Walid C. Azzi Chairman & CEO of ArabAd Media Group passed away on November 29th, 2018.
Walid Azzi, born in Lebanon, received his elementary and secondary education at the Lycée Francais de Beyrouth. After a brief one-year stint at the American University of Beirut (AUB), he moved to the United States where he attained and graduated from Boston and Harvard universities with a B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mass Communications, Journalism, and Public Relations.
Some of his most prominent works back in the U.S include a documentary comprised of thirteen half-hour TV episodes entitled, ‘Struggle over the Holy Land’, directed by him and presented on WGBH TV Channel 2 in Boston Massachusetts.
Upon his return to Lebanon, he was hired as the Head of the Economic Research department at Intra Bank, which was a major position that would later see him chairing more prominent posts. He then moved in 1970 to Al-Hayat Group as a Managing Director of the Pan Arab daily Al-Hayat and the English paper the Daily Star. He also headed Prodeco, the Middle East Promotion and Development Company and MEMRI, the Middle East Marketing and Research Company.
Years later, he was appointed by An-Nahar Group as Managing Director of Media Press, a media representative company, the An-Nahar Press Services, a PR company and An-Nahar Publishing House. He then founded in 1977, with the late Mounir Takchi and the An-Nahar Group, the Trans Arab Media Advertising Management (TAMAM) S.A.L, of which he became member of the board of Directors and General Manager.
During the Lebanese Civil War, he moved to Paris and was appointed General Manager of Media Management Holding. Upon his return to Lebanon in 1986, he launched ArabAd magazine, the oldest business and communication monthly dedicated to Arab professionals in the field of advertising, marketing, and research. He also became the publisher of Business M.E. and Sawt Wa Soura.
In the 90s, he became General Manager of lebanon’s ICN TV.
Azzi was elected twice, as Lebanon President of the International Advertising Association (IAA) as well as worldwide board member. He was awarded the IAA Medal of Merit in recognition of the services rendered to the IAA and the world of advertising, in addition to dozens of trophies and decorations from different associations.
With ArabAd, Azzi instigated the creation of one of the first advertising awards in the region: the Lebanon Print Awards, the Jordan Advertising Awards, and the Kuwait Advertising Awards (KREA).
ArabAd has also initiated, organized, sponsored and participated in a great number of conferences on marketing and creativity in Lebanon and the region. Moreover, the magazine has been represented at several important industry-related events in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Dubai, Cairo, Kuwait and Shanghai by its publisher and Editor-in-Chief Walid Azzi who frequently was invited to participate as a speaker on advertising and marketing.
Azzi leaves behind him a great visionary legacy.
