Dubai: Joseph Ghossoub, one of the region’s original advertising industry pioneers, has stepped down from the Menacom Group, the integrated advertising and communications network.
Menacom, part of the UK-headquartered advertising giant WPP (founded by Sir Martin Sorrell), includes Y&R Middle East, an ad agency; Asdaa BM, a public relations firm; Intermarkets, another ad network; and MEC, a media buying entity, within its fold — three of which have market leading status in their respective lines.
A statement issued by Y&R confirmed that Ghossoub had resigned as chairman and CEO of the Menacom Group and Y&R (Young & Rubicam) Middle East with immediate effect. His role at Menacom will now be overseen by Roy Haddad, WPP’s Mena director, in acting capacity.
“We will name a successor in the near future,” the Y&R statement added.
The news of Ghossoub’s resignation — as well as the timing — did come as quite a surprise for many in the local ad industry. Throughout the 80s, Ghossoub played a decisive role in putting the foundations for the ad industry in the UAE, which over subsequent decades went on to become the largest in terms of ad billings within the region.
By the latter half of the 1990s, his agency, Team, entered a strategic alliance with Y&R, which in many ways set off the trend of the big global agencies acquainting themselves with prospects in the Middle East through equity arrangements with the leading local networks.
And rather than rely on being a pure-play ad agency, Ghossoub — a former world president of the International Advertising Association (IAA) — scaled up his operations to encompass media buying and public relations through standalone entities.
The thinking was to offer clients the full bouquet of services rather than piecemeal ones, a process that quickly became the vogue through the early part of the last decade. More recently, the network was expanded with the regional launch of Wunderman, a direct marketing consultancy.
“Joseph Ghossoub’s will be large shoes to fill when WPP names a successor,” said Rajeev Khanna, a member of the board at the IAA UAE Chapter and Group Advertisement Manager at Gulf News.
“His was a central role when it came to the UAE evolving into the top ad market in the region.”
The industry has already started speculating as to who his successor might be, and whether WPP will recruit from within the ranks in the industry or bring in someone from outside.
“Joe built up a network of relations within his extended regional base, and there’s hardly been much of a turnover in senior executives over the years. All of the others developed in their roles and are at the top of their games,” said an industry insider, who asked not to be named.
“It would be interesting whether Joe’s resignation could set off more [exits] among the senior management and what WPP’s position could be. There’s some serious talent in there, and Team Y&R has consistently been among the top three in the UAE and on a regional basis. The next few weeks will be interesting... not just for WPP and Meacom, but the region’s ad industry as a whole.”
