Campaign’s Creative Faces to Watch 2026 – Karim Saad, Manager – Strategy & Insights, Saatchi & Saatchi
Campaign’s Creative Faces to Watch 2026 – Karim Saad, Manager – Strategy & Insights, Saatchi & Saatchi
Age: 27
Country: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Nominated by Tahaab Rais, Group Chief Strategy Officer, Publicis Groupe MENAT:
Karim is a talent you bet on and a face to watch. He had the ambition to move from account management into strategy, not as a title change, but as a craft shift. He’s hungry in the best way. Always learning, always sharpening, always asking what would make the work braver, clearer, and more effective. His side hustles are not distractions; they are fuel that keeps his curiosity alive and his thinking fresh. He also speaks openly about mental health, with honesty and courage. On e&, he has delivered on critical briefs and projects and become a real pillar for the team.
Career highlights
Karim Saad is a Strategy Manager at Saatchi & Saatchi UAE, known for blending commercial clarity with cultural depth. Transitioning from account management into brand strategy to influence the work at a deeper level, shaping narratives, uncovering human truths, and building platforms that shift behavior. He leads strategic thinking for e&, one of the region’s largest technology brands, and founded Koon Rijjeil, the region’s first men’s-mental-health podcast, building a community around modern Arab masculinity.
Guiding principles
In a world full of what-ifs, be the why-not.
Side hustle
Founder and host of Koon Rijjeil, the region’s first men’s-mental-health podcast exploring what it means to be a man and the emotional reality of modern masculinity. Outside the podcast, I’m a hybrid athlete competing in Hyrox events, using discipline and sport as a lens for how I see life.
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