Title: CEO, Havas Middle East
Years in the role: 7 years
Years in the industry: 32 years
Years in the middle east region: 53 years
Other roles / board memberships: IAA Board
Power Essay: Raise the floor, raise the work
Our industry was built on competition. It keeps us sharp; it pushes ideas forward; it makes the work better. But somewhere along the way, the race changed. We began competing on how little we could charge and how much we could cram in, rather than on the outcomes we create. We feel it in every pitch, every scope, every late night sprint. We are winning the brief, while quietly losing the capacity to deliver what the brief deserves.
This matters even more in the Middle East. The region is not just scaling budgets, it is building the next wave of advertising infrastructure, talent, measurement and media quality. Saudi Arabia’s transformation, the velocity of retail media and the rise of new platforms are not abstractions; they are the operating system of our work.
Local campaigns are shining on global stages, and regional power brands are setting templates others now study. If we underprice this system while we build it, we limit its potential. You cannot ask for sophistication in data, strategy and creativity, then remove the oxygen that funds it.
“Cheap becomes expensive when it degrades the very inputs that drive effectiveness.”
Efficiency is not the villain. It is a discipline we need. But efficiency without a floor becomes erosion. It erodes time for thinking and craft. It erodes media quality when owners are forced to trade value for volume. It erodes teams, who leave or burn out, taking capability with them.
Cheap becomes expensive when it degrades the very inputs that drive effectiveness. And yet, too often, we are still chasing short-term media efficiencies, the kind that look good on spreadsheets but rarely work in the real world.
What we need is not more rhetoric about ambition, but a collective shift in what we reward. Winning should mean creating work that grows businesses, builds brands people care about and makes cultural impact. It should mean investing in the sophistication of talent, tools and supporting the wider media ecosystem, through our partners, that allows us to deliver outcomes with lasting value.
The stakes are bigger than any one agency or client. This region has the opportunity to move from being seen as a fast-growth market to being respected as a global benchmark, a place where advertising proves it can fuel both culture and commerce. But to get there, we need to resist the temptation to measure ourselves only by the easiest numbers.
We can still compete hard. Let us compete on outcomes, not on erosion.
Raise the floor, raise the work.
Highlight of the last year
This year’s highlight has been the strong momentum we’ve built across the region. Not only in the UAE, but also in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Oman. What made it possible is the one-team spirit across the Havas Middle East Village, uniting people beyond geography and discipline.
Rapid fire
What the industry needs to talk more about:
Impact and outcomes.
What the industry needs to talk less about:
AI hype.
If you could change one thing in the blink of an eye, you would…
Shift every conversation to outcomes.
What’s one thing about you that would surprise your team?
I cook.
What mobile application can you not live without?
None.
What word / phrase do people remember you for using the most?
“Truth always rises to the top.”
What’s one local / regional tradition that you love the most?
Outdoor gatherings when the heat drops with friends and family.
If you could choose any two people, currently alive, in the world to share a meal with you, who would it be?
Giorgia Meloni and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
What’s your top word of advice for Gen Z and Gen Alpha?
Don’t try to impress, try to make a difference.
What’s your go-to comfort food?
Pasta.
What’s your favourite ad from the past 12 months?
Calm’s ‘Silent Ad’.
