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Chadi Farhat, Chief Investment Officer of Omnicom Media Group MENA, will be leaving the company at the end of the year to pursue new opportunities. Effective immediately, Wissam Najjar, currently Chief Operating Officer of OMD MENA, will now take on the role of COO at OMG MENA. Reporting to Elda Choucair, OMG MENA’s CEO, Wissam will maintain his leadership of the Saudi market and will expand his operational role to oversee the group’s investment function. Farhat and Najjar will work closely to ensure a smooth transition.
Farhat joined Omnicom Group as media director of Impact BBDO in Lebanon in 2001, moving to Media Direction OMD Beirut in 2003. He became its General Manager in 2007 and five years later joined Omnicom Media Group in Dubai to head the investment function. Farhat was promoted to Chief Investment Officer in 2018. In this role, it is said that he brought significant value to clients, forged key partnerships, engineered innovative sponsorship opportunities and created efficient and seamless collaborative processes with partners and digital platforms. "Farhat’s talent made him an invaluable member of the group’s leadership team, shaping the vision and helping build momentum behind vital strategic initiatives; he played a significant role in stimulating continuous growth for the group and the investment team," reads the press announcement.
Wissam Najjar has been with the OMD network for 18 years; he was promoted to COO for MENA in 2019. Najjar has proved instrumental in spreading OMD’s culture and strength across all the offices he’s opened and managed. He’s led the expansion of the network across MENA, including Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan, and solidified the relationships with local and regional business partners.
Najjar joined OMD in a media buying role and rose through the ranks. Today, among his many responsibilities is to ensure the network delivers a consistently best-in-class product across all its markets, through the optimal combination of talent, technology and resources for the benefit of both local and regional clients.
As COO of OMG MENA, he will combine his operational expertise and trading experience to work with the CEO and CDO in transforming the investment function to make sure OMG MENA is at the forefront in its offerings.
“Chadi has been a formidable and effective leader, deftly managing internal and external relationships to align all stakeholders on the same agenda: growth and value for our clients. He’s transformed our buying function into investment management and created a robust team, culture and processes to allow it to move forward,” Elie Khouri, Chairman of OMG MENA, commented. “Chadi is a dear friend, not just a colleague, and while it’s tough to see him moving on, I know he’ll do exceedingly well with the new challenge he chooses to embrace. He will go with all our admiration and best wishes. With Wissam stepping up as COO for the holding, working with Elda on creating synergies and integrating our digital operations further, we will continue to evolve and capitalise on the transformation of our work and services.”
“The past two decades have been amazing, in terms of change, progression, experiences, challenges and successes. It’s been tough at times but a lot of fun too. It’ll be hard to say goodbye to the many friends I’ve made but meaningful paths have a tendency to cross several times,” said Chadi Farhat. “I know OMG MENA is poised to keep on growing, with its outstanding management and talent. I am grateful and proud of all we’ve achieved together and I look forward to a bright and exciting future.”
