Ian Manning

Facebook

Head of Agencies Middle East, North Africa & Pakistan

Ian has 20 years experience working in Media and Marketing, having held senior positions in both Agencies and Media Owners in the UK, South Africa and Dubai including both global and local roles. Ian was recently responsible for the commercial launch of Instagram in MENA and is currently leading Facebooks Agency team across the region.

Tom Webster

CISCO

EMEA Paid Social Media Manager

Alex Malouf

Schneider Electric

Corporate Communications Director MEA

Adam Clyne

Coolr - Partner of Workplace by Facebook

Chief Operating Officer

Adam has 15+ years experience in the digital, publishing and marketing sectors.

He has held numerous senior positions in leading businesses including The LAD Bible (COO), Weber Shandwick (Head of Digital) and The Economist Group (MD – TVC); giving him a unique perspective on the ever-changing landscape of content and social media.

Throughout his career he has worked with many of the world's leading brands including Louis Vuitton, Unilever, Coca Cola, Heineken, Nestle, Red Bull and Ralph Lauren - delivering high impact and groundbreaking global programmes.

Adam is a frequent speaker on the conference circuit and regularly appears in the press due to his extensive knowledge and views on digital, leadership, marketing and how technology is changing the world.

Adam has enjoyed a broad range of international experience, having led a team across 35+ territories in EMEA during his time at Weber and opened offices in New York for TVC Group, whilst at The Economist.

He has been recognised for his work, winning numerous awards including taking two separate agencies to the prestigious position of EMEA Digital Agency of the Year.

Adam is comfortable in all life-cycles of a business having worked at international blue chip companies, a PE backed business and various start-ups (including his own!).

Adam is super networked, an accomplished public speaker / spokesperson and advises various tech start-ups and not-for-profits in his spare time.

Asad Ur Rehman

Unilever MENA

Director Media and Digital Transformation, North Africa & Middle East

Asad manages Unilever’s media investments across the Middle East and North Africa region. He is also responsible for driving digital transformation for Unilever brands across the region. Asad has been in Dubai since August 2013, prior to which he managed Global Media for Unilever’s Foods and Personal Care businesses, based out of Unilever’s HQ in London. Prior to joining Unilever, Asad did various assignments for MindShare/Group M in various parts of the world. He managed local offices in Vietnam and Pakistan for them, did a global role at their HQ in London, and managed regional projects in AsiaPac and LATAM.

Asad is also the founding Chair of The Marketing Society Middle East chapter. The Marketing Society focuses on inspiring bolder marketing leadership in the region. Asad also sits at the board of the IAA UAE office.

A graduate of IBA in Karachi, Asad is a technology enthusiast and an internationalist at heart, and considers himself fortunate to be working in the Middle East. You can find him on most social media platforms as @asadchawla

Hesham Shata

Think Marketing

CEO of Innovlutions Digital Solutions

Hesham Shata is the Founder and CEO of Think Marketing.
Shata started working in digital marketing as a hobby driven by passion before it turns into a professional career to face complex digital challenges in the evolving digital media landscape.
He’s a non-traditional strategic thinker, analyzer and ideas igniter. Currently he is responsible for helping the teams with strategic ideas and managing the flow of clients operations in Think Marketing Lab using sophisticated digital marketing tactics and digital media analytics to guide premium brand’s digital businesses in addition to his role of consultancy.
Recently launched Ramadan Hub to be the world’s 1st platform focusing on providing digital media insights for Ramadan campaigns combining digital media analytics from different social media channels to help marketers better understand and measure campaigns results.
Years before establishing Think Marketing, Shata was the Business Development Manager at Ark Development then joined Digital Marketing Arts Academy in the period from 2012 to 2013. He was also the General Manager at Social Media Radar when his team gained the Technology Innovation Award 2012 from Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC).
This includes working closely with The Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Vodafone Egypt, Contact Finance, OPPO Camera Phone, TECNO mobile, Wai Degla Finance, Tarek Nour Advertising and Weber Shandwick.
Shata has B. Sc, Chemistry – Biology at the University in Cairo.

Zayna Aston

YouTube

EMEA Communications and Public Affairs

Tahaab Rais

FP7/McCann MENA

Regional Head of Strategy Office & MENA Director – Truth Central

Born in August 1984, Tahaab’s first word was "Astronaut". In February 1986, he skipped walking and started running. In November 1994, he watched a movie that changed his life: Forrest Gump. It taught him how to make an ordinary life, legendary. Just like Baby’s Day Out. In August 1997, he met Mr. Adolescence through a myriad of regrettable haircuts (Spock, Elvis, Wolverine). In September 2002, he wrote poetry and hasn’t stopped writing since. In June 2005, he learnt to add a little Bollywood to his creative job; some drama in presentations, sharing a romance with ideas and using self-deprecating comedy to keep his spirits up.

Since 2012, he leads the strategy office for FP7 (A part of McCann Worldgroup) across MENA, focusing on creative marketing, brand and connections strategy. He’s the MENA Director for Truth Central – an intelligence platform and also manages creative excellence across MENA.

Tahaab has been ranked the #1 Strategy Head in the world by the Big Won Rankings in 2016, and is the most awarded strategist in MENA having won over 300 awards across Effies, Warc, Dubai Lynx, Cannes Lions, New York Festivals, D&AD, One Show, Clios, The International ANDYs and Crestas, among others. He has also led the agency’s efforts that helped FP7 to be ranked the Most Effective Agency in the World at the Global Effie Index, as well winning Agency and Network of the Year for an unprecedented 5 years running, from 2013 to 2017. He has judged at the Global Effies, Effies and at Midas Awards, previously too.

Natasha Ighodaro

J. Walter Thompson Worldwide

Digital Strategy Director, Newslab

As the Digital Business & Strategy Director at JWT Dubai, Natasha drives growth of the agency's digital business, and leads the business strategy for digital growth.

She has over a decade of experience in delivering integrated communications programs for global brands across a breadth of sectors and markets, both in-house and agency side. She has worked across multiple markets, based out of London and now Dubai.

Peter DeBenedictis

Microsoft

CMO

Peter is a senior business development professional with 25 years experience in developing and executing marketing, strategy, and commercial business in Emerging Markets.

Carla Maalouly

Twitter MENA

Head of Busness Marketing

Carla (@CMaalouli) joined Twitter as the Head of Business Marketing for the Middle East and North Africa. Her function focuses on communicating the value of Twitter to the marketers and agencies that it serves and establishing Twitter as an indispensable partner to its clients' business success. Carla has over 10 years of experience in marketing strategy, digital marketing and brand management acquired in roles serving the Middle East and North Africa region. She joins Twitter from Connect Ads, a digital advertising solutions provider, where she was the Brand Manager at the company. Prior to that she was Brand Manager at Chalhoub Group, where she managed all marketing and media strategies ranging from planning, ATL & BTL advertising, PR, events, product development and research in GCC. Previously, she managed the client portfolio of DMS (member of Choueiri Group) in their digital media sales and marketing division. Carla holds a Bachelor of Science in Advertising and Marketing from Universite Saint-Joseph, Lebanon.

Khaled Shokry

OPPO Egypt

PR & Communications Manager

Heba Barakat

General Motors Egypt

Marketing and Customer Experience Senior Manager

Ahmed El-Nakeeb

Egyptian Resorts Company - Sahl Hasheesh

Senior Marketing Manager

Juan Fuentes fernandez

LaLiga Global Network

Delegate to Egypt

Sarah Farouk Ibrahim

Attijariwafa bank Egypt.

Director of Marketing & Corporate Relations

Ramy Riad

Connect Ads

VP Business Development

VP of Business Development & Partners Relation at Connect Ads (Aug 2017 - present time), previously Business Development & Partners Relation Director (2015 - 2017), Microsoft Advertising Relationship Director (2011 - 2015) and Executive Producer of MSN Arabia & North Africa (2012 - 2014).

18+ years of work experience and 13+ years of entrepreneurial experience in digital media, e-commerce, online publishing, media production and market research.

MBA from Edinburgh School of Business, 2014. BA in Political Science with a minor in Economics from the American University in Cairo, 1998.

Joined the US AID mission in Egypt as part of Chemonics International, CAIP Project (1998 - 2001). Started in an intern role and developed to lead the Project's public awareness and outreach program.

Co-founded intoegypt.com in 2001, a subsidiary of OT Ventures (now A15) and an online travel portal which pioneered the field in the country and the region at the time. Led the company’s sales and marketing activities and in 2005 became CEO, managing a team of 30 professionals and contributed to developing the business across several aspects. In 2012 the company was bankrupt in the aftermath of Egypt's Revolution of Jan 25th, 2011 and the Arab Spring which took its toll on the travel and tourism sector in the country and the region.

Co-founded intodevelopment in 2005, a digital agency specialized in web design and development, content management systems (CMS) and digital media production. Also a subsidiary of OT Ventures (now A15).

Co-founded Elements SAE also in 2005, a boutique production and publishing house. Co-managed the production of several TV programs and the release of several publications.

Led different research projects for Euromonitor International (2005 - 2012).