The 50 most powerful people in media, marketing and advertising in MENA

Welcome to the first Communicate Power List, where it ranks the top 50 players in the region’s media, marketing and advertising industry.

Many of the names and faces will be familiar, although some of those who made the list prefer to operate more in the background.

As well as a bare-bones ranking, the list has tried to present a snapshot of the people behind the power. In many cases it managed to meet with the power players. Others it hopes to meet soon.

Soon Communicate will put together a second list, this time of the next generation of media power players. So, keep your eyes peeled!

To establish who is on the power list and where they sit, this list has addressed a subjective issue in an objective manner.
It had to answer the question: What is power?

It is a number of things: it encompasses the ability to make things happen within the industry, authority over others, and respect. The ability to make things happen is largely due to the size of one’s company, and the amount of money that it controls; after all, this industry is a commercially driven one. Authority stems from one’s position in the company; a CEO has more authority than a junior account director; respect comes from many areas, but can be measured by seeing how often others quote the person.

With the help of data partners Ipsos and Zawya, the list gathered information on companies and the amount of money clients spend through their agencies on media. Then it dug to get as much information as it could on the top companies and the people who run them.

When it had all the data it could get its hands on, it parsed it through a formula where it awarded points for each of a series of categories. It added the points together and came up with this list.

Since much of the data it has used to come up with this list is sensitive, it has kept both it and its exact formula confidential.

Congratulations to all who made the list.

Enjoy, and power to ya!

1) Sheikh Waleed Al Ibrahim – Chairman, MBC
2) Elie Khouri – CEO, OMG MENA
3) Akram Miknas – Chairman, MCN
4) Joseph Ghossoub – Chairman & CEO, Menacom Group
5) Pierre Choueiri – CEO, Choueiri Group
6) Raja Trad – CEO, Leo Burnett Group of Companies MENA
7) Roy Haddad – CEO, JWT Middle East and Africa
8) Ramzi Raad – Chairman & CEO, TBWA\Raad
9) Edmond Moutran – CEO, Memac Ogilvy and Mather
10) Dani Richa – Chairman and CEO, Impact BBDO
11) Alex Saber – Chairman, Vivaki MENA
12) Samir Ayoub – CEO, Mindshare MENA
13) Pierre Soued – Managing Director, Havas Middle East
14) Mustapha Assad – CEO, Publicis
15) Sanjiv Mehta – Chairman, Unilever North Africa and Middle East
16) Gregory Tikhanoff – President & COO, Horizon Group
17) Mark Mullen – Regional head of marketing, HSBC
18) Fadi Ghosn – Chief marketing officer, General Motors Middle East
19) Mohan Nambiar – Regional managing director, MEC MENA
20) Ahmed Nassef – Regional vice-president, Yahoo
21) Dr. Abdul Malek Al Jaber – COO, Zain Group
22) Vishal Tikku – Managing director GCC, Kraft Foods
23) Subhra Das – Senior vice-president, Du
24) Edouard Monin – CEO, Ipsos MENA
25) Raymond Khoury – Marketing director, Procter & Gamble
26) Ahmed El Azizi – Marketing vice-president and CMO, PepsiCo
27) Dr. Amina Al Rustamani – CEO, Tecom Business Parks
28) Dr. Azzam Al Dakhil – CEO, SRMG
29) Anthony Ponsford – MD MENA, L’Oreal
30) Omar Salim – Franchise director Africa, India and the Middle East, Mars
31) Nezar Nagro – President, Rotana Media Services
32) Syed Ahmed – General manager of marketing, Nissan Middle East
33) Mathew Mathai – Marketing director, Sony Gulf
34) Hussam Abdul Qader – General manager of marketing, Almarai
35) Ari Kesisoglu – Managing director MENA, Google
36) Fahad Alsukait – CEO, Rotana Holding
37) Tolga Cebe – Regional marketing manager, Coca Cola Middle East
38) Akira Okabe – Senior managing director, Toyota
39) Mike Lee – Marketing manager, Hyundai Middle East
40) Tony Orsten – CEO, twofour54
41) Frank Mooty – Acting CEO, Abu Dhabi Media
42) Mohammed Al Assaf – Marketing communication director, STC
43) Wadah Khanfar – Director general, Al Jazeera Network
44) Khalid Al Kaf – CEO, Mobily
45) Vikram Krishna – Head of group marketing, Emirates NBD
46) Andrew Ward – Vice-president, Etihad
47) Raef Labaky – Communication and marketing services director, Nestle Middle East
48) Boutros Boutros – Chief marketing officer, Emirates
49) Tomas Hajek – Marketing director Middle East, Danone
50) Essa Al Haddad – Group chief marketing officer, Etisalat