From top left, clockwise, RAY Co-Founders Rimma Krasavina and Santiago Cuesta, and industry leaders supporting as faculty, including Kraft Heinz's Passant El-Ghannam, Core42's Diego Florez, FP7 McCANN MENAT's Federico Fanti, Horizon FCB MENA's Alex Pineda, LEO MEA's Muhammad Ali, and Publicis Groupe Middle East's Tahaab Rais.Dubai is set to get its first dedicated advertising school with the launch of RAY, a new creative education platform designed for emerging talent and working professionals in the region’s marketing and communications industry..
Co-founded by Santiago Cuesta and Rimma Krasavina, the school will open in September 2026 with its first course, “Creative Excellence”, which is built around nine in-person masterclasses led by senior creative and marketing leaders from across the region.
The school’s recently announced supporting faculty comprises several well-recognised and respected names from the region’s agency and brand landscape, including:
- Santiago Cuesta, Executive Creative Director and Co-Founder of RAY,
- Passant El-Ghannam, Chief Marketing Officer – MEA at Kraft Heinz,
- Tahaab Rais, Chief Strategy Officer and Film Director, Publicis Groupe Middle East,
- Derek Green, Chief Creative Officer at TBWA\RAAD,
- Federico Fanti, Regional Chief Creative Officer at FP7 McCANN MENAT,
- Alex Pineda, Chief Creative Officer at Horizon FCB Dubai,
- Muhammad Ali, Executive Creative Director at Leo Burnett, and
- Diego Enrique Florez, AI Creative Director at Core42, among others.
The school aims to address what its founders see as a missing layer in Dubai’s creative ecosystem: structured, practice-led advertising education connected directly to the realities of agency and brand work.
Rather than focusing only on theory, RAY’s first course will ask participants to work through live briefs, taking ideas from initial observation and strategic thinking through to creative development, craft and final presentation.
Format: 3 weeks, 3-hour classes, 3 times a week
RAY programme and teachers
- Class 1: Kick-off, Briefing Session, and Creative Data: Santiago Cuesta
- Class 2: Strategy and Insights: Tahaab Rais
- Class 3: Conceptualising: Muhammad Ali
- Class 4: Crafting and Elevating Your Ideas: Derek Green
- Class 5: Brave Clients: Passant El-Ghannam
- Class 6: Artificial Intelligence: Diego Flores
- Class 7: Building Case Studies: Alex Pineda
- Class 8: Creativity for Good: Federico Fanti
- Class 9: Final Presentation and Networking Event: Islam El Dessouky, along with an industry and media panel.
Students will also receive feedback from established practitioners who have worked on major regional creative campaigns.
The school is being positioned not only as a place to learn advertising skills, but as a meeting point for creatives, marketers, students and industry leaders.
Its broader goal is to help raise the region’s creative standards while preparing talent to compete more confidently on an international stage.
RAY will initially focus on face-to-face learning, setting itself apart from the growing number of online creative courses. The launch comes at a time when artificial intelligence is changing how creative work is produced.
The founders believe in-person teaching will allow for stronger discussion, collaboration and mentoring, while helping students build lasting professional relationships within Dubai’s creative community.
The school’s stated ambition goes beyond portfolio development and awards. RAY says it wants to encourage creativity that can serve brands while also addressing wider social and cultural challenges.
The first programme is aimed at both early-career creatives and professionals already working in the industry who want to sharpen their thinking, strengthen their craft and better understand how ideas move from brief to execution.
For Dubai, the launch reflects the city’s growing role as a regional creative hub. The market has attracted talent from across the world, but the founders of RAY believe there is now a need for a dedicated learning environment that connects that talent with senior industry experience, practical training and a stronger sense of creative responsibility.
Student enrollment has begun through RAY’s website and social media channels ahead of the school’s September opening.
RAY’s challenge will be to prove that a purpose-led creative school can produce talent ready for the pressures of the modern industry.
As AI changes production and execution, the school is betting that the real advantage for future creatives will lie in sharper thinking, stronger ideas and the ability to use technology without losing the human intent behind the work.
