Elie Khouri
| Elie Khouri | |
|---|---|
 Elie Khouri OMG MENA CEO.jpg Elie Khouri at Omnicom Media Group MENA Headquarters, 2016 | |
| Born | May 8, 1964 Beirut, Lebanon |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Lebanese-French[1] |
| 🏫 Education | MBA |
| 🎓 Alma mater | American University of Beirut |
| 💼 Occupation | Chairman, Omnicom Media Group, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) |
Elie Khouri (born May 8, 1964) is a Lebanese-French marketing and communications executive in Dubai. He is the Chairman of Omnicom Media Group MENA, the media services division of the Omnicom Group.
He worked within the advertising industry at Omnicom Group's agency BBDO after he received his MBA in 1988. In 2002, he went from the creative to the media side of Omnicom Group to launch OMD, a media communications group.
Khouri sits on boards that support the organisation's corporate social responsibility program. He has received several awards and honors from Forbes Middle East and Arabian Business, and he is considered an influential marketing executive in the Arab world.[2][3]
Early life and education[edit]
Born on May 8, 1964, Khouri lived on the east side of Beirut, where his father worked as a chef.[4] The Lebanese Civil War broke out when he was 11-years-old,[2] but he stayed in Beirut because his family did not have the money to relocate.[5] From a young age, Khouri sold firecrackers, canned food, drinks, and clothing to make pocket money.[2][5] During the raids, there was a food shortage, so he started to sell tuna and beef in his neighborhood. With the proceeds, he bought clothes, which he later sold at a profit.[6]
He attended the American University of Beirut (AUB), where he received a BBA in 1986 and an MBA in business and finance in 1988.[2][7] On his way to classes at AUB, he was often in danger due to snipers in the area and he once escaped a kidnapping attempt.[2] While attending the university, Khouri worked at a financial trading company, which dealt with trading currencies, securities and bonds.[8]
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
After graduation, Khouri went to Cyprus to work for Lance de Masi at BBDO, an advertising agency that is part of the Omnicom Group.[2] He pursued this job because he found it more interesting than finance,[5] and the move would take him away from the civil war. Also, the banking industry had become unstable due to the global financial crisis of the late 1980s.[8] He travelled frequently for TV commercial shoots to New York, Los Angeles and London[2] for clients like Yves Saint Laurent and Pepsi.[5]
In 1992, Khouri moved to Dubai, where he worked at Impact BBDO in a senior role. He returned to Beirut in 1996 and for the next four years served as the associate managing partner of Impact BBDO.[2]
Omnicom[edit]
Khouri returned to Dubai in 2001 and later established OMD (Optimum Media Direction),[2] by unbundling Omnicom's media departments within its full-service agencies.[5]
In 2006, Khouri moved from his regional managing director role at OMD to assume the leadership of the Omnicom Media Group MENA.[citation needed]
In 2007, Khouri was made regional managing director of Omnicom Media Group[1] and was subsequently appointed as CEO in 2010.
In 2019, he was promoted to Chairman of the Group.[9][10]
Views[edit]
Khouri supports improving the rate at which women are employed within the industry and the Middle East. The rate at which women are employed for top positions also varies by country within the region. It is his goal to have an equal number of women and men in senior positions in his organization by 2020.[11]
Industry memberships[edit]
Khouri became a board member of Injaz-UAE, an organisation dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy, and START, a non-profit organisation established by Art Dubai and the Al Madad Foundation.[12] He has also served as a board member of the United Arab Emirates chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA).[13]
In 2017, he was named to the board of the UAE affiliate of Endeavor, the global non-profit organization that supports high-impact entrepreneurs.[14]
Awards and honors[edit]
- 2009: He was named as one of the most admired CEO's in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) by CEO Middle East magazine[1]
- 2011: Khouri ranked 31st in the 500 most powerful Arabs[3]
- 2013: Ranked 78th in Top 100 Global Meets Local by Forbes[15]
- 2013: 23rd in the list by Arabian Business[12]
- 2015: Forbes ranked him 25th in the same Top 100 list[16]
- 2016: he was 52nd on the list in the same Top 100[17]
- 2019: 40th in the same Top 100[18]
Art patron[edit]
Khouri is an art patron and collector. His international collection includes contemporary paintings, sculptures and design objects.[19] Some of the works from his collection are displayed at Omnicom Media Group MENA headquarters in Dubai.[4][20] He supports the Association for the Promotion and Exhibition of the Arts in Lebanon (APEAL), a non-profit organisation dedicated to showcasing and encouraging Lebanese artists.[4] Khouri is a member of the Tate Middle East North Africa Acquisitions Committee and the MoMA Director's Council, as well as an Art Dubai patron.[21] In 2016, he started working towards establishing a private art foundation, to support emerging artists and the art ecosystem in the region and globally.[22]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "GCC's Most Admired Executives-Elie Khouri". Arabian Business. December 6, 2009. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 "Elie Khouri: Successful Brand In His Own Right". The National. Abu Dhabi Media. June 8, 2012. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Elie Khouri takes top media slot in Power 500". Arabian Business Publishing. 23 March 2013. Archived from the original on December 1, 2016.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Akerman, Iain (December 2014). "Collector Profile: Elie Khouri" (PDF). Selections Magazine. Retrieved December 11, 2016 – via lawrieshabibi.com.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Bhoyrul, Anil (December 9, 2012). "Best of 2012: Elie Khouri, OMG interview". Arabian Business. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
- ↑ "How growing up during the war made me a better leader". Omnicom Media Group. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
- ↑ "AUB to honor distinguished alumni during annual reunion weekend" (PDF). American University of Beirut. June 20, 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Sleiman, Melissa (November 23, 2008). "How to get ahead in advertising". Arabian Business. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2016. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Senior leadership promotions at OMG MENA to drive further growth". Campaign Middle East. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
- ↑ Mirabel, Eric (2019-06-11). "Three promotions in OMG MENA leadership". Omnicom Media Group. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
- ↑ "Women still woefully underrepresented in region's advertising industry leadership". The National. August 14, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "The 500 Most Powerful Arabs in the World—23 Elie Khouri". Arabian Business. 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
- ↑ "IAA uae chapter elects new board". Albawaba News. January 24, 2007. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
- ↑ "Elie Khouri Appointed To Endeavor UAE Board". Arabian Business. 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
- ↑ "Top 100 Global Meets Local". Forbes. 2013. Archived from the original on December 1, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
Specific record for Elie Khouri
Unknown parameter|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Global Meets Local 2015 - Elie Khouri". Forbes. 2015. Archived from the original on December 1, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2016. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Global Meets Local 2016 - Elie Khouri". Forbes. 2016. Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2016. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "TOP 50 REGIONAL EXECUTIVES HEADING GLOBAL COMPANIES 2019". Forbesmiddleeast.com. 17 October 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "UAE businesses show off their artistic licence". The National. July 25, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ↑ Ayad, Myrna (September 2014). "Art Patron—Elie Khouri". Canvas Magazine. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ↑ Ayad, Myrna. "100 Inspiring Leaders In The Middle East- Elie Khouri". Arabianbusiness. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
- ↑ Ayad, Myrna. "Elie Khouri: The Marketing Man". Harper's Bazaar. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
Further reading[edit]
- Cronin, Sean (December 16, 2015). "Dubai Advertising Guru Looks For New Mad Men In Changing Times". The National.
- Khouri, Elie (May 11, 2016). "The Winning Formula: Creating The Kind Of Company People Love Working For". Entrepreneur.
- Khouri, Elie (October 8, 2015). "Elie Khouri: 'We're selling the dream but who is buying?'". Arabian Business.
- Leigh, Karen (February 9, 2011). "Omnicom CEO says digital advertising up $30m in 2010". Arabian Business.
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