Effective 1 February 2025, Farah Farooq will take up the role of Head of Communications for Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye (MENAT) at HSBC.
In this role, Farooq will lead the development and implementation of HSBC’s communications strategy across the MENAT region, leveraging the bank’s long-established history and presence in the region and the role it continues to play in supporting the world’s most ambitious economic transformation agendas undergoing in the Middle East.
A key focus of her new role will be to help position the MENAT region as a crucial driver of the bank’s internationalism, highlighting the region’s significance as a strategic economic, trading, and wealth hub bridging East and West.
Based in Dubai, Farooq will report functionally to Jessica Lee, HSBC’s Interim Group Head of Communications, Businesses and Markets at HSBC, and to Selim Kervancı, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC MENAT, on an entity basis.
She brings more than 20 years’ experience across financial services and has seasoned leadership experience in building and enabling high performing teams. Farooq has spent 14 years at HSBC, leading communications across the Middle East and Europe. As Head of Communications for the UAE, she has helped shape the bank’s growth narrative.
Prior to her time at HSBC, Farooq built Weber Shandwick’s financial communications practice in the Middle East, advising governments, banks, and investment agencies.
