTOR Nour Attar ADVERTISING
Medialeader, P.O. Box 72184, Dubai Media City, Zee Tower, Office 206, Dubai, Tel: +971 4 391 0760, Fax: +971 4 390 8737 ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR – PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Grace Maroun, grace@mediaquestcorp.com, Mobile: +971 55 607 8161 BDM Sara Naja, s.naja@mediaquestcorp.com, Mobile: + 971 55 851 0100 WEBSITE www.communicate.ae
Reproduction in whole or part of any matter appearing in Communicate is prohibited by law without the prior written approval of the publishers. Opinions expressed in Communicate do not necessarily represent the views of the publishers and editorial staff of the magazine. The publishers do not hold out any guarantee as to its accuracy, neither do they indemnify any loss arising through use of the information. All dollar prices ($) are US dollars, unless otherwise specified. Printed by: United Printing & Publishing, Abu Dhabi
10 I Communicate I Power List
Published by: Medialeader FZ/MediaquestCorp
Europe S.C.C.Arabies, 18, rue de Varize, 75016 Paris, France, Tel: +33 01 47 664600, Fax: + 33 01 43 807 362, GCC P.O. Box 72184, Dubai Media City, Zee Tower, Office 206, Dubai Tel: +971 4 391 0760, Lebanon Medialeader SAL, Lebanon, Tel/Fax: + 961 1 492 801/2 FOUNDER Yasser Hawari CO-CEO Alexandre Hawari CO-CEO Julien Hawari CFO Abdul Rahman Siddiqui MANAGING DIRECTOR Ayman Haydar GENERAL MANAGER - DOTMENA Rosy Kachouh HEAD OF INTERACTIVE MEDIA Mohamed Bitar CREATIVE DIRECTOR Aziz Kamel HEAD OF CIRCULATION Harish Raghavan, h.raghavan@mediaquestcorp.com KSA GM Walid Ramadan, walid@mediaquestcorp.com, Tel: +966 1 4194061 LEBANON GM Peggy ElZyr, peggy@mediaquestcorp.com, Tel: +961 1 492 801 NORTH AFRICA GM Adil Abdel Wahab, adel@medialeader.biz, Tel: +213 661 562660 FRANCE SALES DIRECTOR Manuel Dias, dias@arabies.com, Tel: +33 1 4766 46 00
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01/Pierre Choueiri/ CEO Choueiri Group Family man
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t’s not easy living up to a legacy, especially one like that left behind by the iconic Antoine Choueiri, credited with being one of the founding fathers of the region’s media, marketing and advertising industry, who passed away almost three years ago. However, his son Pierre seems to be doing a pretty good job at the helm of the region’s largest media representation firm, the Choueiri Group, founded in 1970. Over the last two years Pierre Choueiri consolidated this legacy and lead it to new heights by relying on the leadership of the Group’s media partners – the true custodians of power – MBC Group, DMI and others; by acquiring new media representations such as Al Hayat TV Group in Egypt; and by expanding its outdoor and digital platforms. He did learn from the very best, so it’s no surprise that he has managed to successfully maintain the empire that his father built. Antoine made sure that Pierre got started early (in 1988, to be precise) and from the “bottom of the whole thing.” Pierre says he learnt the business “from A to Z” when handling the media representation of Abu Dhabi TV, including everything from managing booking orders to the sales – “the whole story.” And it definitely wasn’t easy. His father was tough on him but, Pierre says, he is thankful for that today as “this is what made me stronger. It wasn’t easy and it should be this way, especially because I am his son. You should not take things for granted in life,” he adds. “Nothing is for granted.” Since 2005, when the handover of power from father to son began, the Choueiri Group has continued to maintain its position in the Arab media market, and has expanded further on both the so-called “traditional media” front and the digital media front. The introduction of the group’s Digital Media Services (DMS) division aims to remain alongside its media partners in their quest to be
01
at the forefront of the digital marketing scene. The Group’s media partners are taking all necessary steps to embrace innovation and technology as the broad titles and game changers of the current media content delivery. However, despite being a staunch supporter of digital media, Choueiri believes the digital world is complementary to traditional media, which is here to stay. According to him, traditional media will not disappear as a source of content but will undergo a massive change in the way it is consumed. Choueiri has no plans to slow his company’s expansion. In fact, speaking on the role of the advertising and media sector in boosting economic growth, he says: “We owe it [growth] not just to ourselves, but also to the millions of young, bright and deserving Arabs to keep our industry vibrant and growing.” He credits his present success to the trust that the Choueiri Group has earned from the region’s media conglomerates, as well as from key advertising groups, along with Choueiri Group’s dedicated team of 600+ executives that he likes to call “My Dream Team”. “We at Choueiri Group are true believers in the ‘Golden Triangle’ (advertisers, agencies, media groups and there representatives) being the main pillar of the sustainable growth of the media and advertising industry in the region. With an eye on the future, his goal is to continue servicing the region’s “strongest and most cherished consumer brands,” and with his strong work ethic and sense of family spirit, that seems to be exactly the direction he’s heading.
The introduction of the group’s Digital Media Services (DMS) division aims to remain alongside our media partners in their quest to be at the forefront of the digital marketing scene. The introduction of the Digital Media Services (DMS) division aims to remain alongside its media partners in their quest to be at the forefront of the digital marketing scene. 12 I Communicate I Power List
TV is here to stay, says Choueiri. “TV will never, ever be replaced by the Internet or digital.” Even if people watch TV on their iPad, it’s still TV as long as it’s the first broadcast, he says. Power List I Communicate I 13
02/Elie Khouri/ CEO Omnicom Media Group MENA Scientific artist
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lie Khouri has made a name for himself in the industry, and a prominent one at that: he is the CEO of holding company Omnicom Media Group (OMG), which was initially built around the incorporation in the Middle East of media network OMD in 2002, which Khouri led, by merging the media departments of Impact BBDO, TBWA\Raad and the regional DDB agencies. Under OMG MENA’s umbrella also fall OMD’s digital division; planning networks PHD (which launched in the region in 2005) and M2M; research consultancy Integral, the region’s first branded entertainment unit, Fuse, established in 2006; “thought-starter” service OMD Ignition, created in 2007; and an innovative dedicated mobile marketing unit launched in 2011. Khouri has certainly made sure that his group of companies would be positioned at the forefront of digital expertise in the Middle East; his teams spearheaded the development of the first continuous tracker of online audiences (C.Web) and an optimization system (Optinet) to make digital advertising planning more scientific. Today, OMG MENA provides a comprehensive digital service offering, and has been growing steadily, becoming the region’s largest investor in media in 2005. But awards, money and glitz mean little to Khouri, who hopes that his legacy will be the talent that he has nurtured over the years. “I hope I will leave behind me an organization that is built on people, basically,” he says. “Not on money and profit and awards.” It’s not incidental that OMG MENA was the first and only communication group ranked in the top 10 in the Great Place to Work UAE listing – and was even commended for its policies toward women. In fact, the group’s talent director, Tamela Scotcher, was named OMG MENA Leader of the Year for her efforts in supporting this cause through a network-wide talent program. As a boss, Khouri strives to create an environment for new talent to thrive, and for existing talent to stick around.
Under Elie Khouri, OMG MENA has expanded its mobile services considerably, taking advantage of the massive smartphone penetration in the region. 14 I Communicate I Power List
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For this seasoned art expert – on his team, many feel they’re in fact working in an art gallery rather than in a communication firm – who once compared a red piece of art he had described as “organized chaos” to the world, creativity is obviously key. But only to an extent. In an interview with The National, he says at some point creativity can be pointless since the goal is to sell more product. “Advertising is not art,” he adds. “It is a combination of art and science.” Down to earth, Khouri doesn’t indulge in arty analysis and pats on the back. He only got introduced to the field by mere coincidence, when he caught up with an old friend who was in advertising. A graduate from the American University in Beirut’s MBA program in 1988, he had been working in finance. “It’s an exciting world, so why don’t you check it out?” he was told. And so he did, getting a job at Impact BBDO under Alain Khouri. He hasn’t looked back since. The group where he grew professionally was also where he met his wife. And in 1992 he was offered a position in Dubai to work under his father-in-law, Alain Khouri. It’s been tricky, he says, especially since, in this part of the world, people always assume that he’s getting preferential treatment. However, results speak for themselves. Under Khouri, the group has expanded its mobile marketing services considerably, taking advantage of the massive smartphone penetration in the region. OMG has also spread out into conducting in-house research in areas like social media and internet penetration, giving the firm a definite edge in the market. Khouri knows the science behind advertising, and is well on his way to achieving his personal and professional aim: making sense of complexities.
It’s not incidental that OMG MENA is the first and only group ranked in the top 10 in the Great Place to Work UAE listing. As a boss, Khouri strives to create an environment for new talent to thrive, and for existing talent to stick around.
Power List I Communicate I 15
03/Roy Haddad/ Director WPP MENA Intellectual at heart
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oy Haddad follows a simple philosophy in life, based on a Chinese proverb: if you cannot smile, don’t open a shop. And as a charming man who has a way with words, Haddad was made for the advertising world. Using this as his guiding philosophy, Haddad has helped forge some of the most long-lasting relationships in the industry in the time that he’s been in the field. It’s no wonder WPP, one of the world’s major advertising firms, appointed him as their first-ever director for the MENA region, in June 2012. The goal is for him to help expand growth horizontally: finding talent, identifying acquisitions and scouting for the best ME companies. And in his three decades of working in advertising, he’s proved that he’s more than capable of handling such a project. Haddad started off working in the industry in 1977. Seven years later, he decided he wanted to start up his own company, which he did: Al Mona – with two offices, one in London and one in Jeddah. He says that the firm brought a few things to the table, particularly a team that came from a multinational background and had a “very good understanding of local insights.” He recalls that while he had no trouble procuring clients like Honda and Pif Paf, what really got him started was the RJ Reynolds’ Camel cigarettes account. “RJR made a huge leap of faith at that time,” says Haddad. “The pitch took place in June 1983, and at that time I pitched against big agencies. I was an ambitious young man, but with no agency and no portfolio. But I think they liked what they heard.” His ambition has not been affected over the years. In 1987, his firm merged with Saudi Arabia-based Tihama to become TMI, which soon signed a partnership agreement with J. Walter Thompson; he’s been a JWT man ever since. “I’m very much JWT,” said Haddad in an earlier interview, adding, “Some people consider me of the old guard.”
Roy Haddad is an intellectual at heart, having studied philosophy in college, while graduating in political science and then obtaining an MBA at Columbia. 16 I Communicate I Power List
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To an extent, this may be true, since he is an intellectual at heart, having studied philosophy in college, while graduating in political science at an important French institute in Paris and then obtaining an executive MBA at Columbia in the US. When discussing life outside advertising, the first thing he talks about is his passion for books and music while expressing his disappointment that people don’t read as much as they used to. But clearly, while he’s old fashioned in some respects, Haddad knows how to be innovative when it comes to his job; having the courage to be different is something he says is essential for any advertising professional. “If you are to offer innovative solutions, business-building solutions, sometimes they might be controversial, and you need to have the courage to stick by them.” As the major promotion he’s received in the last year well shows, his advice is definitely working, at least for himself. With his love of culture, his determination to push boundaries and that charming smile of his, the reasons why he’s so successful in the industry are clear.
“If you are to offer innovative solutions, business-building solutions, sometimes they might be controversial, and you need to have the courage to stick by them.� Power List I Communicate I 17
& CEO 04/Joseph Ghossoub/ Chairman Menacom Group Brick by brick
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oseph Ghossoub is often referred to as the “godfather” of advertising, and it’s easy to see why: from the day he started in the industry, Ghossoub’s career has been an adventure. Ghossoub got interested in advertising simply because he was at a point in his life where he was, in fact, looking for a better opportunity; this was 1979, Lebanon’s civil war was raging, he wanted out. As fate would have it, an old friend of his was working for an ad agency, Intermarkets, in Saudi Arabia. Even though he had no experience whatsoever in this trade, he made his way to the Beirut office for an interview, dodging bullets from snipers. “Looking back on it all, I laugh because going there in the first place under such conditions and remaining serious during the interview was simply absurd,” he tells advertising magazine ArabAd, adding that during this job interview, he was asked about his experience in the field and replied, “Absolutely nothing. I have no clue.” Ghossoub knew he’d better not lie and pretend then, because his boss would discover the truth at one point or another. Soon enough, though, Ghossoub himself realized that advertising was right for him as he moved up quickly; two years later, he was named group account director and was transferred back to Beirut; another two years later, he was named deputy general manager of the UAE office and moved again to another market in 1985. “I learn fast,” he told Communicate in an earlier interview. However, Ghossoub’s disagreements with Intermarkets’ management and the realization that he was never going to be a shareholder, led him to part ways with the firm and go solo in 1993, setting up his own agency, Team, with another Lebanese advertising maverick, Talal Makdessi; by 1996, Team was so successful that it tied up with Young & Rubicam, which bought 25 percent of its capital in 1999 –
Ghossoub heads Menacom, a company from which WPP bought 60 percent in 2008. It now boasts more than 1,200 employees and 57 offices across the region. 18 I Communicate I Power List
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that same year, Team Y&R acquired Intermarkets. Of course, success comes at a price. Ghossoub says he was rarely able to spend time with his children, and “was a visitor” for more than a decade. But, he adds, he’s been able to give them something they will enjoy more now: an empire. After Team Y&R’s various expansions and rebranding, Ghossoub now heads up Menacom, a company in which WPP bought 60 percent in 2008, that has more than 1,200 employees and 57 offices across the region. Despite a regional drop in ad spending – making it a difficult year for everyone in the industry – Menacom is firmly set on growth, and oversees many successful companies, from MEC to Team Y&R, Wunderman and Asda’a Burson-Marsteller, among others. Ghossoub says that now his job is to “make sure the continuity of the company is secure” by ensuring that the right people are running the right subsidiary and by giving them advice wherever he can to “help them become what they should become on their own.” Looking at the journey he’s taken and the progress he’s made (including the failures he’s doubtlessly had), the reason why Ghossoub is still revered in the industry is obvious enough; he’s one of the few entrepreneurs who can actually say they built advertising in the Middle East.
Ghossoub says his job is to now “make sure the continuity of the company is secure.�
Power List I Communicate I 19
CEO 05/Ghassan Harfouche/ Group MCN Quiet strength
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f some people are born to lead, then Ghassan Harfouche is a perfect specimen. When this elegant, poised and soft-spoken Lebanese was made CEO of the Middle East Communications Network (MCN) early in 2011, to replace longstanding CEO Fadi Salameh, the group’s chairman, Akram Miknas, described him as a “leader who will take MCN to a new era” with his “integrity, ethics and, above all, visionary courage.” MCN looks over agency brands including Fortune Promoseven (FP7), Lowe MENA, UM, Initiative, Magna Global, Promoseven 360, MRM Worldwide, McCann Healthcare, Weber Shandwick Mena, and InnovationsDigital; that’s quite a lot to oversee. Moreover, Harfouche has had a bit of a rocky start with the socio-political changes happening in the region, where he says there was little growth in 2011, adding that reports showed a 14-15 per cent drop. To up the ante, MCN was particularly challenged by the Arab Spring’s developments due to its important presence in countries like Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and Morocco. But Harfouche, who has a masters in economics from USJ in Lebanon and an EMBA from London Business School, has a number of assets up his sleeve, starting with a real understanding of the region’s market dynamics, reinforced by an extensive experience in several countries during the course of his career that has only broadened his understanding of how business works in the Middle East. Harfouche started off his career in Lebanon in sales and marketing before he joined the De Beers Diamond Group in Jeddah. There, he moved to the media industry with the Choueiri Group in 1999, to manage Tihama for Advertising and Public Relations, a national company listed on the Saudi Arabian stock exchange; for three years, he was general manager of the media division and was involved in restructuring Tihama. He transferred to Dubai in 2002 to head up Middle East
In his role as group CEO, Ghassan Harfouche’s goal is to develop a vision for MCN’s future, identifying key opportunities that can contribute to growth. 20 I Communicate I Power List
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Media Services (MEMS), the Choueiri Group’s division specialized in promoting and selling advertising space; as managing director, he was tasked with supervising media sales and placements across a variety of leading media vehicles, including Dubai TV, Sama Dubai, Dubai One and Dubai Sports Channel, in addition to three magazine publication titles and a growing network of outdoor signages. He was in charge of a team of 75, spread out across seven cities. Moreover, the fact is that he’s dealt with rough times before – in 2009, ad spending had been severely cut back; Harfouche told The National that as much as $150m was overdue in clients’ payments at the time – contributes as well to making him the perfect fit for a challenging job. In his role as group CEO, Harfouche’s goal is to develop a vision for MCN’s future, identifying key opportunities that can contribute to growth. No doubt he won’t allow a few setbacks to compromise other initiatives. “We need to build capabilities and that means investment; at the same time, we have to be very prudent because we have to achieve our numbers,” he told Communicate earlier this year. What the company needs now is a balance that can help stimulate growth and expansion, he says, adding that, while the risk factor is still there, he’s “very positive regarding the region’s potential to grow in the mid-run.” Not to mention MCN’s future as well.
“We need to build capabilities and that means investment; at the same time, we have to be very prudent because we have to achieve our numbers.� Power List I Communicate I 21
and CEO 06/Dani Richa/ Chairman Impact BBDO MENA Most wanted
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fter over two decades of working with Impact BBDO, Dani Richa lives and breathes advertising. He has even been knighted the National Order of the Cedar in Lebanon for his contributions to the industry. But it wasn’t always like that. In fact, in the ’80s, Richa was in Paris studying, in the footsteps of his father, to become an architect. An all-night broadcast of ads at a Paris cinema – the Night of the Ad Eaters – changed his life forever and, considering his achievements since then, it’s probably best he discovered his penchant for advertising earlier rather than later. Success has chased him at every step on his path in the industry: he got three promotions in six months in his first job with Beirut agency Lead Advertising; there, he was made head of creative at the age of 22, but, instead of being thrilled, he resigned. “I said: ‘Look, I cannot be that good. So if I go up this fast, there’s something wrong with this place,’” he says, with a little smile on his face. He then moved to work at Leo Burnett under Farid Chehab and, after having proved his worth, he was entrusted with the Procter & Gamble account. Like before, his job performance impressed his superiors and he was offered a raise equivalent to 20 times his salary to relocate to Saudi Arabia as creative director. If that wasn’t enough, he soon had Impact BBDO chasing after him too – and with a better offer as well. When he told his boss he was leaving, Chehab “went berserk,” recalls Richa. There were bumps in the road, of course, but Richa’s determination to succeed never wavered, although there were a few unexpected turns in store for him. Indeed, the management side of the work never really was of interest to him – after all, Richa was mostly known for his impetuous, contagious and sponta-
In 2010, BBDO Worldwide acquired a majority share, turning Impact BBDO into an Omnicom subsidiary. 24 I Communicate I Power List
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neous creativity, which would get him to jump on the top of a meeting table during a presentation to a client to better make his point; however, he learnt to appreciate it when he became Impact BBDO Beirut’s managing director, side by side with Elie Khouri, who would become Omnicom Group MENA’s CEO, while continuing to run regional creative. Similarly, he was still chief creative officer when he was named chief operating officer of the network a few years later. Today, Richa confesses to sneaking into his creative departments to get a whiff of the good old creative feeling from time to time. But he also says he’s right where he belongs, at Impact BBDO. The network becomes him, and vice versa. Under his strict lead – Richa admits to being, as a CEO, extremely tight when it comes to cost, taking little to no risk when investing – Impact BBDO has kept growing, gaining more and more recognition along the way. In 2010, BBDO Worldwide acquired the majority of its stakes, turning Impact BBDO into an Omnicom subsidiary. In February 2012, the regional network won 18 awards in multiple categories at the MENA Cristal Festival in Lebanon. This came after BBDO Worldwide had won The Gunn Report as the most awarded global agency network for the sixth year in a row; Richa says it was important to be recognized closer to home as well. According to him, the key to the firm’s success is the “relentless focus on The Work, The Work, The Work.” And although he still finds time to play poker with his friends once a week at least, and still insists on keeping one morning every weekend to look after himself, Richa doesn’t show any sign of slowing down now.
“The key to the firm’s success is the relentless focus on The Work, The Work, The Work.”
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07/Sam Barnett/ CEO Middle East Broadcasting Corporation Fire keeper
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fter nine years of working with the Middle East broadcasting Corporation, Sam Barnett was made CEO of the region’s leading media group, a network reaching about 100 million viewers daily across the region. The promotion came at a time when media houses were struggling with a fall in ad sales and revenues because of the socio-political upheavals across the region, but Barnett knew the challenges that lay ahead of him and was positive anyway. In an interview with Digital Broadcast magazine, he sums it all up: “We are an efficient machine. We’re commercial, we’re profitable, we’re cashflow positive and we get the ratings.” Involved with MBC for a long time, since 2002 as a consultant on what is now the Al Arabiya news channel, and already positioned as one of the key executives of the group, Barnett knew exactly what he was working with, what was at his disposal, and what the market potentials were. The 2012 Arab Media Outlook report suggests that he was right in being confident. According to the report’s findings, MBC’s channels are the highest viewed in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Morocco. Also, the group was the least affected by the crisis caused by the Arab Spring, while the report stated that competitors across the region were suffering from “serious internal changes,” a problem that MBC has not had to deal with. In one year’s time, Barnett actually took a few major, and bold, steps forward, including the launch of a 12th channel, MBC Masr, marking the group’s expansion into Egypt where, he unsurprisingly says, there is “large potential for growth”. To use the local knowledge that MBC has acquired over the years, MBC enters the Egyptian market to win over more advertising accounts for the group. Barnett also aims to diversify the group’s
MBC’s channels are the highest viewed in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Morocco.
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expansion initiatives, with a key focus on targeting specific communities such as the Turkish audience by rolling out new programs catering to this market. Paying close attention to what works and what doesn’t, he has also capitalized on the new media market by launching entertainement Shahid.net and its new app on iTunes allowing consumers to watch TV shows on the go on any Apple product. A week after its launch, Shahid ranked as the number one app on the Apple store for the region. Barnett points out, “I think we have tried to make sure that our content is available on any platform that becomes popular. That is the first step.” But, he adds, there is still a long way to go when comparing the infrastructure in the Middle East to the rest of the world. “We are catching up very quickly but we are looking at what our colleagues are doing internationally as well where there is much higher broadband penetration.” Thanks to Barnett’s confident streak and deep understanding of the broadcasting industry in the region, MBC seems well poised to take more strides towards bridging that technology gap.
“We are an efficient machine. We’re commercial, we’re profitable, we’re cashflow positive and we get the ratings.”
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08/Raja Trad/ CEO Leo Burnett MENA Keep walking
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s a fresh graduate in political science and public administration, Raja Trad wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. So when he heard of an opening at the Young & Rubicam Beirut ad agency, he decided he would give it a shot and see if that was the career he wanted for himself. Ever since, he’s been “hooked in.” In 1981, he joined H&C Leo Burnett Beirut as an account director and three years later was named regional account director on the Philip Morris account. Now, over three decades later, he runs Leo Burnett MENA and is a “Burnetter” through and through. A recipient of the Lebanese Order of the Cedar in 2004 in recognition of his work, he was named the Dubai Lynx Advertising Person of 2012. But even on that occasion he credits his team for the award, recognizing that the firm has a strong sense of community. “We have built a spirit and a culture in this agency. We created a culture in this agency that prevailed through all the changes we have witnessed,” he says. Trad adds that this sense of loyalty is important to him and, even now, he tries to avoid hiring someone from outside the company when there is a key position vacant, because, in his view, only those within the agency can understand the brand and what it stands for. “They share a vision, and they understand what we went through in order to reach where we are today,” he adds. Trad has indeed invested time growing the network and developing talent; between 1991 and 2007, the number of professionals within Leo Burnett in the region went up from 120 to 550. However, he says that as the CEO he has had to make tough calls when necessary. During the first Gulf War, the economy was hit badly and, he explains, it was the “first time I really had to take difficult, tough decisions, to ask some people to leave
“If you want to have creativity that will transform human behavior, it has to be based on solid ideas. Big ideas.”
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and cut some salaries, because it was about the survival of the community and not individuals.” His sense of company loyalty runs deep, so much so that he now follows the firm’s objectives like they are his own. Although most of them have been devised by Leo Burnett Worldwide’s Global Leadership Council, of which Trad is a board member, in a lot of ways, the objectives have become his own. “Creativity has the power to transform human behavior,” says Trad. “If you want to have creativity that will transform human behavior, it has to be based on solid ideas. Big ideas.” And it is his big ideas that have led the company to where it is today. The newest idea is to take advantage of digital media to boost the firm’s presence in the region. In an interview with Zawya Dow Jones, Trad says that there’s an increasing shift toward the use of social media, especially in the Middle East, where the population is very young. He acknowledges that there’s still a lag in the use of digital media, mostly due, according to him, to the general lack of understanding as to how this can be beneficial. So the point “is to prove to the client that digital media will pay off in terms of return of investment, because it is easy to measure, and it’s about creating engagement,” continues Trad in the interview. By acquiring a firm like Dubai-based digital agency Flip Media, Trad demonstrates that he’s on his way to achieving this expansion into the region. Commenting on his success, he quotes the agency’s founder, saying: “Leo Burnett once said no one is stronger than all of us. It’s not about one; it’s about all of us. I was very lucky to have around me a team of passionate, committed Burnetters, and together with this team we were able to get to where we are today.”
“Leo Burnett once said no one is stronger than all of us. It’s not about one; it’s about all of us.”
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09/Alex Saber/ Chairman VivaKi MENA First-class citizen
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lex Saber is all about pushing boundaries and it definitely seems like his tactic is working. Saber was named chairman of VivaKi MENA, the media communications arm of the Publicis Groupe, comprising the Zenith network and the Starcom MediaVest Group, in 2011; today, VivaKi is one of the biggest players in the region’s communications scene. In fact, by mid-2012 and according to data released by Ipsos, the media network had grabbed nearly $2 billion of the region’s $7.4 billion TV advertising market in billings; in radio advertising, Saber’s group’s expenditures accounted for about a quarter of the market; all in all, Saber says, VivaKi represents 24 percent of the region’s total advertising market. It’s no wonder, then, that he has to work 18 hours a day to keep up. But Saber doesn’t seem to mind and acknowledges with a smile that he is a workaholic, since, for him, everything revolves around the agency when he’s in Dubai – which is most of the time. “This is my problem,” he says. “That’s what my wife tells me: ‘Alex, you are too much geared into work,’ and I sometimes lose track of myself.” His family lives in Lebanon, his home country, and he goes back to visit them regularly, but when he’s in the Emirates, it’s all about the business, so much so that his main “hobby” is spending time with himself whenever he gets the chance. As a man with an eye on the digital future, Saber pushes himself to stay in tune with the latest online developments – when he can afford the time, he says. If everything goes according to his plan, in the next few years digital billings will make up 20 per cent of VivaKi’s total billings. Why? Because “that is the future,” he says. And though it is certainly ambitious, Saber isn’t one to back away from a challenge.
Since Alex Saber was made chairman of VivaKi MENA in 2011, business has grown by more than 50 percent. 30 I Communicate I Power List
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In fact, as a step toward boosting their presence in digital media, Zenith recently launched the MENA operations for Performics, presented as the first global performance marketing agency. For Saber, the digital future, whatever shape it takes, will happen thanks to people rather than just technology. And, in this regard, he is thankful for his team, which he regards as among the group’s “greatest assets.” It’s been over two decades since Saber first began working with the Publicis Groupe, starting off at the media department of sister company Leo Burnett when he was just 23; there, he often felt like a “second-class citizen” at a time when creative work was always given priority and greater consideration than planning or buying. So when Starcom went its own way, he jumped aboard and served as a group buying director as well as managing director for the media agency – playing a key role in creating a presence for the brand across the Middle East. Since he was made chairman of VivaKi, he has helped business grow by over 50 percent, being an instrumental figure in boosting the firm’s position as a leading media organization in the region. In 2012 alone, Starcom MediaVest was showered with awards, being named Media Agency of the Year at both the Dubai Lynx and the MENA Cristal Awards, and consequently topping Communicate’s own Media Agency of 2012 ranking. But it hardly seems like Saber will stop here. He does think about work a lot…
Under Saber’s guidance, SMG was named Media Agency of the Year at both the Dubai Lynx and the MENA Cristal Awards, and topped Communicate’s Media Agency of 2012 ranking. Power List I Communicate I 31
10/Samir Ayoub/ CEO Mindshare MENA Nothing but the truth
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ne should be careful to ask Samir Ayoub questions to which they don’t want a real answer; Ayoub is outspoken and never afraid to say his mind – except when he’s requested to talk about himself. “I don’t like to describe myself, but people describe me,” he told Communicate. “Other people say that I am tough, but friendly; some say that I am very honest; some say that I am successful; stubborn. At the end of the day, let other people talk about myself, rather than me talking. I would rather criticize myself than give credit to myself.” The Lebanese CEO of WPP-owned media network Mindshare, established in 1999 out of Memac Ogilvy’s media department, is not one to boast, despite the obvious success of his endeavors: only last November, Mindshare led the awards count at the 2012 Gemas Effie MENA awards, walking away with nine awards in a range of categories and coming ahead of both media and creative agencies in the competition. Even at the awards ceremony, Ayoub gave the credit of the achievement to his clients and his team. On the business front, Mindshare’s performance has much to make him proud as well: for example, Mindshare was the first international media agency to open an office in Baghdad, Iraq. Ayoub says he wants to target the Iraqi market since it will open up more doors for the company. “The country has big potential. You’re talking about a population of 30 million, which is as big as Saudi Arabia,” he points out. His network also grabbed recently the Damas Jewellery account in November. And every year, Mindshare hosts an annual Media Summit, which brings together professionals from across the region and features the latest trends in the industry. Ayoub is a scholar at heart and has two masters degrees, surprisingly in fields like computer science and in math statis-
Mindshare was the first international media agency to open an office in Baghdad, Iraq.
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tics – nothing to do with advertising as he rightly admits. “Research is in my blood,” he says. That’s one of the reasons why he launched Mindshare’s research arm, Mindsight, in 2006; by having an in-house research team, the firm also gets a “strong competitive edge.” Ayoub has worked across the Middle East, starting off with the Pan-Arab Research Company (PARC) in Lebanon. He then moved to Kuwait where he remained until the Iraqi invasion, which led him to establish himself in Dubai, where he later joined Memac Ogilvy. When Mindshare was launched, Ayoub was made managing director for the Gulf. It’s easy to see why he moved up so quickly – the most satisfaction he gets is from his job. “Fancy things mean nothing to me,” he says with his usual bluntness. However, Ayoub gives in to pride sometimes, for example when winning Unilever’s business in 1993, which he still considers as one of the highest points of his career. “No one at the time expected that Memac Ogilvy would win the business,” he says. “When you go to any pitch, you predict who has the biggest chance of winning the business. At that time, Memac probably had the lowest chance.” Even for that, what he remembers is staying in the office until late at night to deliver a last minute request. “I don’t remember the celebration. I’m not into celebration. I’m into doing the job,” he says. And looking at all that Mindshare’s achieved under him, it’s clear that’s exactly what he does: his job, without all the fuss.
Mindshare led the awards count at the 2012 Gemas Effie MENA awards.
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and CEO 11/Eddie Moutran/ Chairman Memac Ogilvy Professional hero
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Memac Ogilvy became the region’s first agency to win the celebrated Grand Prix at the Clio Awards in New York.
Moutran’s son Nabil says his father is “the kind of leader you aspire to be one day.”
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orn in Lebanon in 1945, Edmond (Eddie) Moutran went to the US in 1966 to study marketing, but, once back home, it was sheer luck rather than his newly minted marketing degree that got him his start in advertising. The story has it that, in 1973, he had stopped by advertising firm Intermarkets’ Beirut office with a girlfriend – who happened to be one of the agency’s clients. While waiting for her, he had been taken to see the boss, Erwin Guerrovich, and was offered, on the spot, the chance to open and head up the agency’s Bahrain office. To the young Eddie, it was an opportunity too big to refuse, and the kind of break that would come to typify his largerthan-life persona: when his first job opportunity came, he bagged the title of managing director, no less. Such aplomb would inspire other young Lebanese businessmen at the time to leave their home country – where civil war was brewing – to seek their fortune in the burgeoning GCC advertising industry. However, heading the one-man operation turned out to be anything but glamorous. In a newspaper interview, Moutran once related that at some point he had rented a bicycle and then cycled from Dubai to Sharjah to deliver advertising reels to a cinema, because taking a cab cost more than the commission he was getting. “It was June. It was hot. I lost weight,” he said. In the interview Moutran added that the demands of the job were such that finding a balance between his personal and professional life wasn’t easy; so much so that he chose to postpone his own wedding when he found out that a trade mission would be coming to Abu Dhabi at the same time. In 1984, Moutran left Intermarkets and founded Memac. He had just one client, Silk Cut, and $13,000 of his own money to use as capital. With such limited seed money, he quickly ran up debts, and word got around that he was broke. But Moutran already knew that success is also a matter of perception, and deployed an unusual way to get himself out of trouble: when his client paid him a cheque for 187,000 Bahraini dinars, he used part of the funds to buy furniture for the office and, more importantly, a large yacht, which he showed off to a media owner coming to town to whom he owed money. Judging that he had scored a favorable impression, Moutran said, with just a hint of arrogance: “I’ve got money; I bought a boat. What’s wrong with that?” The 67-year-old has come a long way since then: Moutran partnered with Ogilvy in 1986 and today, his firm is among the top five communications groups in the MENA region. In 2012, Memac Ogilvy became the first regional agency to win the cele-brated Grand Prix at the Clio Awards in New York, for its “Return of Dictator Ben Ali” campaign, Communicate’s most awarded campaign of the year. Memac also walked away from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with three Gold, one Silver and one Bronze awards; the firm saw 17 of its campaigns shortlisted in Cannes, which contributed heavily to the Ogilvy & Mather network’s win of the coveted Cannes Lions 2012 Network of the Year Award, the most prestigious honor in the global advertising industry. According to Moutran, “this success hasn’t come by chance – it is the direct result of painstaking planning to take our creativity to a level where we are the equal to, or better than, the best in the world. We have done that.” The fact that his three sons have chosen to go into the family business is proof of his success in that regard. Indeed, Moutran’s son Nabil, in an interview with The National, said his father is “the kind of leader you aspire to be one day.”
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12/Ramzi Raad/ Time for change
Chairman & CEO TBWA\RAAD Middle East
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In 2011, TBWA\Raad employed more than 480 people in the Gulf and approximately 290 in the Levant.
Raad wants more, advocating for a change “towards the better” for the industry.
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amzi Raad first dabbled with advertising when he was in secondary school. Asked to help with a recruitment drive for one of the school clubs, even he could not imagine the positive response he would receive for his designed ads and posters. He tells Gulf News, “I remember seeing the impact of those posters. They attracted so many students to the club.” Coming from a household of pharmacists, Raad’s family had a hard time accepting his decision to pursue a different field, especially one as unusual, at the time, as advertising. But there was no holding him back. As early as in his sophomore year at the American University of Beirut, Raad started working as an intern at a small ad agency, Publicite Universeale, before he moved on to another agency, which had just been formed, Intermarkets. Raad kept working in Lebanon for a further 12 years, helping expand what was the first Middle East regional agency network into Bahrain, Jordan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. However, when the 1975 civil war erupted in Lebanon, Raad feared for his own safety, and had to make the tough decision to continue his advertising career in Bahrain first, and eventually Dubai, becoming the first Lebanese ad man to move to the Gulf. Although he progressed quickly from Intermarkets’ account director in the UAE to chief operating officer and shareholder, up until now, this decision to leave home still upsets him from time to time. He says, “I have been living in a welcoming country, but it is not my country at the end of the day.” In the late 90s, and as Intermarkets changed ownership, Raad sold his shares and left, immersing himself in the establishment of the Dubai Press Club for a few months. By February 2000, he had launched TBWA\ Raad in Dubai, in partnership with TBWA\Worldwide. The new agency was mandated to develop the MENA region for the third and youngest of the Omnicom Group agencies; Raad established a network of 14 full service agencies across the region, in addition to a PR consultancy in partnership with Ketchum. Major clients were soon on board. That doesn’t mean the struggle was over. Last year was a tough year, says Raad, particularly because of the uprisings in Tunisia. “We have a very large operations [there]. Many of our major clients suffered,” he says, adding that many industry professionals don’t like to admit that it was a difficult time “but this is the fact.” Egypt, where the network was working for the finance ministry, presented another challenge. “Suddenly, in February 2011, not only did [the project] come to a standstill; the minister ran away to Lebanon and the whole government was out.” The experience was “painful”, he says. 2011 was also the year TBWA\Raad lost Etihad as a client, an “unfair” loss says Raad, since it was TBWA that had helped create the airline’s entire image. But it hasn’t all been downhill, he adds, explaining that the firm has won the Dubai Events & Promotion Establishment and Royal Oman Opera House accounts. In 2011, the group had more than 480 people employed in the Gulf and around 290 in the Levant; it was ranked fourth in terms of revenue by Ipsos. However, Raad wants more, advocating for a change “towards the better” for the industry whenever he was serving as president of the International Advertising Agency’s UAE Chapter starting 1987, launching the first IAA Advertising Awards in 1990, but also in the books he keeps on writing, on the side of an already busy life.
13/Vatche Keverian/ CEO JWT MENA Keep the faith
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hen 20 years ago, Vatche Keverian joined TMI, the Lebanese agency that was to become JWT MENA a few years later, he already knew that he wanted to go all the way up to the higher levels of management. Responsible for the Unilever account in Dubai and tasked with the set-up of the agency’s first regional business unit in the Gulf – with, of course, plans to expand operations to all MENA markets – Keverian always was playing strategic and demanding roles. In 1997, he took the helm of JWT Dubai, turning it into the network’s largest office in the region; in 2003, he was promoted to CEO Gulf, and launched JWT Bahrain; in 2011, he was appointed CCO MENA and helped establish teams in Qatar and Iraq. Under Keverian’s strong guidance, JWT Dubai was named Agency of the Year in 2008 at the Dubai Lynx and Agency of the Year at the 2009 MENA Cristal awards; it was even Communicate’s Most Awarded Agency of 2010. To name him CEO of the regional network by mid-2012 is only justice, considering the loyalty and years of hard work that he displayed throughout his career. Not that it was always easy. Keverian tells Communicate that “in 20 years, you get to see the good, the bad and the ugly, and I’ve seen it all.” But you have to believe, he adds, admitting that his friendship with the network’s founder, chairman and CEO at the time Roy Haddad, contributed to building his unwavering commitment to JWT. “We were friends before we became colleagues. You should never mix friendship and business, but we had a good balance,” he says. Today, JWT MENA is one of the main regional players, and has been undergoing a massive structural remodeling to become a full-fledged communications firm. Keverian comes in charge in the midst of this general rethinking, which he was instrumental in designing. “We’re in the second phase of the transformation,” he explains. “The real challenge, to me, is that we’re sort of best in class, but we need to aim for world class. In order to achieve that, we need talent, we need to bring senior-level engagement into every market that we’re operating in. The best talent should be looking after the business in every possible market for every possible client. With that in mind, I’m looking at clustering the markets into groups whereby we’d have a senior line of all the competencies. I want to create a management team, the 20 people who will run the agency and will be its leadership in a collective, participative way.” Deeply convinced that the future will be all about efficiencies, Keverian looks at building a strong senior team that he will be able to entrust with strategic missions. The approach seems to pay off, with JWT grabbing accounts across the board, including a specialized partnership on strategic creative work for a number of digital campaigns for UAE telco du; and the most recent ones being Red Bull in Egypt. Not bad for this soft-spoken, smiling and charismatic character, renowned for a moustache that he incidentally shaved around the time he was promoted to CEO.
Vatche Keverian always knew that he wanted to go all the way up to the higher levels of management.
“I want to create a management team, the 20 people who will run the agency will be its leadership in a collective, participative way.” Power List I Communicate I 37
14/Pierre Soued/ Far sighted
Managing director Havas Worldwide Middle East
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“Think big, think differently, think innovatively and make an impact on your target audience.”
Today, Pierre Soued’s company is the Middle East’s leading network in terms of luxury brands advertising.
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hen, in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis, the world sulked, Pierre Soued was smiling with determination. Here, he thought, was an opportunity to win, particularly through the still largely untapped digital market, and thus lift his agency, Havas, above the fray. Such foresight comes naturally to Soued. In 1983, he joined Promopub, the communication agency of the Chalhoub Group, of which he became general manager a decade later. But he was restless. In 1999, Soued realized that he wanted to move forward; he wasn’t happy with the manner in which business was being done. So he sat down with Patrick Chalhoub, his boss at the time, to discuss the future of the company. “We started to ask what we wanted Promopub to do,” he says. “We had two options: either to continue to ‘milk the cow’, and then phase out the business; or to commit [to it].” The pair finally decided to partner with advertising agency Euro RSCG, part of the French holding group Havas, because Soued strongly believes creativity is the most effective way to break free from a difficult situation, and there is no better way to get an infusion of creativity than by joining with another agency. In fact, back in 2007, he gave a presentation on new developments in the regional media environment, and his message to the audience was loud and clear: “Think big, think differently, think innovatively and make an impact on your target audience.” Tying into Euro RSCG’s digital expertise is a good example of thinking big. Also in 2007, Havas and the Chalhoub Group announced a major joint venture, each owning 50 per cent of the company and the business now being split between Euro RSCG and Havas Media. Today, Soued’s company is the region’s leading network in terms of luxury brands advertising. However, a strong sense of innovation and out of the box thinking are not Soued’s only assets: he is also known for his fiscal prudence. Aware that Havas’ “cash is king” approach made sense, he implemented a regimen of financial conservatism that paid off during the 2008 crisis. “We are one of the few agencies in the business that did not have an issue of cash or anything like that,” he says. A few months ago, Havas Worldwide conducted a massive rebranding and restructuring, folding all its companies under one umbrella in order to better meet the digital challenge; the move dovetails with Soued’s views that a unified approach is the most efficient one. Over a year ago, he was explaining that “in order for the client to respect you, you have to come as a person who believes in a unified approach.” Well, from now on, Euro RSCG, buying unit MPG, and Havas Digital all fall under Havas Worldwide Middle East, which Soued is tasked to take into the future. It’s only justice for someone with such a keen eye for what the future should, and probably will, be like.
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& CEO 15/Rafic Saadeh/ Chairman Horizon Group Bright outlook
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Horizon Group celebrated its 35 years of operation in 2011.
“There is no security in advertising. So you need to be constantly thinking about what you must do to stay alive.” 40 I Communicate I Power List
n hindsight, it might be difficult to imagine that when he first started out in advertising, Rafic Saadeh didn’t get much support from his family, which he says was “embarrassed” by his professional choice at a time when the industry in Lebanon was developing, but still was (for lack of a better word) “unprofessional”. But Saadeh has come a long way since then. Seeing the industry for what it was when he first started, he co-founded his own company, Horizon, in 1976, trying to make a difference. All the while, however, the one thing that he kept in mind is that advertising is a cutthroat field. “There is no security in advertising. So you need to be constantly thinking about what you must do to stay alive,” he says. Saadeh managed to stay alive and at the top, though, becoming the CEO of advertising and marketing group Horizon, that celebrated 35 years of operation in 2011. Boasting a portfolio of 60 clients across the MENA region, and five subsidiaries: Horizon Draftfcb, GolinHarris, Blue Barracuda, Frontline Shoppers and newly launched BPN, which replaces media agency network Brand Connection and was established globally by IPG’s Mediabrands. About that new move, which will bring forth an integrated brand programming strategy, Saadeh noted, “With business trends across key industry sectors sustaining an upward trend over the past year, we believe this is the ideal time to introduce a new and robust product in the Middle East.” On reaching the company’s milestone last year, he says, “35 years ago, we dreamt of contributing our skills and passion to the region’s communication industry which was still in a nascent stage.” From a humble start to a prominent integrated solution company, “the journey,” he adds, “has been incredibly rewarding.” This journey has also been possible because of Saadeh’s unwavering optimism, which has helped the group expand even in times when other media agencies have been suffering. For example, in 2011, Horizon introduced Blue Barracuda – its digital arm. At the time, Horizon Draftfcb’s worldwide CEO and president Laurence Boschetto describe Horizon as “a kind of mini holding company with all of the individual brands the same.” And he pointed out that the sense of integration is a crucial aspect of the way the firm functions. Blue Barracuda and FCB struck a key deal this year – bagging Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport as a new client. The multimillion dirham account has been split across three agencies, working for other UAE government organizations as well, including the Ministry of Health, Mubadala and Dubai Holdings. The group has always been open to partnering with other media agencies in the region; after all, that’s an important part of the business and Saadeh is well aware of this. Based in Athens, Greece, where he moved in the mid 70s fleeing Lebanon’s civil war and following the many clients who had also relocated there, Saadeh spends his time in-between flights, sharing his schedule between the GCC, the Levant and his home in Southern Europe, where his family remains. And he does so with a constant smile.
16/Mohan Nambiar/ CEO MEC MENA Cool strategist
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here are two topics that can engage Mohan Nambiar like no other: cricket and, of course, media. India-born Nambiar had his first job in the advertising industry when he was only 19; the job in question consisted of typing up documents for a Mumbai agency, part time. Since that inauspicious beginning, he has climbed the ladder to senior management positions, learning from each company and each sector along the way, from electronic goods to textiles. Nambiar started his media career in the UAE at Madco, one of the oldest advertising agencies in the country, where he remained for two years, before he joined Joe Ghossoub’s agency, The Holding Group, in 1993. Nineteen years later, he found himself at the top of the heap, as CEO of WPP-owned media agency MEC MENA. His strategic thinking and long-term planning, as well as his ability to turn those plans into action, has made him a name to reckon with in the regional media industry. Speaking to Communicate’s sister online business magazine Kippreport. com, he says: “I take my own time to decide, and I don’t jump to conclusions. I see only the long-term plan. I will always see the negative side of it [the plan] before I jump in; I will study that first.” Nambiar has been responsible for launching MEC MENA’s specialist divisions in the MENA region since the company’s inception in 1993. In 2012, he was instrumental in expanding the network to Egypt and Qatar, even as the agency celebrated its 10th birthday in the Middle East. The MEC MENA team led by Nambiar also enjoyed another highlight this year, by winning the regional media account for Nestlé Middle East. Nambiar’s aggressive client acquisition and expansion of the network consumes much of his time. Even so, Nambiar doesn’t let himself forget to invest in the people who count – the employees of MEC MENA. He told the press at the 10th anniversary celebrations of the agency: “Here in the Arab world, where 200 million people are under the age of 25, we cannot succeed as a firm if we do not understand the hopes, fears and aspirations of our largest demographic. “That’s why we are focused on identifying the next generation of leaders at MEC – including recruiting them directly from universities here in the UAE and across the Middle East. We are also focused on providing training to our existing staff, with special attention to digital media. In the past year alone, we have invested more than 1,000 man hours training many of our over 240 staff, highlighting our commitment in this area.” In his various roles in the media industry, Nambiar has gained experience across such diverse categories as automobiles, luxury goods, consumer electronics, retail, telecom, banking and finance, aviation and real estate. At MEC MENA, he uses this knowledge to good effect, playing a key advisory role, and he takes a keen interest in research and new-media developments.
“I take my own time to decide, and I don’t jump to conclusions. I see only the long-term plan. I always see the negative side of it before I jump in.”
“Here in the Arab world, where 200 million people are under the age of 25, we cannot succeed as a firm if we do not understand our largest demographic.” Power List I Communicate I 41
7HE SEVENS STADIUM
DUBAI CRICKET STADIUM
YAS MARINA CIRCUIT
DUBAI TENNIS STADIUM
director 17/David Porter/ Media Unilever NAMET & RUB For good measure
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In 2010, Porter joined Unilever to drive the company’s innovation in communications channel planning, with a key focus on development of digital marketing.
He’s involved with several industry bodies, all pushing for the improvement of measurement techniques in the region. 44 I Communicate I Power List
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ot many major companies have media directors in the region, but Unilever should certainly be glad to have one, considering all of the positive talk David Porter has been able to generate in and around the area he’s in charge of – North Africa, Middle East, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine & Belarus, also weirdly described as NAMET & RUB in corporate talk. Porter is from this cool generation of new executives, who are pictured with their kid on their shoulders on corporate events’ websites; who send great answers to our Communiquestion; and who give brilliant presentations that all bloggers want to attend. And it has nothing to do with age – Porter is everything from a newbie digital native. He spent 25 years working in UK-based agencies before he moved to Thailand in 2004, as managing partner of Mindshare in charge of handling the agency’s top-spending advertiser, Unilever. Soon after, he was entrusted with Asia, Africa, Middle East and Turkey (Asia AMET). But, in 2010, he jumped over to the other side of the fence, joining Unilever to drive the company’s innovation in communication channel planning, with a key focus on development of digital marketing in the MENA region; having a digital element to a campaign is really “a no-brainer,” he says. The past two years have been busy for both Porter and his employer, Porter admitting that “a lot of spending, from a lot of advertisers, would have been curtailed during the [regional] unrest.” Unilever’s Egypt supply chain simply shut down at one point. But ever ready for combat, Porter also knows that brands surviving the crisis come out stronger and gain momentum. To that end, he focused on developing new approaches, such as the sponsorship of a new YouTube channel dedicated to Ramadan, allowing viewers to watch more than 40 Arabic TV shows the same day they air during the Holy Month. “Unilever, Google and YouTube have a strong global relationship based on bringing digital innovations to the public,” he said at the time. But Porter’s interest in the industry goes way beyond his job – or rather is an extension of his job. Today, he’s involved with several industry bodies, all pushing for the improvement of measurement techniques in the region: the Advertisers Business Group, representing the interests of advertisers in the GCC, are very much involved in the development of the UAE’s first TV people meter; the Emirates Media Measurement Company, which provides the UAE people meter; the Mobile Marketing Association (MENA) set up recently in Cairo and Dubai and of which Porter is a founding member; and Internet data measurement organization I-COM’s newly formed MENA advisory board, of which he’s also a founding member. “With the introduction of Digital Audience Measurement tools into the Middle East region, several major publishers have begun removing the boundaries that typically left advertisers in the dark,” argues Porter, urging “all advertisers to take advantage of the digital audience measurement services that are currently on offer.”
18/Samir Khammar/ COO Publicis-Graphics Transitional period
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here’s a lot happening at Publicis-Graphics these days, but very little is leaking out about what it is exactly. In September, the agency’s CEO Mustapha Assad announced he was stepping down and selling his remaining shares to Publicis Groupe, which was already owning 60 percent of the capital. Assad had acquired the small Lebanese agency Publigraphics back in 1973, and led its growth from then on, to the point that Publicis Groupe had invested in it in 1999 and turned it into Publicis-Graphics. The network now spans nine countries in the region and employs 450 people, with clients such as Renault, L’Oreal, MercedesBenz and Panasonic to name a few. However, Assad says that he wants out today because of “the trend of the international agency groups to run and control communication networks on pure financial, administrative and bureaucratic priorities, thus losing some of the focus on creativity and sacrificing part of the excitement inherent to our lovely business on the way. Needless to say, this trend leads to some demotivation and job insecurity,” he told Communicate. Assad handed over his functions to the board, headed by Jean Yves Naouri, executive chairman of Publicis Worldwide and chief operating officer of the Publicis Groupe. Samir Khammar, who used to be CEO of Publicis-Graphics’ Jordan operation, director of Publicis-Graphics and owner of a share of the group’s capital, is now in charge of the network in the region.
There is a lot happening at Publicis-Graphics these days, but very little is leaking out about what it is exactly. . .
Khammar, who used to be CEO of Publicis-Graphics’ Jordan operation and director of Publicis-Graphics is now in charge of the network in the region. Power List I Communicate I 45
director 19/Vishal Tikku/ Managing Mondelez International GCC and ME Iron fist in velvet glove
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Having worked with two of the biggest global names in the FMCG category, Unilever and Kraft Foods, Tikku has more than 28 years of expertise in FMCG marketing.
Mondelez International expects the Middle East and Africa region to generate a “mid to high teens” revenue growth rate over the next five years. 46 I Communicate I Power List
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is impeccably groomed handlebar moustache is something of a conversation starter, and his affable personality instantly puts one at ease. But to assume that Vishal Tikku, who leads the $1.6 billion company Mondelez International, with almost 700 employees in the Middle East, is anything less than hard-as-nails, would be a mistake. The recent split of Mondelez International Middle East from Kraft Foods Middle East and Africa, raised a lot of questions, as any event of this nature would, but Tikku laid it all to rest, with the composure of a veteran marketer. He said in a press statement, “While our name might be new, we have had a strong heritage in the GCC for decades and millions of times a day consumers choose our iconic brands. We use our successful global approach, adapting global recipes to local tastes. Our inspiration comes from listening to consumers to create foods that fit their lives. This marks the start of a very exciting future as we become the world’s largest chocolate and biscuit maker.” As a marketer, his steady climb to the top of the corporate ladder, from the position of a rookie management trainee at Unilever Arabia in the mid 1990s, bears testimony of his unwavering ambition and dedication to his work. Having worked with two of the biggest global names in the FMCG category, Unilever and Kraft Foods, Tikku has more than 28 years of expertise in FMCG marketing. However, before finding his calling, he tried his hand at advertising at Ogilvy, in India. The self-confessed extrovert’s personality traits, such as being an efficient negotiator, being flexible and communicative, could have a lot to do with his leadership style – traits he imbibed while growing up as the youngest of three brothers. Today, as managing director at Mondelez International for GCC and the Middle East, which largest-selling products in the region include Cadbury Dairy Milk, Tang, Oreo, Kraft and Philadelphia Cheese, he’s actively engaged in CSR initiatives. In 2011, under Tikku’s leadership, the company organized a charity event where employees put together food packages to help victims of famines and floods in Somalia and Pakistan. Tikku was also instrumental in the company’s partnering with UN Women to raise awareness about gender equality and the empowerment of women globally, as part of the 2012 edition of “Philadelphia Spread Some Inspiration” campaign. Tikku’s leadership seems to be benefitting the company on the business front. He recently announced in a press statement highlighting the firm’s 2012 Q3 financial results, that Mondelez International expects the Middle East and Africa region to generate a “mid to high teens” revenue growth rate over the next five years. According to a report by Mondelez International, the region currently accounts for 10 percent of the snack food giant’s developing markets’ business. Over 80 percent of Mondelez’s $36 billion in annual revenues is generated outside North America, with practically half of company revenues from high-growth developing markets within Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
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president and managing director 20/Ahmed Nassef/ Vice Yahoo! Maktoob High wired
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Nassef has led the company’s growth from 30 million users to over 55 million in a period of less than two years.
When he’s not working, which is a rare phenomenon in itself, Nassef loves to smoke sheesha.
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hmed Nassef started his career at the peak of the Internet revolution and, like many other tech-savvy enthusiasts in Silicon Valley at the time, he tried his luck in the dot-com world, starting at an Internet company when he was fresh out of a Californian university. He was then working on desktop software called OmniPod, but then met the fate of many other developers of the era when he realized, on the day of the launch, that the product wasn’t ready, and all that he was left with was valueless stock. And while the project turned out to be a bust and the entire experience a disappointment for him, he says it did help him think “out of the box” and consider the other options he had. While listening to the radio one day he stumbled upon an interview with Samih Toukan, one the founders of Jordanian Internet firm Maktoob, and he realized there might be other opportunities in the world of the web for one willing to look for them. He called the firm, was offered a job and was asked to move to Amman to head up Maktoob’s sales and marketing department. But when he got to the Jordanian capital, he was stunned. “I had been to Cairo on vacations for a week to 10 days a year, and I expected Amman to be Cairo. This was 2001.” What he found instead was a quiet city where there were no cars on the street after 7pm. “It wasn’t my image of an Arab city at all,” he says. Was it the Jordanian capital’s calm that nurtured his thinking, the good timing of the job offer or simply the natural course of events? In any case, Maktoob grew, and grew so much that it was bought out by Yahoo! in 2009, an acquisition in which Nassef played a key role. Since then, he has led the company’s growth from 30 million users to over 55 million in a period of less than two years. However, when he considers what he’s done with Maktoob, Nassef says, he now regrets not focusing on the potential of Arabic offerings when they first started off; but Yahoo! Maktoob is definitely attempting to push into the region more aggressively now. Earlier this year, it announced that Yamli’s transliteration technology will be integrated into its services as part of its focus on developing regional solutions. Nassef notes that there is definite room for growth in the Middle East. But, he adds, the challenge is that “as much as we have a lot of similarities [in the Middle East], a lot of unifying factors such as culture, language and so on, we also have very distinct differences at a local level.” In addition to his experience in marketing management and consulting, Nassef has also written articles for trade publications and is a frequent speaker at industry events in the region, where he focuses on promoting the development of the digital media industry. And when he’s not working, which is a rare phenomenon in itself, he says he loves to smoke sheesha – a “bad habit” he picked up after moving here. “When Jerry Yang, the founder of Yahoo!, came over to announce the deal, we were in Cairo and the first thing we did was take him to a sheesha spot.”
Vice President Brand and Communications 21/Hala Badri/ Executive Du Wonder Woman
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Hala Badri was named the Gemas Effie Mena awards’ Marketer of the Year 2012.
She was ranked 37 in the top 100 businesswomen in the region by Forbes Middle East last June.
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ala Badri has a lot to be proud of. One of the main reasons telecom operator du built up its consumer base and made a place for itself in the UAE market is primarily thanks to its branding, which she’s fully responsible for. Among other initiatives, du’s participation in The Entrepreneur reality show, helping build a “new generation of innovators who think outside the box”, is her doing. Having spent seven years working as corporate communications manager for the Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), Badri joined du in 2006, starting off as director of corporate communications before being promoted to executive vice-president two years later. Today, she has all but revolutionized the way telecom brands market themselves in the region and significantly raised industry standards along the way, so much so that she was named among the top 100 businesswomen (No. 37) in the region by Forbes Middle East last June. A key reason for her success could be in her unwavering work ethic, as she explains to Telecom Review: “One of my mantras in life has always been to achieve results.” And that’s exactly what she’s been doing, and not just for du. Badri has been showered with awards since she was a teenager: she received the Sheikh Rashid Award for Scientific Excellence for outstanding academic achievement in 1992; she graduated from the Dubai Women’s College in Communication Technology – journalism/graphic design with top honors, and in 2003 she received a second Sheikh Rashid Award after graduating from Zayed University with an MBA in managing e-business. While working under the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Leadership Development Program, her team was awarded the “Outstanding Team Award” for their CSR project that raised AED2 million in less than two months for the UAE Free of Thalassemia Association. More recently, Badri was named the Gemas Effie Mena awards’ Marketer of the Year for her leadership and the successful campaigns she has developed for du. Last November she was appointed, by royal decree issued by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to board member of Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI). Undergoing this role is an “honor”, she says, and so is the opportunity to represent Emirati women on the board. Indeed, 36-year-old Badri is not all about work: she is an active member of the community and is on the board of the Dubai Women’s Establishment, Dubai Ladies Club and Dubai Cares – supporting causes she cares about the most: the empowerment of women and contributing to the welfare of children across the world. In June 2011, she was presented with the Patron’s Roll of Honour Award during the Emirates Women Awards (EWA), in recognition of her efforts supporting the mission of the EWA. A mother of three, she has a lot of balancing to do, between her fulltime job, her social commitments and her family. However, Badri seems to do it all effortlessly, explaining that she gets a lot of support from her family and colleagues. Her priority, she explains, is to be an inspiration for her children “so that they grow to be well-rounded members of the Emirati society who are as passionate about the furthering of our unique culture, heritage and people as I am.”
Gustavo Kuerten Lacoste Ambassador
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DUBAI: BurJuman Mall, Ibn Battuta Mall, Mall of the Emirates, Mirdif City Centre, Dubai Festival City, Deira City Centre, Atlantis-THE PALM, The Dubai Mall, Galeries Lafayette ABU DHABI: Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi Mall, BAWABAT AL SHARQ AL AIN: Al Ain Mall
marketing officer General Motors Middle East 22/Fadi Ghosn/ Chief Laser beam
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When Ghosn started with the company 13 years ago, GM sold 24,000 vehicles a year in the region. Today, numbers are up to around 123,000.
“Once you know where you are heading, you just need to keep doing it and keep moving in the right direction.”
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here are men who enjoy the power that comes with having an important job. And then there are the likes of Fadi Ghosn: down to earth, while successful at what they do – which in his case is promoting a company with the prestige of General Motors. Ghosn started off his career in advertising, serving as client service director for Saatchi & Saatchi, where he handled the Procter & Gamble account across the MENA region for over eight years. In 1999, he moved to the other side of the fence, to work client-side for GM in Dubai as a brand manager for Cadillac. His career then moved steadily upward, until he was named GM Middle East’s marketing director in 2008, and made responsible for all regional marketing activities for GM and its brands: Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer, Cadillac and Saab. That promotion meant a move back to the Middle East from the US, where Ghosn had been earning his marketing stripes with the global development team for Cadillac. There, he had been responsible for the development of the Cadillac brand globally, including its introduction into new markets, particularly in South Africa. Interestingly, not only is Cadillac the brand that has accompanied him throughout his career, it’s also the car he most admires and the one he drives today (a CTS-V Coupe). There’s no doubt Ghosn has a passion for wheels: no one gets a job like his without evincing a love for all things automobile. And, speaking of his own choice, he says: “It’s a great car to drive. It’s very sporty, it’s very fun, it’s very powerful, yet it’s understated.” His description of the vehicle is a fitting one for the man himself, who humbly refuses to be credited with the company’s success. According to him, the company’s growth happened while he worked as part of a team. “Everybody has his part, including the dealers and every single salesperson,” he says. Either way, grow it did. When Ghosn started with the company 13 years ago, GM sold 24,000 vehicles a year in the region. Today, numbers are up to around 123,000 – and even that high figure is a retreat from the 144,000 figure recorded in 2008. When asked about the secret of his success, Ghosn explains that what’s helped him is his unwavering focus. He says: “Be focused; don’t limit yourself, because you can set your own path.” Once you know where you are heading, you just need to keep doing it and keep moving in the right direction, he told Communicate’s sister website Kippreport.com. Where is GM headed in the region? Ghosn says the firm’s new strategy in the Middle East is, first, to expand the sale of cars as opposed to trucks and, second, to critically examine the region to identify niche markets instead of treating the region as one big marketplace, as was the case earlier. It comes down to his belief in the necessity of adapting to the environment: things can’t be done in the same way forever, he says – “it won’t lead you to the results.” That’s a plan he aims to stick to, even though it’s a challenging one. “You can do the campaign, you can do the communication, you can do the event, but how can you improve your standing in every single market and segment? That’s a challenge.” Ghosn is all up for challenges, never taking his eyes off the target.
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Ipsos MENA 23/Edouard Monin/ CEO Measuring up
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Edouard Monin is dedicated to his work. “When I am not doing Ipsos I am doing Ipsos. I am Ipsos 24 hours a day.”
The main challenge facing the research industry lies in the fact that spending of advertising research in the region is at only one percent of the global total. 54 I Communicate I Power List
douard Monin is a man who’s dedicated to his work. “When I am not doing Ipsos, I am doing Ipsos. I am Ipsos 24 hours a day,” he said in an interview with Communicate. In 1995, Monin brought French-based international research organization Ipsos to the Middle East, and led the company’s swift expansion across the region, where the demand for research is on the rise and where multinational companies are not the only ones contracting agencies like his anymore. Speaking to Executive magazine early in 2011, Monin said: “Local companies are also doing a lot of research. In some cases, they are even more professional than the big multinational companies.” Today, Ipsos MENA provides services to over 600 clients across the region and consists of a team of over 600 researchers. It’s no wonder Monin is all about work. Coming from a marketing background, Monin realized the importance of research to get the data when he was working on a marketing plan for a friend. Of course, at the time, there was no computer to facilitate the data collection process; he had to go out into the field to collect the information himself. Today’s technological progress has made his job not only easier, but also increased its potential – the demand for online research is growing consistently. In January 2012, Ipsos – which was established in Lebanon in 1992 as Stat, became Ipsos Stat in 1999 when Ipsos bought a controlling share, and finally Ipsos MENA in 2007 – launched its first online panel for the Middle East in Saudi Arabia, with a plan to expand outwards and ensure consistent data quality is generated across all of the countries in the region. “Online is increasingly the data collection method of choice among international research buyers, because it offers many advantages, and enables [data collectors] to go beyond the limits encountered by the other data collection modes,” he says. The main challenge facing the research industry, according to him, lies in the fact that spending on advertising research in the region is at only one percent of the world’s total; while it’s on the rise, he still describes this figure as “ridiculous.” However, this disappointing state of play hasn’t stopped Ipsos from growing. In fact, the firm has strengthened its business, opening an office in Pakistan and partnering with Qatar-based Darwish Holding to open a fully fledged research company in the Gulf state. According to Monin, Ipsos is targeting “emerging establishments” to help them “thrive in Qatar’s business landscape.” When Monin isn’t busy opening a new office in a new country, his focus is on his children, which he says are “the greatest achievement” of his life.
24/Ahmed El Azizi/ Globetrotter
Marketing VP and CMO Pepsico MEA
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One of Ahmed El Azizi’s first lessons as a young marketer is that you can learn a lot by “sitting with the people and seeing how they really live.”
Pepsi Arabia ranked third among the top 50 social media brands in the Gulf. With over 1.3 million social media followers, it made the top of the consumer brand list. 56 I Communicate I Power List
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hmed El Azizi started his career selling detergent – well, sort of. That was the account he first handled after taking up a job with German company Henkel after he came back from Spain where he was doing his MBA. The entire experience was eye opening, he says. Henkel was expanding into the low end of the rural areas in Egypt, and El Azizi was sent out there to figure out how to best market their hand-wash line of products. Though he is Egyptian himself, the young marketer soon realized that there was a distinction in the way he was living and the way the rest of his country was. He learnt a lot by “sitting with the people and seeing how they really lived, how they worked and how they washed.” On a personal level, it helped him “connect with the country.” As for the campaign for the Persil brand, he was soon able to unveil major insights, such as the fact that most Egyptians simply couldn’t afford washing machines and that Arab consumers preferred a more perfumed detergent than Western consumers. These first few lessons in the world of marketing, along with his enhanced ability to adapt to market specifics, proved useful when, after Egypt, he moved to Eastern Europe to work with Coca-Cola. There, in Hungary, he discovered a new set of problems to deal with: this was 1997 and the Soviet Union had only recently collapsed. Suddenly, pricing (which is usually taken for granted in other markets) was a focus point, as consumers were actually forced to think about the cost of a can compared to that of a bottle. In 2002, El Azizi came back home to Egypt to start work with Pepsico; such a move to his former employer’s direct competitor could have been very badly received, but El Azizi explains he would never have made the move to Coke’s rival in the same market. The appeal was in fact that “Pepsi is really a company that is high on being entrepreneurial; it’s very high on moving fast, very high on creative solutions to the businesses and the brands, and it’s a company that has a vast portfolio, from foods and beverages.” This move proved to be the right one: in this environment, El Azizi prospered, forging a career successful enough to become Pepsico’s most senior marketing executive for Asia, the Middle East and Africa. That’s not to say that El Azizi is satisfied. Very much aware of the challenges faced by his brand in the region – where Pepsi is market leader, contrary to the rest of the world, where Coca-Cola is in pole position – he recognizes the fact that “we need to continue to connect with the consumer, to innovate with the consumer, and we ought to be asking: ‘what is it they want next from us?’ rather than reacting to others or to them as well.” El Azizi’s key tactic has been adapting to the markets he works in and in the Middle East markets, in light of the overwhelmingly young population, digital media was the answer. Earlier this year, Pepsi Arabia ranked third among the top 50 social media brands in the Gulf, published by Gulf Business. With over 1.3 million followers across various social media channels, it also was the top consumer brand on the list. Through initiatives such as the sponsorship of TV show Arab Idol, the Pepsi Arabia Music Mixer competition and endorsement by famous football players, Pepsi Arabia positioned itself as the Arab youth’s favorite soft drink brand, according to the AMRB Tru Teen Study 2010. El Azizi has just been named global VP of flavors and energy drinks, based in the Pepsico global HQ in New York.
Tecom Business Parks 25/Dr. Amina Al Rustamani/CEO The brave one
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In a period of just one year, 654 new companies registered with Tecom Business Parks.
“At the end of the day, when you face difficult times, you have to re-engineer the way you do business.”
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he is one of the most powerful women in the Arab world and a force to be reckoned with. Dr. Amina Al Rustamani is the CEO of Tecom Business Parks, an umbrella organization of 10 free zone clusters covering a wide range of sectors – everything from education to manufacturing to logistics – and all placed under Dubai Holding’s Tecom Investments. Al Rustamani has around 4,500 companies under her jurisdiction, yet she doesn’t seem the least bit under pressure, breezing easily from one appointment to the next. Perhaps that’s because Rustamani is a hardcore optimist. She says: “At the end of the day, when you face difficult times, you have to re-engineer the way you do business. We are now in 2012. I don’t think it [the downturn] is as bad as people expected – Dubai is a very dynamic city and so you have to be dynamic with what’s going on in the market. There have been previous events like the Gulf War; we always had flexibility.” Even in the case of the 2008 credit crisis and its aftermath she notes that what was most important was remaining calm through the “period of uncertainty;” such calm, she says, helped them help their customers weather the difficult times and stay in business. And, looking at the figures, it’s hard to argue with her. In a period of just one year, 654 new companies registered with Tecom Business Parks – a rise of 11 per cent compared to 2010. In 2012, Tecom signed a partnership agreement with Dubai SME to provide enhanced support to UAE national entrepreneurs looking to set up offices within free zones. On the tie-up, Rustamani says: “Such platforms will help grow the abundant talent for innovation and enterprise in the UAE.” It’s a wonder if Rustamani gets any sleep at all, because she seems to have a hand in everything – playing a major role in pushing the Dubai International Film Festival, providing considerable support to the education industry, and developing a green approach for Tecom’s activities. The fact that she is multi-skilled is obvious from the various fields she is involved in, yet she first got involved with Tecom, in 2001, on a project-basis, after having finished her doctorate in electrical engineering and when she had started working on academic research. But when she heard about Internet City being in the pipeline, she took a giant leap of faith and applied for a position as a project engineer. “Changing your career and doing something completely different is a very serious step, and it takes courage. Starting as a project engineer was exciting to me, but other people thought I was crazy,” Rustamani told Strategy+Business. And, after that, she moved up the ranks quickly and successfully, shifting yet again, once to become executive director of media, and then again into real estate and cluster development. But it’s easy to see why she’s been so successful. She explains: “A CEO has to be patient, and have experience of leadership and management. You need that ability to motivate people to do their job.” And that’s exactly what best describes her.
SRMG 26/Dr. Azzam Al Dakhil/ CEO Setting precedents
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SRMG has a total of fifteen publications on iTunes and has also released newspapers applications on Android smartphones.
Al Dakhil is one of the few CEOs in the region who have their own website, and one that he regularly updates as well. 60 I Communicate I Power List
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eading up the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), Dr. Azzam Al Dakhil devotes much of his attention to leading the transition from print to digital. And, despite that he already has a lot on his plate, being CEO of a leading publication group, he still finds the time to set an example of the extent of online participation he expects to see. Al Dakhil is one of the few CEOs in the region who have their own website, and one that he regularly updates as well. He’s also in tune with most of the latest social networks (everything from Twitter to Flickr) and has made quite an impression in the online world. If he’s trying to be a role model for the next generation on everything digital, he’s definitely doing a good job. “Our industry is undergoing a historic change,” he says, describing the change in focus to digital media. “We as a publisher are still faced with the challenge of how to monetize these digital platforms. At present, revenue from our online platforms is generated from advertising. However, in the near future we aim to generate revenue through premium content.” SRMG publishes a wide range of titles, including Arabic versions of international magazines, based on agreements with top publishers. “In 2006, we decided to establish another publishing company, the aim of which was to diversify our offerings on the market in order to capture more readers from different demographics. Today, Saudi Specialized Publishing Company offers a wide range of titles from around the world as well as various custom publications such as Saudi Airlines’ in-flight magazine Ahlan Wasahlan,” he told Communicate in March. And the group is doing everything it can to create a wider target market. It is one of the rare media houses in the region to use the iTunes and the Android market places as a way of promoting their publications. “To make an analogy, the web and smart phones are like snacks: people go in and out of these platforms consuming small pieces of information from various sources while they are on the move. On the other hand, the newspaper or the tablet experience is more like a gourmet meal: you sit down in your favorite chair and have a more in-depth experience, on which you spend much more time,” he explains. Today, Saudi Research and Marketing Group has a total of fifteen publications on iTunes and has also released newspaper apps on Android smartphones, aiming to reach a total of 1 million downloads on the various platforms. SRMG also plans to expand its online presence through Numu Multimedia, a new entity supervising a variety of online projects online such as “Sorty,” an online photographers’ community. The launch of Numu Ventures, a new division within the Numu Media Holding group of companies that will focus on supporting young entrepreneurs, is also in the pipeline. While Al Dakhil generally keeps tight-lipped about his private life, he says that he knew he loved writing from a young age and that’s how he got started as a freelance journalist with Okaz, the Jeddah-based newspaper – he could hardly predict that years down the line he would be heading up one of the largest publishing houses in the region. Until he found his way there, he worked as an architect, a consultant and even a researcher while he pursued his PhD on employee attitudes. He urges the youth to “seize the opportunity, work hard, [and] never set boundaries for yourself, as they will hold you back; be the best you can be.” And he’s one to follow his own advice.
THERE’S ONLY ONE OF THESE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. YOU’LL FIND IT IN THE HANDS OF OUR PROUD CLIENT. ON APRIL 17, 2012, HISTORY WAS MADE. STARCOM MEDIAVEST GROUP WITH PROCTER & GAMBLE WON BEST ENGAGEMENT CAMPAIGN AT THE FESTIVAL OF MEDIA AWARDS IN SWITZERLAND—THE HIGHEST ACCLAIM FOR MEDIA WORK IN THE WORLD. IT’S A SYMBOL OF THE GREAT WORK WE CREATE WITH OUR CLIENTS. TOGETHER, WE WIN AS ONE.
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Rotana Holding 27/Fahed Al Sukait/ CEO Media shy media man
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Al Sukait was promoted to Rotana Holding’s CEO a couple of years ago, but prior to that he was its chief operating officer.
He was the co-producer of Wadjda, a KSA-based film by director Haifaa Al Mansour and the country’s first feature film production. 62 I Communicate I Power List
ahed Al Sukait is not someone who likes to be in the limelight, as a quick Google search will reveal. He doesn’t do many public interviews and doesn’t share any information on his personal life, even on his social networking pages. However, perhaps being such a private individual while heading one of the region’s largest media conglomerates – Rotana Holding, which consists of a television broadcasting and audio unit, studios and media representation firm Rotana Media Services (RMS) – makes sense for someone who’s all about results. Al Sukait was promoted to Rotana Holding’s CEO a couple of years ago, and prior to that he was its chief operating officer. Rotana Holding, which operates under Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, and which was launched in 2003, is involved in all areas of media: it owns a huge archive of Arabic films and music, produces and manages regional artists, and has several TV channels, radio stations and a magazine. The group also has the financial, and public support of Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp which, in May this year, increased its stake in the company to nearly 19 percent, acquiring shares worth $35 million. Like most media firms in the region, Rotana Holding has undergone significant changes over the past year; particularly the decision to shift its headquarters from Cairo to Bahrain in support of AlArab, a new 24-hour news channel that is expected be launched next year. The channel, in alliance with Bloomberg World, aims to be a major competitor to regional news providers. In addition, Rotana has also launched a new general entertainment channel for the Egyptian market, Al Sukait. This move is part of the company’s strong commitment to Egyptian viewers, and plans are under way to expand its presence into Egypt – where the market is currently dominated by the state-backed cluster of channels. Even though Al Sukait has his hands full with managing the operation of such a colossal conglomerate, he dabbles in other projects as well. He was the co-producer of Wadjda, a KSA-based film by director Haifaa Al Mansour and the country’s first feature film production. The movie highlights the conservative traditions in the kingdom through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl who wants nothing more than to have a bicycle so she can race a neighborhood boy. Wadjda has been screened at this year’s Venice Film Festival and the Dubai International Film Festival.
What can you whisper to him right this moment?
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28/Nezar Nagro/ President Rotana Media Services Poker face
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Nezar Nagro has contributed heavily to Rotana’s partnership with Fox International Channels.
Nagro was awarded the prestigious Al Fikr Award for his support of the Arab Thought Foundation.
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e’s the man behind Rotana Media Services – the media representation firm that is part of Rotana, the Saudi Arabia-based group owned by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Nezar Nagro’s job is, in theory, simple: he’s in charge of selling and promoting all of the group’s media. But Rotana’s ever-expanding offering includes a magazine, radio stations, a heavyweight portfolio of TV stations boasting big brands such as Fox Movies, Fox Series and LBC SAT, a lengthy list of new media projects, and the largest music record label in the region. Considering how important a player Rotana is in the media scene, and how big and fast it’s growing, that’s no easy responsibility to shoulder. But Nagro has been with the group for a while now, starting off as executive manager for administration in 1998 and moving on to being general manager for projects and development in 2000. And after nearly nine years of being at the helm of RMS, he shows no sign of cracking under the pressure of his responsibilities. In 2010, NewsCorp media mogul Rupert Murdoch bought a 9.09 percent stake in Prince Alwaleed’s music and entertainment group. This was only fair: the Prince himself has a 7 percent stake in NewsCorp. The Prince went as far as saying that the $70 million deal was not cash-driven, since Rotana was “fully financed.” It was in fact symbolic of NewsCorp’s confidence in Rotana and its commitment to it, he declared. And in May 2012, NewsCorp increased its stake in the media group to nearly 19 percent, acquiring shares worth $35 million. Earlier in May, the Prince announced that Rotana would be shifting its base from Cairo to Bahrain because the company had plans to roll out a 24-hour news channel, Al Arab, which is expected to be launched in the first half of 2013 and serve as a competitor to the likes of Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and Sky News Arabia. None of these massive developments seems to faze Nagro; simplicity is the key. He’s contributed heavily to Rotana’s partnership with Fox International Channels. In 2009, his company bought a majority stake in Hypermedia – the leading in-store advertising company in the UAE – and forged an innovative communication partnership between Rotana and Volkswagen Middle East in 2012. As for the new station project, Nagro told Communicate in 2011 that Rotana plans on differentiating itself by “being more local, by looking at local issues with a positive perspective.” “We’ll support culture. But there’s no political agenda behind this station. To be clear, we want to become a major player, and we plan to be profitable.” He estimated at $200 million the required investment in the station, saying that operational costs would be around $70 billion to $80 billion. Meanwhile, Prince Alwaleed said that selecting Manama as the headquarters of the channel is an “important strategic decision with many important consequences.” Nagro has proved he is capable of heading up a new project of this size – in this case, a new station that will be a regional cultural voice. And his value has been duly noted. In January 2012, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Khalid Al Faisal awarded him the prestigious Al Fikr Award for his support of the Arab Thought Foundation.
director 29/Ari Kesisoglu/ Managing Google MENA Busy bee
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ith all the hubbub about Google’s quirky staff and relaxed office environment, you’d expect its managing director in the MENA region to leave quite an impression, and with his refreshing approach to the digital industry, that’s exactly what Ari Kesisoglu does. Success has chased Kesisoglu: he did his BA in business at the Bogaziçi Üniversitesi in Turkey, and ranked 16 out of more than one million who took the entrance exams. Once he completed his education, he worked as an analyst with Anderson Corporate Finance and then founded the entertainment website Kahkaha.com, before working for Google as a senior manager. With a knack for rapid career growth, he then worked his way up, over five years, to become head of the MENA region – where many challenges await. According to Kesisoglu, digital growth in the region is hindered by high broadband costs compared to the rest of the world, a slow adoption of e-commerce – people not understanding its potential yet – and a lack of Arabic content that can resonate with a local audience. To help boost digital growth, Google has launched a number of initiatives recently: eying the “Arabization” of the web, Kesisoglu has plans to roll out new products in Arabic, including driving directions for Maps and an Arabic interface for Google+; a localized version of YouTube in the UAE – http://YouTube.co.ae – has already been launched, with a home page featuring the most popular videos from the country. In an attempt to better understand the market, the tech giant also hosted this year its first ‘G Day’ in Dubai, during which nearly 12,000 entrepreneurs, developers and the emirate’s web-savviest gathered for a networking event; it’s also supporting development in Egypt via its Ebda (“Begin” in Arabic) initiative, which allows young entrepreneurs-to-be to pitch their ideas to potential investors with the help of a $200,000 seed investment from Google. Also, in 2011, it launched Insights MENA, an online service that helps provide crucial information on consumer behavior in the region. Kesisoglu explains that the new service would provided much-needed information on Internet users in the Middle East, “which grew in the past six years at an incredible speed, at 275 percent.” What should we expect next from Google? More innovation in the “SoLoMo” (social, local and mobile) space, with a strong focus on improving content in the short-term, says Kesisoglu. “The percentage of users online in MENA versus the percentage of content in Arabic is a huge gap and we know users in MENA are coming online for local content,” he explains. As one would expect, Kesisoglu shares his thoughts on technology on his blog, while also maintaining social network profiles on websites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and, of course, Google+. He’s also an active member of the community, delivering regular talks at events – despite what must be an awfully busy schedule.
Kesisoglu did his BA in business at the Bogaziçi Üniversitesi in Turkey, and ranked 16 out of more than one million who took the entrance exams.
Eying the “Arabization” of the web, Kesisoglu has plans to roll out a host of new products in Arabic.
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MENA 30/Michael Nederlof/ CEO Aegis Media Jack of all trades
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Michael Nederlof joined Aegis Media MENA in 2010, after quite a lot of globetrotting and having founded more than ten businesses in just two decades.
“I’m the grumpy old guy who’s going to tell you we need to get the basics right first.”
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ichael Nederlof heads up the MENA operations of Aegis Media holding company, specialized in digital and non-traditional media solutions through its three subsidiaries in the region, Carat, Isobar and iProspect. But that’s not all he does, far from it. With a degree in economics from the Netherlands, Nederlof started in the publishing industry in 1988, where he spent three years learning everything there is to know about advertising sales, consumer marketing and business development, before he became publisher for another three years. He then moved on to marketing director – and soon VP Marketing & Sales – of the Netherlands’ national postal operator; he made a pit stop setting up a semi-pro video and photo online community, co-founded an innovative flying/beaming outdoor advertising firm, another online ad sales company, a consumer magazine addressing Dutch families, a news and music online platform. . . the list goes on. Nederlof globe-trotted quite a bit, too, living in places as diverse as Amsterdam, Sao Paulo and Singapore, to name a few, before he joined Aegis Media MENA in March 2010. While entering a market that’s been dominated by Arab-run agencies established for decades may seem like a challenge, Nederlof doesn’t seem daunted; after all, he’s no newbie entrepreneur himself, having founded more than ten businesses across the world in just two decades. “Of course we have integrated commerce planning and 360… But I’m the grumpy old guy who’s going to tell you we need to get the basics right first,” he says, adding that the key point is that “mobile web will take over fixed web.” Brands need to start their campaigns targeting this medium because otherwise consumers will be left “disappointed,” he explains. He should know. Aegis recently rolled out in the region the Consumer Connection System (CCS), a tool providing insight into consumer attitudes, that has already revealed some key trends in the UAE market, such as the fact that while normally 12 percent of consumers would visit a brand’s page, the figure goes up to 43 percent in the region if the page was recommended by a friend. Nederlof says, “The breadth and depth of CCS will enable us to identify the most valuable consumer segments for our clients and understand their relationship with any media that can be bought (as in TV advertising or print insertions), owned (as in brand websites) and earned (as in social media, PR and word-of-mouth).” The firm seems to be getting it right; its portfolio of clients includes Nokia, Adidas, Philips, Heineken, Kellogg’s and, of course, the much-coveted General Motors that was grabbed earlier this year. Aegis Media also recently announced that it would be opening a North African hub, out of Cairo, and would bolster its presence in the Levant. With an entrepreneur like Nederlof at its helm, Aegis Media should have more surprises in store for the region pretty soon.
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31/Noura Al Kaabi/ CEO Twofour54 Role model
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Al Kaabi is fully in charge of twofour54. She’s also a board member of Abu Dhabi Media Company, Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and ImageNation.
She joined the emirate’s media zone in October 2007, when it was still in its early start-up stage.
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he announcement of Noura Al Kaabi as CEO of Abu Dhabi’s Media Zone twofour54 in April 2012, replacing Tony Orsten, was a pleasant surprise, in an industr y widely dominated by men in their mid-50s and above. T h e rad i ant young woman had joined the emirate’s me d i a zon e i n October 2007, when it was still in its early start- u p stage, and has accompanied its growth ever sin c e. Al Kaabi graduated from the UAE Un i v ersi ty with a Bachelor Degree in management in formati on systems, and completed the Emerging Leade rsh i p Prog ram from the London Business School. She th en h el d various positions in completely different i n d u stri es: HR and administration at Dolphin Energy Limited; and IT Support manager at the Zayed Militar y Hospi tal . She first moved to twofour54 as h ead of multidisci plinar y ser vice provider and business en ab l er tawasol, tasked with ser vicing companies that were establishing an office in Abu Dhabi: her job con si sted of giving a helping hand to partner companies an d th ei r employees, in terms of property management, su p p ort ser vices and government ser vices, in order to he l p th em settle more easily into the emirate. In 2011, Al Kaab i was appointed head of human development; as such, she was in charge of driving and implementing the growth and development of professional and personal skills across the company’s workforce, from capacity building to k n owl ed ge transfer and succession planning. The same y ear she was appointed to the UAE’s Federal Nation al C ou n c il (FNC). Today, Al Kaabi is fully in charge of twofou r54. She’s also a board member of the Abu Dhab i Med i a Company, Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and ImageNation, while sitting on the Advisor y Board for th e Ab u Dh abi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) and Taw teen , an i n itiative of the Emirates Foundation. Al Kaabi’s secret to leading people effec ti v el y may lay in the education she received. With a fath er who was in the militar y for 40 years and a moth er wh o was a school principal for 30 – no doubt she and her four siblings were raised with strict, but smart princi p l es – ex p ectations were running pretty high. She told T h e Nati on al, “I tr y to bring discipline and consistency to my work i n g environment. Your company is like a household with parents and children. If there is no consistency an d th e c h ildren are not taught discipline, it will be a trou b l ed h ousehold.” Another key to her success could be her deep understanding that ever ything goes both ways. As sh e says, “For some people, being an Emirati is a won d erfu l free ride until the day they die, but others un d erstan d that giving back is how we started, how we got b etter.”
and GM Arabian Peninsula and Pakistan 32/Al Rajwani/ VPProcter & Gamble Setting examples
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hen you have brands as famous and popular as Pantene, Pampers, Tide, Ariel and Pringles, to name but a few… it could be tempting to rest easy and expect the products to sell themselves. Except that P&G’s key to its long-lasting success is that it never did that, quite the contrary. Al Rajwani is one of the executives the company has to thank for getting it the title of Advertiser of the Year, which it won at the last Dubai Lynx awards. He was, in fact, the one who went on stage to collect the award. “We are honored with [this] award, recognizing P&G brands’ innovative communications and the creative work produced by our partner agencies,” he said. “This award recognizes P&G brand building that is central to our purpose of touching and improving lives, and encourages us to continue to deliver innovative communications.” Indeed, the company restlessly developed new campaigns and branding initiatives across the region, through a variety of media and channels; the highlight of the year, however, probably was its “Thank You Mom” campaign, in partnership with the UAE National Olympic Committee and supporting the search to find young, future Olympic Games competitors. The firm sponsored 150 athletes at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Giving back is a notion that’s at the core of P&G’s image today. The release in March 2012 of its first Sustainability Report for the Arabian Peninsula follows the same philosophy; the report describes the progress made towards the company’s 2012 goals, including an overview of P&G’s long-term environmental sustainability vision and new goals for the year 2020. “Sustainability is not just about ‘green’ products tied to a current consumer movement, but a systemic approach covering our total supply chain, from raw materials to manufacturing processes to the consumer. Our purpose requires us to help solve environmental and social sustainability issues. Protecting the environment is critical to fulfilling our purpose of improving lives for generations to come,” he said at the time of the release. Rajwani’s focus is also on pushing for more digital communication. “The challenge is that consumers nowadays must be talked to when they’re ready, when they’re receptive, and we must present to them the right mix of product benefits. They have to receive the message in a locally relevant manner, more and more on the medium of their choice – and digital and social media becoming very important,” he tells Communicate, adding that “digital is a medium growing very fast, and we want to make sure that we’re part of it.” While Rajwani says that P&G will definitely remain very committed to TV spending, digital spending will be incremental – most its products targeting youth. With more than 30 years’ experience within Procter & Gamble, Rajwani knows his company inside out, just as he does his job; he has held a number of managerial positions in the US, Canada, China, Korea, the Arabian Peninsula and Pakistan, and has been responsible for developing P&G’s portfolio of brands in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, Yemen and Pakistan. So when he says that we’re in the best place in the world for business, we’d best believe him.
Rajwani has held a number of managerial positions in the US, Canada, China, Korea, the Arabian Peninsula and Pakistan.
P&G sponsored 150 athletes at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Power List I Communicate I 69
director 33/Thierry Houssin Guillain/ Managing L’Oréal Middle East Long-lasting relationship
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Houssin Guillain’s 28-year-long career spans Paris, Mexico, Turkey – and Dubai since 2011.
L’Oréal Middle East’s Facebook fanpage has garnered more than 136,000 fans since February 2011.
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hierry Houssin Guillain’s career profile tells a story of loyalty that is rare these days. Guillain started his career in 1984 with L’Oréal Paris at the company headquarters; he can look back today on a rising trajectory marked by key positions within the same company, without interruption for 28 years, spanning Paris, Mexico, Turkey and Dubai, since 2011 when he brought his vast experience to the L’Oréal Middle East Office as managing director. 2012 was an eventful year for the L’Oréal Middle East operation. There was the unfortunate faux pas made by brand ambassador and singer Najwa Karam, which led to the premature termination of the company’s contract with her – made doubly unfortunate in that it was the first time L’Oréal had endorsed a regional Arab celebrity. On a happier note, the brand’s Saudi Arabia operation became a subsidiary – L’Oréal KSA – in a joint venture with Saudi retailer Al Naghi Group. L’Oréal Luxe, which consists of 10 high-end beauty brands within the company, including Lancôme, Shu Uemura, Biotherm, Kiehl’s, and fragrance brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren, enjoyed a profitable run in the MENA region, according to a report filed by Thompson Reuters in November 2012. The report states that at the end of the third quarter of 2012, the Africa and Middle East zone recorded growth of 14.7 per cent like-for-like, and 17.9 per cent based on reported figures, driven by the Consumer Products Division and the success of fragrances at L’Oréal Luxe. The report also confirmed that the L’Oréal Group is continuing its rapid rollout in this zone, particularly in the Gulf states, Turkey and Egypt. The future looks particularly sunny for Guillain’s team in the UAE. According to market research firm Euromonitor International, retail sales of beauty products in the Emirates have grown an average of 13 per cent every year for the past five years. The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry noted that the emirate’s growing population and income, combined with its geographic location as a travel hub, will help to further boost sales of cosmetics and perfumes to 1.2bn dirhams ($327m) by 2014. The success story is continued from 2011, when, shortly after Guillain’s arrival at the Middle East office, the French cosmetic giant’s annual financial report revealed L’Oréal’s growth in the Middle East contributed significantly to helping offset lackluster global earnings of €1.7 billion. Apart from sales, the team led by Guillain has focused on social media engagement in the past two years, garnering over 136,000 fans on the L’Oréal Middle East Facebook fanpage since February 2011, and actively maintains a YouTube channel.
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manager 34/Tolga Cebe/ Marketing Coca-Cola Middle East Fusing brands
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Tolga Cebe joined Coca-Cola in 2004.
“Through Coke Studio, Coca-Cola aims to demonstrate the positive results that come from people connecting, and sharing opinions and values.” 72 I Communicate I Power List
urkey-born Tolga Cebe likes fusion and he likes firsts – when you’re in charge of building a brand such as Coca-Cola, with a 125-year history, that is strongly established everywhere in the world, you cannot but go for creative thinking. And it pays off. When he launched Coca-Cola’s “Brrr” campaign across the GCC, Iraq, Jordan and Palestine last year, Cebe adapted a concept that had first been developed for Africa, and which he extended to the region for the first time. Mixing music and football – a sound association and a sure bet when addressing Arab youth – was as good a place to start as any; adding to the mix such a respected figure as Omar Sharif was an even better move. “We intend ‘Brrr’ to become a buzzword with the youth,” said Cebe. “Therefore, we have chosen celebrities they aspire to be. […] Omar Sharif being an icon of arts and culture in Arabia, was the perfect choice. He loved the idea as well, and hence we formed our partnership.” The Coke Studio initiative, launched a few months ago, is based on the same premises, but does even better. This time, the concept is adapted from Brazil initially, and later Pakistan; it matches and mixes top Arabic and international artists, and builds on partnership with the MBC Group at one end, and Lebanese producer and song writer Michel Elefteriades at the other. The end result – a hit fusion music show broadcast on the most viewed TV station in the region – had everything to succeed. Cebe said at the time of launch, “Arab youth are between two worlds; a world of tradition, heritage, belonging and pride contrasted with one of modernity and progression. Through Coke Studio, Coca-Cola aims to demonstrate the positive results that come from people connecting, sharing opinions, values, and opening their minds to new and refreshing experiences.” The move paid off, and the stunt was heavily awarded at the last Gemas Effie Mena awards. Cebe graduated from the Boğaziçi Üniversitesi in Turkey, with a double major in industrial engineering and chemical engineering, to which he added a degree from French business school Insead, where he won an international business strategy award from L’Oréal, the L’Oréal e-Strat Challenge; he was assistant brand manager at P&G from 1998 to 2000, and joined CocaCola in 2004.
VP-marketing 35/Borhan El Kilany/ Executive and business development Americana Group (Kuwait Food Company) One and only
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here’s very little to be found about Americana Group’s head of marketing, Borhan El Kilany, who’s also part of the group’s board of directors. In fact, there’s very little to be found about Americana itself, in terms of recent news and developments. Established in Kuwait in 1964, publicly traded on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, the firm is active in 13 countries, has more than 55,000 employees, 17 food product factories and more than 1,300 food and beverage outlets. Its restaurant brands include both international and homegrown names, such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardee’s and TGI Friday’s, Costa Coffee, Krispy Kreme and others; as for food product manufacturing, Americana Group’s portfolio of brands includes California Garden, Farm Frites, Koki and Americana Meat. Americana posted $2.6 billion in sales and $173 million in profits in 2011, and certainly positions itself as one of the regional firms to be reckoned with. “Small is big in the sense of focus,” said El Kilany during the 2006 Arab Brands Forum, arguing that branding is about owning a word in the mind of the consumer, a clear association with the brand, such as KFC and fried chicken. El Kilany is a fierce defender of localization, and believes that PR is the best way to engage with customers. “We want to keep customers aware of what we are doing, and we are focusing more on the emotional elements of our brands, through community work and other programs... Owning the name in the mind of the consumer, and keeping it [there], is more important than what the name is,” he explained, adding that the brand-building process goes way beyond the brand acting on its own. “It is about the processes and the disciplines. Often it is better to be the first and to be original, than to be the best,” he said.
“Owning the name in the mind of the consumer, and keeping it [there], is more important than what the name is”.
Active in 13 countries, Americana has more than 55,000 employees, 17 food product factories and more than 1,300 food and beverage outlets. Power List Communicate I 73
36/Ayman Safadi/ CEO Abu Dhabi Media Company Language of the heart
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hen former minister in Jordan Ayman Safadi took on the role of CEO of Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) in March 2012, the firm appeared to have been in trouble. After all, Safadi was the third CEO to be appointed within a period of only 13 months, filling a spot vacated by Malcolm Wall, who had served a mere six months as CEO before being appointed advisor to the company’s board. Safadi himself has served as such an advisor since April 2011; he had contributed to the articulation of the company’s new strategy and the development of its new operating model. The new appointment came at the end of a twelve-month comprehensive business review process, in which both Safadi and Wall were significantly involved. It turns out, however, that this appointment heralded a fresh start, both for Safadi, who had served an earlier stint at ADMC, and for the company: a time to regroup and focus on a strategy designed to slow turnover in upper management – the nurturing of talented nationals and their appointment to leadership positions. At the time of his appointment, Safadi offered a related gambit: a plan for prioritizing Arabic content development and distribution. Shortly after joining, he announced the formation of an inhouse department charged with coordinating ADMC’s output and calendar across the firm’s public service brands, to guarantee that they are in line with the government’s priorities. Under Safadi’s leadership, ADMC’s annual digital media talkshop, the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, gained further international exposure and recognition, with Microsoft founder Bill Gates agreeing to give the 2012 keynote address.
Safadi wants ADMC to focus more on Arabic content development and distribution.
Under Safadi’s leadership, the Abu Dhabi Media Summit has gained increased international recognition.
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37/Sheikh Ahmad bin Jassim general Al Thani/ Director Al Jazeera Network Top of the news
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Sheikh Ahmad bin Jassim Al-Thani has been appointed director general, replacing Wadah Khanfar who left in September 2011.
Al-Thani pledged to protect the network’s neutral editorial policy and vowed it would remain a pioneer in the field of news media. 76 I Communicate I Power List
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hen the departure of Wadah Khanfar, widely perceived as the man behind Al Jazeera, which he had been leading for eight years, was suddenly announced in September 2011, many viewers – and politicians – in the region held their breath; it was Sheikh Ahmed Bin Jassim Al Thani, a member of Qatar’s royal family, who was eventually asked to step into the hot seat as the head of the TV network, launched in 1996 as the first independent Arabic news channel. That’s no easy feat: 15 years later, Al Jazeera is a huge machine, encompassing more than 20 channels (with plans to launch more in Urdu, Spanish and Turkish in the coming years), 65 bureaux and 3,000 employees across the globe; the group has gained international recognition as well, and garnered an impressive range of awards, including the prestigious Columbia Journalism Award last year, and the UK Royal Television Society’s News Channel of the Year award, along with the 71st Annual Peabody award, all to Al Jazeera English. Moreover, the change of management happened at a time when, in the midst of the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera was at the core of the WikiLeaks scandal, questioning its integrity and positioning. Although he has no prior journalistic experience, Sheikh Ahmed – who holds degrees from the UK Imperial College and the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business in the US – can rely on a solid international business career and network: up until 2011, he had been one of the most senior executives of QatarGas. However, his appointment was received with mixed feelings, many observers apprehending a change in the network’s editorial line to a more, and excessive, pro-governmental one. One Foreign Policy magazine’s headlines even asked, at the time, whether this was “The end of the Al Jazeera decade”. Sheikh Ahmed pledged to protect the network’s neutral editorial policy; he also vowed it would remain a pioneer in the field of news media. “Al Jazeera will never change a policy that led it to be at the forefront of Arab media,” he told the station, adding that one of his main objectives in the near future would be to provide the appropriate protection for reporters and correspondents by forming partnerships with humanitarian organizations. Rumors that Al Jazeera was looking at launching a newspaper are still flying; but in the meantime, Al Jazeera Balkans was launched in November 2011, the Sports Channel’s website was revamped, Aljazeera.net’s page on Facebook surpassed two million followers, and the network started publishing in February two iPad Arabic news magazines, one featuring content from Al Jazeera Arabic and the other from Al Jazeera Documentary channels, on top of analytical features, interactive graphics and video footage. “Today’s announcement is an exciting and significant step forward for Al Jazeera as we fulfill our pledge of providing high-quality content across multiple platforms,” said Sheikh Ahmed the day the applications were released. “We look forward to continuing to provide in-depth and pioneering coverage as demand for Al Jazeera’s content continues to grow.” And Sheikh Ahmed seems to only get started…
and marketing director 38/Samir Cherfan/ Sales Nissan Middle East On the roll
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amir Cherfan was appointed by Nissan Middle East to a newly created role of marketing and sales director for the region in May 2012. An engineering graduate, 44-year-old Cherfan has more than 20 years of Renault-Nissan Alliance experience; he joined Renault in 1992 and for 11 years took over several management positions in parts and vehicle engineering; he then spent seven years as program director for mid-range sedan and hatchback models, while being in charged of the CrossFunctional Team (CFT) Pilot, a two-year project for fixed cost reduction. The success of this initiative probably tipped the balance in his favor when he was named managing director of the Renault Retail Group in Paris in 2010. “The automotive market is extremely competitive and my challenge is to build on our momentum and achieve further growth in the years ahead,” he said at the time of his appointment. Since, Cherfan has kept himself busy, ensuring that Nissan’s first global brand campaign, “What if_”, designed to promote the new brand platform “Innovation that excites”, would be launched properly in Dubai. “The ‘Innovation that excites’ global brand platform marks a profound shift in Nissan’s operations,” he said. “Never before has Nissan embarked on a global campaign that promotes so clearly the inherent role that innovation plays across every part of the company, globally. Now is an ideal time for us to communicate this, capitalizing on the success the brand has achieved worldwide. The ‘What if_’ campaign underlines Nissan’s commitment to bring innovative and exciting products to our customers.” The campaign kicked-off in the main airports across the world and should be followed by a multi-channel communication, which will span over a number of years. According to Cherfan, “Dubai is an ideal choice for this campaign in our region. With 56.5 million passengers in 2012 and a projected capacity of 90 million by 2018, the Dubai airport is not only a regional hub, it’s also a worldwide hub for the Nissan brand,” he said. Results are already being reaped, with Nissan being the only automotive manufacturer to collect three awards at the 2012 Gemas Effie Mena Awards. Nissan was the first Japanese car manufacturer to establish a regional Middle East HQ in 1994. The group has operations in more than 20 countries across the region, and reported its highest quarter for its flagship Patrol model sales in the Gulf market during Q3 this year, with more than 3,500 units sold between July and September. In September, Atsuo Kosaka, managing director of Nissan Middle East, said new car sales in the UAE rose around 20 percent in the first eight months of this year, and expects solid growth to continue.
Cherfan has more than 20 years’ Renault-Nissan Alliance experience.
“Never before has Nissan embarked on a global campaign that promotes so clearly the inherent role that innovation plays across every part of the company.” Power List I Communicate I 77
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manager 39/Mike Lee/ Marketing Hyundai Middle East Full gear
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Mike Lee was appointed marketing manager of Hyundai Middle East in 2010.
“Recession has been good to us [because] we have had to look closely at our operations, especially our marketing activities”. 78 I Communicate I Power List
n charge of promoting the regional business of Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Company, represented in the UAE by Juma Al Majid Est., Mike Lee was appointed marketing manager of Hyundai Middle East in 2010. During the launch in the Middle East of a limited-edition Genesis Prada, based on the 2012 Genesis sedan, media-shy Lee said that “the Middle East is a very strategically important market for Hyundai, having been here for more than 28 years. The fact this is only the second market globally to receive this limited-edition vehicle underlines our commitment to the market.” This launch was aligned with Hyundai’s new global marketing direction “New thinking. New possibilities”. Hyundai was established in Korea in 1847 as a construction company. One of today’s fastest-growing automakers in the world, it bought South Korean Kia Motors in 1998. Hyundai Middle East announced its best first-half year sales for the region last summer, registering an increase of 13 percent in total sales compared to the same period last year. Kuwait was the best-selling market, posting a 127 percent growth, followed by Bahrain with a 99 percent increase, the UAE with 77 percent, Qatar by 60 percent and Oman by 48 percent. However, Saudi Arabia remains Hyundai’s biggest market in the region. “Recession has been good to us [because] it has allowed us to explore other avenues in Middle East markets,” Lee told Automanweb.com a year ago. “We have had to look closely at our operations, especially our marketing activities. With a tighter budget, we had to make sure that we were as cost effective with our advertising as possible [...] One of the big challenges is the diversity of the Middle East market, with so many different cultures. We have had to look at every market and determine the most effective way to reach huge numbers of people with our messages within the limited budgets that we have.” In terms of sales, regional trade publications place Hyundai in the second slot behind Toyota in some of the GCC countries, while it is third in the UAE behind Nissan.
40/Yousef Darwish/ Quiet effectiveness
General manager – Group communications QNB
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Established in 1964, Qatar National Bank rebranded to QNB in 2004.
QNB played an active role in Qatar’s successful bids to host the Asian Games in 2006 and the summer Olympics in 2022. 80 I Communicate I Power List
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sure sign that regional banks are increasingly looking into serious corporate communication, QNB’s GM of group communications, Yousef Darwish, is now featured in this Power List. Established in 1964 as the country’s first Qatari-owned commercial bank, Qatar National Bank rebranded to QNB in 2004. The bank always tied its development to that of its home country. Back in 1966, it significantly contributed to the financing of Doha’s International Airport’s construction, and continues to support infrastructure projects today – playing an active role in Qatar’s successful bids to host the Asian Games in 2006, as well as the FIFA World Cup and the summer Olympics in 2022 being named Qatar 2022’s official bank. In 2009, QNB Geneva and QNB Syria were launched; nowadays, QNB has a presence in 24 countries, through various associates, subsidiaries, branches and representative offices, and its international presence is expanding, with new locations in Singapore, Libya, Oman, Kuwait and Yemen. QNB Capital, aiming to offer expert advice on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), equity, debt and project advisory services, was set up in 2008, turning QNB into the first bank in Qatar to have a financial services subsidiary. This move was reinforced by the establishment of QNB Financial Services (QNBFS) in 2011, which was tasked with providing a range of financial services to domestic and foreign institutional investors, high-net worth individuals, retail and corporate clients, including mutual funds, brokerage services, research and advisory intelligence, and asset management. Ultimately, QNB intends to provide customers with top notch banking facilities. To that end, the bank introduced a suite of e-banking services, “eazylife”. The Qatari bank also strives for PR exposure, implementing an active community support program through the sponsorship of various social, educational, and sporting events. Last December, QNB sponsored the IT QITCOM conference; and in February, the bank was the main sponsor of the ninth Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition (DJWE), which attracted more than 300 exhibitors, and approximately 60,000 local and international visitors. “Qatar National Bank supports the exhibition as it is the most important event of its kind in the country and welcomes a large number of globally renowned brands,” said Darwish at the event, further explaining that “QNB is keen to be seen in the company of these illustrious international brands, both as a potential partner and an enabler of financial ambitions.”
of Communication and Public Relations 41/Hussam Abdel Qader/ Head Almarai More-than numbers man
As head of communications at Almarai, Abdel Qader is the voice of one of the world’s largest dairies.
The fact that in 2011, Hussam Abdel Qader returned to Saudi dairy and beverage giant Almarai as head of communications and public relations, after a brief stint at Saudi telecom operator Mobily, may have come as a surprise to those who have followed Abdel Qader’s career… After all, he had been the classic number cruncher for almost eight years in Almarai’s marketing research department after having spent five years with global research consultancy Nielsen. But Abdel Qader is no longer that kind of numbers man, or, at least, he is concerned with more than just numbers. Now at the helm of communications for the largest vertically integrated dairy company in the world, with sales of more than $146 million, according to the Financial Times, Abdel Qader is the face and voice of Almarai. According to a study by beverage research online publication, just-drinks.com, Almarai, which boasted a turnover of $2 billion in 2011, is working on upgrading its distribution network. As of 2012, the company has a fleet of 1,000 tankers, reefers and tractor heads at its main facility in Riyadh,
and uses around 3,200 delivery trucks from 70 sales depots in the Gulf to reach 48,500 retail customers each day. Abdel Qader says he relates to the values of the company – putting the customer first. However, outside the corporate world, family comes first, with whom he enjoys spending time outdoors, horse riding and exploring cultural experiences.
Abdel Qader says he identifies with the ethos of the company – putting the customer first.
director Al Safi Danone 42/Manuel Cretin/ Marketing A taste of success
Manuel Cretin heads the company’s marketing department across the GCC countries, and Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Appointed in 2011 as marketing director of beverage and dairy company Al Safi Danone, Manuel Cretin has spent the past year attempting to live up to the challenge: revive his 11-year-old company’s declining renown. Al Safi Danone, which is part of the Saudi Al Faisaliah Group and a joint venture between the French dairy giant Danone and Saudi dairy producer Al Safi, had won in two consecutive years, 2006 and 2007, the “Best Dairy Company” award at an FMCG industry event organized by Retail News Middle East magazine. Since then, however, Al Safi Danone’s star has waned, even after the company’s 2008 announcement that it was expanding to Jordan. Upon his appointment, Cretin was therefore briefed to put Al Safi Danone back in the public spotlight. And so he did. Cretin now heads the company’s marketing department across the GCC countries, and Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. His endeavors to bring more attention to the dairy manufacturer this year saw him participate in a panel discussion at the Mindshare Media Summit 2012 in Riyadh in May. The company was also in the news in 2012,
as it took an active part in a recycling initiative organized by The Emirates Environmental Group in the UAE. Al Safi Danone counts Evian bottled water, Al Safi Laban and Danao Juice Milk among its best selling products in the Middle East. Forty-eight per cent of its revenue comes from dairy and milk products, revenue from bottled water constitutes 26 percent and 23 percent comes from the juices and desserts category.
Upon his appointment, Cretin was briefed to put Al Safi Danone back in the public spotlight. And so he did.
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director 43/Rainer Mueller/ Communications Nestlé Middle East Healthy prospect
After Mueller joined, Nestlé announced the opening of a $136 million Dubai factory.
In March 2012, after seven and a half years with Nestlé South Africa, Rainer Mueller moved to the UAE to take the reins as communication director of the FMCG company’s Middle East headquarters. A few months after his appointment in the UAE, Nestlé announced plans to bolster its presence in the country, with the opening of a $136 million Dubai factory. Under Mueller’s direction, the company joined the Dubai Health Authority to raise awareness about osteoporosis with a campaign titled, “Care for your Body… Care for your Health,” under Nestlé’s “Eat Right Live Well” initiative. Mueller said in a press statement: “We are pleased to contribute to public health in Dubai. The campaign leverages the combined expertise and resources of DHA, the foremost health authority in Dubai, and Nestlé, the world leader in nutrition, to create an awareness program that promotes a better understanding among the public about nutrition, health and wellness.” Mueller is a lecturer for Nestlé’s global capability trainings, a member of the Executive Board, Nestlé Suisse SA, part of the Board of Directors AJS Ingénieurs Civils SA, and lecturer for graduating Advertising &
Communication Managers for three years. Mueller was also in charge of procuration for Coca Cola AG, Ernst & Young Consulting and Sony Switzerland AG at various stages of his career. At Nestlé SA, Mueller was global coordinator for brand building, which involved implementation in 23 markets and businesses of the brand’s vision, and handled global capability programs for advanced marketing and sales, among other things.
Before coming to the Middle East, Mueller spent seven and a half years at Nestlé South Africa.
communications director 44/Mohammed Al Assaf/ Marketing STC Keen ear
Al Assaf was instrumental in lending support to Saudi Arabia’s oasis region Al-Ahsa’s first Shopping and Entertainment Festival.
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It has been a rewarding year for Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and its marketing communications director Mohammed Al Assaf. The company topped the list of the most influential commercial brands in KSA in 2012, according to British brand valuation company Brand Finance PLC . It says STC not only achieved an incremental rise in brand value of 10 percent in 2012 compared to 2011, but also maintained its position among the best 50 commercial brands across GCC countries for the year 2012. As marketing communications director, Al Assaf was instrumental in lending support to Saudi Arabia’s oasis region Al-Ahsa’s first Shopping and Entertainment Festival, on behalf of STC this year. STC’s sponsorship of the festival was part of its social responsibility program, to support entertainment and shopping events that contribute to development of the local economy. Al Assaf even accepted an award from Al-Ahsa Governor Prince Badr bin Muhammad bin Jelawi, for STC’s support of the Festival. In May 2012, the STC Group received another accolade – the “Best Mobile Operator of the Year”
award – at the 6th TMT Finance and Investment Middle East Awards ceremony 2012, held in Dubai. The year also saw STC become the region’s first telecom operator to offer over-the-top (OTT) TV service on multiple screens (tablets and smartphones) for its customers in the Middle East. Enough to keep Mohammed Al Assaf busy, and busier…
Saudi Telecom Company was the region’s first telecom operator to offer over-the-top (OTT) TV service on multiple screens.
TRENDS magazine, the Middle East’s most respected source of business news and analysis, is now available on the iPad. For more than a decade TRENDS has been the must read magazine for leaders A MediaquestCorp inPublication the region. Its uncompromising investigations and unbiased insights set the standard for coverage of Arab affairs around the world. A Mediaquest Corp publication
www.trendsmagazine.net
corporate communications officer 45/Ali Al Ahmed/ Chief Etisalat Walk the talk
Al Ahmed is responsible for ensuring integration of the corporation’s business units with its communications campaigns.
Government-owned telecom operator Etisalat’s Ali Al Ahmed started his career with the firm, working with its commercial division, as part of the launch of GSM services in the UAE. Al Ahmed also played a key role in the planning, launch and development of E-Vision, the first cable TV company in the Middle East, based on advanced fiber optic technology. He then moved to the media industry, as managing director of Abu Dhabi TV, taking responsibility for Emirates Media and its television channels from 2001 until 2007, when he returned to Etisalat. Today, Al Ahmed is not only responsible for ensuring integration of the corporation’s business units with its communications campaigns, but also for strategic input to position the brand and its identity. It is in this capacity that he launched the “Youth Café” as part of the 20th Public Relations World Congress (PRWC) that took place in Dubai in March 2012. The initiative not only aims at providing a forum for UAE youth on vital social, cultural and economic issues that
concern the country and the region, but also forms a clearinghouse for ideas drawn from workshops and other youth-focused initiatives, with a view to making recommendations to the PRWC. The Youth Café project has increased awareness of the Etisalat brand among the youth in the UAE, and forms one of the telecommunication company’s corporate social responsibility initiatives.
Al Ahmed is in charge of providing strategic input to position the Etisalat brand and its identity.
marketing and commercial strategy officer 46/Karl-Michael Henneking/Chief Mobily Man of experience
Karl-Michael Henneking’s work experience spans 30 countries in Western Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
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Karl-Michael Henneking stepped into his new office at Saudi Arabia’s second telecommunications consortium Mobily, in February 2012, with the benefit of thirteen years of experience with Germany-based telecommunications consultancy Detecon International, and a wealth of international experience spanning 30 countries in Western Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. In charge of commercial strategy development, product innovation, branding and marketing intelligence at Mobily, Henneking has had a busy first year at the company. Having launched a slew of new services in 2012, such as the I-statement for customers and the first LTE data roaming in Saudi Arabia, Henneking’s efforts kept Mobily in the public gaze throughout the year. Mobily also stole the show at the Euromoney Awards by bagging the “Best managed telecommunications company” title for 2012 in November. But the journey for Henneking has been marked by controversy. While Mobily recorded an increase in the size of its data capacity to a whopping 502 percent from last year, the company came
under fire from the Saudi Communication and Information Technology Commission on provisions regarding the selling of prepaid SIM cards. Leaving the rollercoaster year for Mobily behind, the multilingual CMO says his focus for the coming year is on networking with experts and thought leaders in digital marketing, ICT innovation and corporate strategy development in the Middle East telecommunications industry.
Henneking launched a slew of new services such as the I-statement for customers and the first LTE data roaming in Saudi Arabia.
47/Raza Beig/ CEO Splash and Iconic, Landmark Group Fashionable man
Beig started as a part-time travel agent, cable TV operator and saree seller to become CEO of fashion brands Splash and Iconic.
Known for his flamboyant parties and dapper business suits, Raza Beig is also the quintessential self-made man. From his humble beginnings in Mumbai as a part-time travel agent, cable TV operator and even, at one time, a door-to-door saree seller, to CEO of the Middle East-wide fashion brands Splash and Iconic – his is an inspiring story. His most notable accomplishment thus far has been to establish a successful value retail business in a luxury-oriented region – no small feat. In an interview with Communicate’s sister online magazine Kippreport.com in July 2012, he said: “I do believe that there is a fairly good market for luxury, which is here to stay, but we also see a lot of pressure on bridge brands. The Middle East is evolving, to rapidly gain the reputation of a value shopping destination.” In 2012, Beig launched Splash Fashion operations in Tanzania, Libya and Kenya. Keen on tapping into the online retail opportunity, he also launched an e-commerce website for the brand in 2012. Also in 2012, the very first TVC for Splash ran, but Beig’s collaboration with Bollywood movie star
Salman Khan for the launch of the actor’s Being Human apparel collection caused the most stir. Despite fierce competition from international value chains such as H&M, New Look and Forever 21 in the Middle East, the two brands under him are holding their own, with Splash doubling its turnover this year, according to Beig. But Beig is not content with this. His next big dream is to make a Bollywood movie.
Beig collaborated with Bollywood movie star Salman Khan on the launch of the actor’s Being Human apparel collection.
48/Nabeel Bin Salama/ CEO Zain Group Open line
Nabeel Bin Salama served as Kuwait’s Minister of communication, electricity and water in 2009.
To say the least, Kuwait is a lucrative telecom market, as telco operator Zain’s growth illustrates all too well: boasting an estimated 41 percent share of the country’s mobile subscribers by the end of 2011, Zain – which first launched in 1983 as Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) – has grown into a global player, operating in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, South Sudan and Lebanon (as Touch under a management contract). In September 2007, MTC rebranded to Zain “in order to better reflect our growing status as a leading multi-national mobile service provider with global aspirations,” says the company’s website. In February 2010, Nabeel Bin Salama was appointed CEO of the telecom operator. Bin Salama has a Bachelors in electronic engineering from the University of Dayton, the US, and served as Kuwait’s Minister of communication, electricity and water in 2009, having spent several years in the public sector, and acted as general manager of Al Wataniya, Zain’s main incumbent in Kuwait,
in 1997. His appointment came at a difficult time for Zain, which was about to sell its African asset to Bharti Airtel for an alleged $9 billion. However, Bin Salama announced, in October, that he would step down as group CEO. In December, Zain appointed Scott Gegenheimer, who had resigned from incumbent telecom operator Wataniya six months ago, as his replacement.
In September 2007, MTC rebranded to Zain in order to better reflect its growing status as a leading, multinational mobile service provider.
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– ME, Turkey, Africa Inc. 49/Charlotte West/ VPMarsmarketing Early start Brought onboard at Mars Inc in September 2011 as vice-president of marketing for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, UK citizen Charlotte West can boast sound experience in the field at a global level; she got started in 2002, aged 23, with Reckitt Benckiser as senior brand manager, before being quickly promoted to category manager, European category manager and, finally, global brand marketing manager for Strepsils. In 2009 she moved to India where she was named the regional marketing director of India and South Asia; there she remained until 2011, when she joined confectionary products manufacturer Mars Inc. out of Dubai.
Charlotte West joined Mars Inc in 2011.
West first started her career in marketing at 23.
of group marketing 50/Vikram Krishna/ Head Emirates NBD Aim for more
Vikram Krishna developed an “enriched banking experience” value proposition.
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Who would have thought a local bank would receive the 2011 Stevie Award for Marketing Department of the Year? When it launched in November 2009, Emirates NBD had two objectives: to become the leading banking brand in the UAE by 2010 and to become a top 100 global banking brand by 2013 – which could have been perceived as quite ambitious considering the state of the economy at the time. Still, the group’s head of marketing, Vikram Krishna, stood to the challenge, developing an “enriched banking experience” value proposition supported by a 360-degree marketing approach. The bank became the second-fastest-rising search term in the UAE on Google, with the number of its visitors increasing from 0.4 to 1.5 million per month within 18 months; branding initiatives were launched, both internally and externally, to build loyalty and ambassadors. In the YouGov BrandIndex, Emirates NBD improved its score from 17 to 26, while The Banker magazine ranked it 130th globally. No wonder Krishna would proudly say, “The past year has been a particularly successful one for Emirates NBD with many national, regional, and
international awards, among which the coveted Stevie Award stands out. This award is a recognition of the effectiveness of our brand strategy and an important step forward into the international arena.” Indeed, for this graduate in mathematical studies from Delhi University, who also holds an MBA in marketing, there has always been one direction to take his career and the company he works for, and that’s up.
Emirates NBD received the 2011 Stevie Award for Marketing Department of the Year.