TBWA\RAAD Middle East appoints Walid Kanaan as Chief Creative Officer across MENA network

Kanaan brings borderless international expertise to clients as agency ramps up its regional creative firepower

Dubai– September 2, 2015 – TBWA\RAAD Middle East has announced the appointment of one of the MENA region’s most decorated creative forces, Walid Kanaan, as its Chief Creative Officer to lead the agency’s creative teams throughout the region.

Effective September 1, Kanaan will be based principally in Beirut, Lebanon, and Dubai, UAE and will provide dynamic new leadership to TBWA\RAAD’s dedicated network of creative resources across its regional offices in UAE, KSA and Qatar.

“Walid is just the creative force we need to ramp up our firepower for clients throughout the MENA region,” said Reda Raad, CEO of TBWA\RAAD Middle East. “This key appointment fulfills our future leadership vision and management structure, having recently put in place new managing directors at our Ketchum, Integer and Saudi Arabian operations.”

Raad added: “Walid’s creative energies and unparalleled experience serving local and multinational clients across the region and beyond will bring us an immediate competitive advantage. We are thrilled Walid has taken on the challenge.”

He explained the key appointment is part of the agency’s larger transformation and the global revitalization of the Disruption® mission, which employs highly innovative processes and tools.

“Today, the market is changing faster than ever and the business world has evolved beyond recognition. Disruption® answers this challenge by accelerating brand growth through a unique combination of creativity and daily intelligence. Walid’s creative leadership will reinforce the agency’s Disruption® mantra by furthering the growth of our talent into future-ready Disruptors,” Raad said.

Prior to taking up his appointment at TBWA\RAAD Kanaan was Chief Creative Officer for BBDO across the Levant and KSA.

“The MENA region is more volatile than ever in terms of business opportunities and new market directions and dynamics. The environment is easily one of the most competitive in the world which makes joining TBWA\RAAD at this time in its impressive history a truly strategic career move,” said Kanaan.
With more than 22 years of advertising experience in the Middle East and North Africa, Kanaan has established his creative leadership credentials working with blue chip clients in all key markets across the region.

Kanaan’s trophy cabinet goes all the way back since 1992, winning prestigious local and regional award shows, securing Gold at the Gemas Effie, Grand Prix at the Dubai Lynx and Creative Agency of the year title at the Mena Cristal 2014, in addition to prestigious international award shows such as Cannes Lions, Cresta, Epica, Sabre, New York Festival and London International Awards to name a few.

“Empowering and inspiring the next generation of creative excellence in MENA is one of the prerogatives of today’s agency leadership. Identifying, nurturing and retaining the very best creative resources will be one of my first priorities,” said Kanaan.

Ramzi Raad TBWA\RAAD’s Group Chairman, welcomed this appointment saying: “We are delighted to see our pledge to be the agency that changes the rules of communication in our markets, getting completed following the noticeable development that we’ve brought into the areas of strategic planning, dynamic integration and transparency. Walid will certainly help our Group take its partnership with our clients to where we’ve always wanted it, to be.

About TBWA\Raad
TBWA\RAAD Middle East was established in the United Arab Emirates, on February 23, 2000 by Ramzi Raad and a small group of founding members who are have become the management team of the regional network which -­‐ from day one -­‐ had been built to provide total communication solutions to its clients. TBWA\RAAD was established to develop and expand TBWA Worldwide’s presence across the Middle East and Africa. The network operates a team of more than 1000 people across four main divisions – advertising, digital, shopper marketing and public relations.

About TBWA Worldwide:
TBWA Worldwide (www.tbwa.com) is a top ten ranked global advertising network that holds Disruption® at its core to develop business-changing ideas for the brands it works with. TBWA has 11,100 employees across 323 offices in 97 countries and also includes brands such as AUDITOIRE, BEING, Digital Arts Network (DAN), eg+ worldwide, The Integer Group®, TBWA\Media Arts Lab and TBWA\WorldHealth. TBWA’s global clients include Accenture, adidas, Apple, Energizer, Gatorade, GSK, Henkel, McDonald’s, Michelin, Nissan, Pernod Ricard, Pfizer, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore Airlines, Sotheby’s and Vichy. Follow TBWA on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook.