Before his advertising career, Fred worked as the Lead features writer and editorial researcher at Brand Communicator, Nigeria’s most influential marketing communications journal, where he shaped the editorial direction and constantly wrote agenda-setting pieces for the communications industry.

He is an award-winning account planner whose work has won accolades at many local and international advertising festivals such as Epica, Loeries, African Cristal, as well as the Lagos Advertising and Ideas festival.

Currently, Fred is the Head of Marketing Strategy and Planning for the Heineken Company. Previously he served as Deputy Director, Account Planning at Sub Saharan Africa’s most creatively awarded communications agency, Noah’s Ark. He is responsible for the leadership and overall planning practice of the agency, and he leads diverse team planners working across brands in various categories such as FMCG, mobile technology, telecommunications, and non-profits.

He is a member of the Account Planning Group, United Kingdom. In his spare time, he reads non-fiction, plays video games, and listens to podcasts.

Ramzan Al Naimi is a creative Director and Branding consultant specialized in media and commercial advertising, working in Media industry for more than 19 years, his current position is Aljazeera Network Creative Director. 

Khaled AlShehhi is an innovative marketing leader who has made significant contributions to the field of advertising and marketing in the MENA region. He has transformed the way the UAE government communicates by introducing original, creative, and humanizing content that has positively impacted millions of people globally.

Under his leadership, the UAE Government Media Office has received over 200 awards from some of the most prestigious creative and marketing shows around the world, including Cannes Lions, LIA, CLIO, ONE Show and Dubai Lynx. Khaled's unique approach to creativity has made him a sought-after speaker, sharing his story about how government creativity can be turned on.

He has earned leadership roles in various organizations, including the Global CMO Growth Council, New York Festival AME Advisory Council, World Media Group’s Brand Advisory Board, The Public Relations and Communications Association Executive Board and Middle East Public Relations Association Strategy Board. Khaled has been recognized for his outstanding contributions to the field, including winning the World Media Group Award for Content Leadership & Innovation in 2022, the Honorary Award of the 2022 Effie MENA, and being named Advertising Person of the Year at the Dubai Lynx 2023, Digital Professional of the Year 2021 by The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) and Marketing Game Changer by Campaign Middle East in 2020. He has also been featured in the Arabian Business’ 2021 Power List of individuals who are shaping the future of the Middle East.

Tala joined FP7 McCann in 2018 armed with experience across multiple categories. She has worked on key regional clients such as: Arla, Proctor and Gamble Group, Uber, Nestle, IKEA and Volkswagen.

She has a passion to tell stories and elevate brands through beautiful work that is both well-crafted and effective. Throughout her career, Tala has collected both creative and strategic awards including a Cannes Glass Lion in 2016 for KAFA Legally Bride as well as WARC MENA Grand Prix for Uber Legends in 2019 and 2 Gold, 4 silver and bronze awards at the MENA Effies 2018 and 2019.

Tala has always kept a watchful eye on the evolution of consumer mindsets, specifically in the MENA region.

Over the last two decades, Rohit has held leadership roles with WPP agencies & Liwa. In his current role at Viola Communications, he’s leading the integrated practice. Rohit has earned several industry recognitions and is also an avid writer of opinion pieces, whitepapers, and creative reviews published by WARC, Campaign Middle East, Campaign Asia, Luxury Daily and Brandchannel.

Carl Bou Abdallah is Strategy Director at MIndspace. Previously he served at as Fp7 Beirut’s (McCann MENA) senior brand planner. Starting off with marketing research, spending 4 years at UM Beirut and completing a Master’s degree in Marketing and communication from ESCP Europe, Carl has been an integral part of the agency’s brand, creative, and connections planning for Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan during the last 2 years.

Working on different types of accounts, he considers that the key to success in any communication strategy is plain old, sometimes annoying, curiosity.

His drive to find out how everything (and everyone) works put him in the perfect place to advise on the winning strategy for McDonald’s, L’Oreal, the banking sector and many other different categories of brands.

With his media knowledge and drive to know why everything functions the way it does, he helped in winning major regional and international awards for the work he was involved in.

His background and curiosity allowed him to best adapt the work to this age’s communication ecosystem and to best leverage the greatest power in communication nowadays; people. He believes that when people are considered as the strategy’s strongest media channel, any campaign can reach what Gladwell calls the Tipping point: spreading effortlessly on and off screens to reach the desired business or communication targets… as long as it talks to the right people, at the right time.

Alvaro is a Peruvian strategist with 14 years of experience: two in consumer research and more than twelve as a strategist in agencies like VIRTUE Worldwide, Wunderman Thompson, MullenLowe and Grey. He started his career in his home country of Peru and then moved to the Middle East to help build brands for the region. After seven years in MENA, he’s now moved to Australia where he is Executive Head Brand Thinker at Thinkerbell's Melbourne office.

He has earned over 100 awards and recognitions from national, regional and international award shows like Effie (MENA, LATAM and Peru), WARC, Clios, One Show, Cresta, Dubai Lynx, Ad Stars, Caples, Loeries, El Ojo de Iberoamérica, MMA, IAB, Adforum, among others. He has also been selected as jury for international award shows like One Show (2023), AME Awards (2021) and Effie MENA (2017).

Furthermore, Alvaro has been an instructor and guest speaker at several advertising schools like Miami Ad School (Spain, Argentina and Peru), Escuela Superior de Creativos (Argentina), Brother (Peru), Planning Academy (Costa Rica); speaker at industry events like ‘Consumer Profile 2019’ (Costa Rica) as well as a professor, guest speaker and visiting lecturer at different universities in his home country and the UAE (Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad del Pacifico, American University of Dubai and Canadian University of Dubai).

Can Çalışkan is the Strategic Planning Director of Rafineri (ex-TBWA and DDB/Tribal), the biggest independant agency in Istanbul. He is an experienced strategist with a demonstrated history of working with some of the biggest global and local clients such as McDonalds, IKEA, Turkish Airlines, ING, Netflix, Unilever, Yapı Kredi and eBay. He also won 10+ Effies including 4 years in a row with McDonald’s and countless creative awards in 10 years.

He believes that there is no room for ‘my past speaks for itself’ attitude in advertising: You are only as good as your last work. During the pandemic, he built a communication strategy for one of the most engaging campaigns in Turkey’s history: Virtual Ticket to the Independance with Turkish Airlines, a digital-first campaign which attracted nearly 10M unique visitors to its mobile site. Also he helped LC Waikiki, the biggest retail brand in Turkey, to develop a communication strategy that generates a winner social good activation resulted as one the most effective campaigns according to a public research done by Ipsos.

He thinks that startegy is for #life:

Being the person who is responsible for #culture and #people.

Being the one who tries real hard to understand all #relevancies and #irrationalties.

Being the one who find ways to ignite #stories and #emotions.

Being the one who is in charge of creating a shortcut to #win.

Strategy never stops.

Born in a humble home Nikhil took his early education in Jaipur, India. 

He completed his Master's in Marketing and Advertising in 2004. With a flair in management, he landed next in the millennial city – Gurgaon, India.  

This is where his knack for retail showed up wonders. He worked with some of the biggest brands in India before moving to Dubai. He was responsible in successfully launching and growing international brands in India like Debenhams, The Body Shop, Guess by Marciano. 

With the wings destined to soar high coupled with the fascination of glamorous Dubai life, and exploring new growing market, He started work with the biggest retailer of the region in January 2011. He worked for shoe business and helped the home-grown retailer to go from 90 stores to over 200 stores. This made the brand the largest and most admired shoe retailer in the Middle East. 

As a creative thinker, he relies on data-driven decisions. His career focus is on CRM, loyalty marketing, brand strategies, consumer insights and customer analytics. 

The approach for him has always been a marriage between analytics and art. As has been proven in last couple of years where he was instrumental in turnaround of a fashion retailer from a degrowing business to a growth trajectory. 

He has bagged awards like Most admired retailer for Middle East 2012; 2014; 2016; 2019, Gulf Sustainability and CSR Award 2020 for all the sustainable initiatives, and also 2020 PHNX Tribute Award.

Nikhil currently heads the Marketing for one of the leading Fashion retailers in the UAE. He also loves to cook, travel & experience new cultures with his preteen son and wife.  

Ali leads Google’s regional efforts to drive innovative work at the intersection of data, technology, and creativity. In his role, he helps brands and agencies across EMEA navigate from critical business problems to prototyping and testing using Google tech and design thinking to 10X their creative impact. Before joining Google, Ali was one of the most awarded creative strategists from the region. He was named among the Top 20 Planners Worldwide by the Drum’s Big Won Rankings in 2018 and MENA Planner of the Year by the B&W Report in 2017.

Dina El-Dessouky is FP7/McCann Cairo’s Head of Strategy, with a total of 14 years of communication experience and a big passion for culture, people, behavior and ideas that make an impact. She is a true believer in advertising that doesn’t stop at “entertainment value”; and rather extends to adding a “meaningful value” to businesses and to people’s lives.

Conan Green is a Lifetime Grand Prix Award winner in Creative Effectiveness. He believes that great advertising is measured not just by a big idea, but by how effective that idea was in solving the business problem.

Noor is a seasoned strategist with 15 years of experience spanning roles in both the strategy and creative realms at some of the region’s most prominent agencies. Having honed her skills at renowned agencies like JWT, BBDO and Ogilvy, Noor now leads the charge as the Strategy Lead for Brand and Communications at Accenture Song.

Throughout her career, Noor has collaborated with the world’s most well-known brands in FMCG, telecom, and tech, spearheading strategic relationships which have delivered sustainable growth and business results. She has also had the privilege of collaborating on award-winning projects that have garnered top honors at global awards shows and gaining her recognition by ranking several times as one of the top strategists in the region.

Her unique blend of creativity, deep cultural insight, and understanding of human behavior drives her commitment to shaping brands that resonate deeply with audiences and produce captivating work.

I currently work as head of strategy VMLY&R in Dubai with some of the best brains and hearts in the industry. 

I’m extremely proud to share my days with such an inspiring bunch of people - despite the occasional ‘drive-by questions’ that requires an immediate answer!

I’ve been playing the agency game for quite a long time now and yet feel as if there’s still way too much to learn and discover.

I’m absolutely passionate about finding human tensions (or creating them). I feel they keep us, strategy and creative folks, on our toes, always searching for the new and the different but always in a brutally real and human way. 

And that’s the beauty of being paid to poke culture on a daily basis.

Career-wise I’ve been around. Having worked with phenomenal minds across a few different continents with Ogilvy, OgilvyAction, Geometry, Leo Burnett and Uber before stepping into this force of nature called VMLY&R. Have worked across pretty much every category under the Sun. From FMCG to Automobiles to Restricted products to E-commerce marketplaces and so on. I love all things creativity, but have a soft spot for the words conversion, commerce and anything else remotely connected to impact.

Feeling honored to join the judging panel for the AME Awards at the New York Festivals and can’t wait to see some great work.

In a world of shrinking attention-spans, the future of creativity will be built by waging war on mediocrity; and that’s Hira’s vision. Named as one of Adage’s 40 under 40 and #21 most awarded creative director by The Drum's World Creative Rankings in 2020, Hira Mohibullah currently works as Executive Creative Director at BBDO Pakistan, where she uses the power of advertising to impact social change in Pakistan.

She prides herself upon creating insightful campaigns that have gone big with little or no media budgets, winning her more than 200 International Advertising Awards including Cannes Lions, Clios, D&AD and more. Her most notable campaigns are UNWomen's #BridalUniform (#56 on WARC100) and #BeatMe (Gunn Top 100 Campaigns of 2017).

Being a Cannes Lions See It Be It alumni, she is now co-leading the same program at Dubai Lynx. Hira is Campaign’s Women Leading Change Honoree, a TEDx speaker and has served on the jury for D&AD, Clio, NYF, Ad Age, Young Guns, and Adstars. A mother of two, she has helped set up a day-care room at BBDO Pakistan, enabling more mothers to join the workforce.

Hailing from Rio de Janeiro, I spent over a decade and a half working in the advertising industry across five different regions, receiving more than +200 international and local recognition for my work along the way as AD, ACD, and CD.

I've been fortunate enough to receive honours from major industry festivals like New York Festivals, Cannes, One Show, DandAD, Lynx, Effies, Platinum Pencil, Clio, FastCo., El Ojo, among others.

Mpume joined the Joe Public team in 2013 as Business Unit Director, spearheading a
portfolio that included the development of brand strategy and ATL campaigns for some
of South Africa's most iconic brands such as Nedbank, CCI’s Brothers for Life, Zazi, British
American Tobacco, South African Breweries' corporate brand, Brutal Fruit, Redd’s and
Castle Milk Stout.

She brings with her a wealth of experience and a B. Com. Honours in Marketing and
Management from the University of Natal. Over the years Mpume’s brand portfolio has
grown to include diverse categories from financial services, media, hospitality and retail
to biotechnology, petrochemicals, beauty and travel.

In a world that is driven by technological and digital advancement and innovation,
Mpume strives to stay a step ahead of the latest trends and developments. By
continuously honing her knowledge and skills within the digital marketing and
advertising space, she has earned a place on the judges’ panels of some of the most
prestigious awards in the industry including the Bookmarks, New Generation, Gerety,
Assegai and AdFocus Awards.

Mpume is a board member of the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA),
the official representative body of South Africa's advertising and communications
profession, where she occupies a position on both the Transformation Committee and
the South African Effie Awards Committee. In addition, she is a valued board member of
the IABSA, an independent, voluntary, non-profit association focused on growing and
sustaining a vibrant and profitable digital industry within South Africa and is also a
founding member of Ikamva Lakusasa.

Mpume’s role in Joe Public’s growth has been instrumental and her value was cemented
in the business when she became a shareholder in 2019. As she continues to drive the
growth of some of the country's top brands, she remains passionate about the
development of young talent. This is reflective in her previous role as a part-time lecturer
at Boston Media House for five years – a rewarding task which she undertook to sustain
the growth of the industry in years to come.

An independent brand and communication strategist, Canan has founded co.entegre in August 2020.

The global pandemic has transformed her career path and made her question conventions. She has discovered that life is too short for managing a team and as a new generation rebel, she decided to be out of the conventional corporate life and existing agency structure. 

She positioned herself as an integrated brand and communication strategist: Integrated into the CMO team, integrated into research agencies, integrated into advertising agencies. Fully dedicated to one brand per sector, she aims to own a brand from A to Z and work as their Effiliate: Partner in efficiency. 

Within the start-up approach, she had already worked as the strategic partner of İs Bank, VitrA Bathrooms, Havas Worldwide Istanbul, Future Bright and Oliver Agency Istanbul.

Previously, being the Senior Marcom Manager of VitrA Bathrooms, she had managed brand communication, digital marketing and marketing analytics teams from 2018 to 2020. Until 2018, she had been worked for 3 different creative agencies in Istanbul: Head of Strategy of DDB Istanbul Group (2017-2018), Strategic planning director of Medina Turgul DDB (2015-2017), Strategic planning director of Rafineri (2013-2015), Strategist of Rafineri (2010-2013), and Strategist of McCann Istanbul (2006-2010). 

As juror, she was proudly part of Effie Turkey (2016 & 2019); Crystal Apple Awards (2020), Baykus Research Awards (2019), Social Media Awards (2020), MarTech Awards (2021) and AME Awards (2018-2019-2020).

Anja is a seasoned marketer with over 19 years of experience in the advertising industry. Her expertise lies in digital marketing, content marketing, social media, and advertising. Anja has made history as the first female Marketing Director of Volkswagen Middle East, where she is responsible for developing and executing the brand's marketing strategy. She is dedicated to ensuring that Volkswagen's brand message resonates with the target customer segment in the region. Anja leads multidisciplinary agencies to drive communication, branding, and social media strategies for the brand. Her areas of specialization include digital marketing & campaigns, brand activations, loyalty and experience, consumer behavior, market trends, cross-channel/omnichannel customer engagement, and sales. With her experience and expertise, Anja is committed to driving Volkswagen's success in the Middle East.

It all started with a movie: "What's lies beneath"

An ordinary movie, but the title was very appealing to me. This title seemed to be at the heart of my working philosophy. It is easy for an Iranian to understand the concept of metaphor because one uses hundreds of metaphorical poems and literature in one's daily conversations.

So, my Middle Eastern Iranian DNA, coupled with an instinctive curiosity had me convinced that there was a layer of meaning behind every sentence, news, and content that I had to find. Most of the time I did not get results, but the excitement of discovering or creating meaning in a work is my main daily motivation. The best job to meet this need is to be a brand manager, I have been doing this for 6 years at Goldiran ( LG official partner in Iran) which includes daily interaction with branding and marketing activities of an international brand at the highest level aligned with LG global marketing strategy, maintaining brand personality, increasing awareness and raising its identity by sending the right messages to the audience at different layers of meaning.

My background in qualitative research and working in "Kantar" official representative in Iran has helped me better analyze the reasons behind people's different behaviors, according to their socio-cultural and economic roots.

On the other hand, my experience working in Goldiran (LG partner in Iran) and the implementation of various marketing activities at the highest level in accordance with integrated global strategies has helped me feel the sweet taste of connecting with LG's millions of audiences in Iran.

Fabio has being in leadership positions on strategy and client services in creative agencies for the past 10 years.

His experience spans 15 years and 5 continents – having worked with multiple advertising agencies and global companies.

Fabio joined Havas in Portugal in 2009, as a Strategy Director. Since then, he has served as Strategy Director and Business Director in Havas Brazil, Strategy Director for LatAm, Executive Strategy Director in Portugal, Global Strategy Director (Developing Markets) and Client Services Director for Havas Dubai.

He's currently responsible for the operations of Havas Creative in Dubai, encompassing Client Services, Strategy, Creative, Social Media, Content and Production.

Francois van Louw is a South African entrepreneur with a passion for marketing, branding and all things tech. Having worked in the marketing and content creation industry for over a decade, Van Louw founded Just Brands Africa in 2013 - a company of which he is currently also the managing director.  

Just Brands Africa creates comprehensive marketing strategies for brands like Lindsay Africa, dealerships like Ford and Mazda in the Fury Motor Group and more. Shortly after the inception of Just Brands Africa, Van Louw piloted the launch of GoBinge, a subsidiary of the company that is a content platform focused on millennials and generation Z. Some of the most renowned shows that GoBinge has produced are “The MVP Club - Brought to you by SKYY Vodka”, hosted by media personality Tarryn Kay (TK), “Sheeca’s Closet - Brought you by Burger King”, presented by entertainer and influencer Rasheeqah Karriem-Hock, “Grilled”, with local food-lover and comedian Nicholas Manual and “The Not So Normal Show” which is hosted by popular social media influencer Nadia Jaftha. 

Van Louw and his team also recently created a platform called SOCO_ED, which is an adaptive online learning platform. The platform is soon becoming the preferred online educational partner for many leading brands in Africa. 

With his keen interest in the youth market and by following a consumer-first approach, Van Louw is set to disrupt and change the way brands see and utilise digital platforms on the continent. 

Andre is an award-winning media specialist, lecturer and marketer. He is currently Head of Media & Communications at Nestlé Nespresso Middle East Africa. This role executes all traditional media planning & buying, performance/digital marketing efforts as well as social media in 22 countries across the region for the luxury brand.

His passion for marketing, has allowed him to liberate brands by enhancing their integrated solutions. He has 16 years of Traditional & Digital Media, Social Media and eCommerce experience, working with and for some of the biggest global brands, which include Chevrolet, Nespresso, Airtel, Bacardi, Coca-Cola, BMW, Renault, Pepsico, Cadbury's, Virgin Money, Olmeca, Food Network, Lay’s, Doritos, Toyota, MINI, South African Tourism, FNB, Avios, African Bank, Magrabi Optical, MTN Africa, BBC and Vodafone to name a few.

He has been listed twice as one of the Top Global Digital Marketing Leaders by the World Marketing Congress, which shows his commitment & expertise in his field.

His skills have seen him being selected to participate as a keynote speaker and sit on numerous marketing award judging panels, which include/s the world renowned Effie Awards, as well as the Bookmark & Assegai Awards in his home country, South Africa. Let alone being a judge, he has also been rewarded for his work.

World Marketing Congress – Top 50 Global Digital Marketing Leaders – 2016

World Marketing Congress – 100 Smartest Digital Marketing Leaders – 2017

Effie MENA Awards – Judge – 2016, 2017

Festival of Media MENA – Judge – 2017

Bookmark Awards – Judge – 2013, 2017, 2018

Assegai Integrated Media Awards – Judge – 2014

Keynote Speaker – InRetail Summit Dubai – Digital & Mobile Transformation – 2016

Keynote Speaker – Digital World Summit – Dubai – 2016

Assegai Integrated Media Awards – Leader – Best Integrated Campaign – 2014

Assegai Integrated Media Awards – Gold – Best Financial Media Campaign – 2014

Bookmark Awards – Bronze – Best Digital Media Campaign – 2011

Bookmark Award – Finalist – Media Manager of the Year – 2011

An educator at heart, Andre lectures at the prestigious Brand School Africa. He is a progressive thinker who can connect media, digital and social to business goals and apply creative thinking and problem solving to ensure a full turn-key solution for your brand/s. When it comes to his ability to plan and deliver holistic media frameworks, he applies his vast knowledge of the digital landscape to win over brands.

Combine all of this with a focused outlook on life, and you have someone who is able to speak to individuals, in such a way, that it makes them eager to be better, do more and think bigger.

I am a creative strategist and brand communication consultant. I began my professional activity as an advertising manager and expert in 2001, and entered the field of consultation and training a few years later. Over the past 19 years, I have worked with nearly 100 organizations, companies, and brands in different industries including clothing, banking, insurance, food industry, charity, construction industry, IT firms and startups, auto parts industry, porcelain and tableware manufacturers, and cosmetic, hygiene, and detergent brands, as a consultant and project executor (in brand communication, institutional advertising, public relations projects), or as a manager (in advertising, public relations, and international affairs departments). I am also currently working with a few advertising and creative boutique agencies on a project-by-project basis and as a consultant in the area of brand strategy and communications.

I worked as the strategy documentation consultant and international communications manager for standardizing and helping Iranian brands in their competition at international festivals in projects such as corporate video, TV advertisement, and branding. All of these efforts yielded successful results, including silver and bronze medals and qualifying for the finalist level in several reputable festivals in the US, UK and France.

I was the first Iranian to manage to sit on the grand jury of international advertising, marketing, and business festivals and for the first time in Iran, I have been working as the executive judge of grand prizes with several international festivals.

Mangesh is a Creative Director at The Classic Partnership, Dubai. Having worked with clients in the fashion, branding, packaging, healthcare, and pharma categories for over 15 years, he brings a wealth of experience and offers a holistic approach to design, advertising, and photography.

Mangesh is of the strong belief that there’s a simple solution to any problem. Being a traveler and a biker, he brings his love for different cultures, people, and food to what he does.

This approach has been recognised and awarded at several international festivals such as Dubai Lynx, Cannes Lion, One Show, Lia Awards, New York Festival, Global Awards, Clio, Loeries, AME, Ad Stars, The PHNX and WPPED Cream.

His most recent achievement was when he served as a Grand Jury member on the Global Awards panel for New York Festivals.