Ravi Rao, CEO - MENA, AssemblyAssembly, a global media agency renowned for making brands perform, has appointed Ravi Rao as Chief Executive Officer for the Middle East and North Africa, placing expanded executive leadership behind the agency’s continued growth across the region.
The move comes as Assembly increases its investment across MENA, expanding client partnerships, deepening its presence in key markets, and building the infrastructure required to support long-term regional scale.
Ravi Rao steps into the CEO role with a mandate focused on growth execution, market expansion, and streamlining the region’s operations. His leadership will centre on strengthening how Assembly scales across markets, aligns regional delivery, and continues building an operating model designed for the pace and complexity of MENA.
He will work in close partnership with Zubair Siddiqui, Chief Operating Officer, and Kinloch Magowan, Managing Partner, whose leadership across client operations, commercial strategy, and organisational development remains central to the region’s continued performance.
As CEO, he will focus on advancing Assembly’s regional growth agenda, deepening client relationships, and ensuring the business continues scaling with clarity, operational discipline, and market alignment.
Commenting on the appointment, Rick Acampora, Global CEO, Assembly, said, “MENA is a market where execution speed and consistency matter. Putting Ravi in the CEO role strengthens how we operate, how we scale, and how we deliver for clients across the region.”
Ravi Rao said, “This region rewards teams that can move with speed and still deliver with rigor. My focus is to keep building an organization that is deeply connected across markets, exceptionally strong in execution, and designed to help clients grow with confidence in an increasingly complex environment.”
Rao brings more than three decades of leadership experience across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Across his career, he has led agencies through periods of expansion, transformation, and competitive market growth, building organisations designed to perform in complex, fast-moving environments.
Assembly’s MENA operations span key hubs including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, supporting both regional and global brands.
The region remains central to the agency’s international growth strategy as it continues investing in talent, leadership, and client expansion, building on momentum, including being named Campaign Middle East’s Digital Agency of the Year (2025).
