Amr Koura
CEO
The mastermind behind the revelation introduced to the mid-east region, Amr Koura is a leading light in a region filled with no access in the industry. Having graduated as an architect, Koura decided to pursue a different kind of career in media and advertising. In 1983, he started to practice photography and became one of the top portrait photographers in that period. After working with Egypt’s advertising legend, Tarek Nour as resident photographer, Koura opened his own advertising agency Image, which was later acquired by TMI Advertising, later to be bought by the global agency JWT. In 1998, Koura secured a contract to produce 130 episodes of Alam Simsim, the Egyptian version of the world famed Sesame Street show. He then founded Alkarma, Egypt’s leading Edutainment company, which eventually produced ten seasons of the program. He is an advocate of using media to deliver educational and inspiring content to promote social change. In 2010, Koura produced and directed AL Jami’a, (The University), the first ever teen drama for the young Arab audiences as well as the horror drama series, Doors of Fear, starring the internationally recognized actor, Amr Waked. In January 2011, Koura joined Adline Media Network, the second largest media representation and buying agency in the Middle East. He was appointed CEO to the Egypt operations and was responsible for the representation of high profile media vehicles such as Al Mehwar TV, Dream TV as well as Egypt’s premier newspaper, Al Masry Al Yom. He later joined Al Nahar TV network, which is co-owned by the group, as chairman of the board. In April 2015, he established Creative Arab Talent, the first creative talent representation and management agency of its kind in the Arab world. It also has a casting arm that is responsible for discovering new creative talent and introduces them to the market. Amr received several awards during his long career as both a producer and as a director. He was also chosen as “Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2009”. He is already effecting some change with is new ventures in the Arab media Industry.
Shereen El Hadidi
Marketing Director
A marketing pilot that has lead the way strategically with any challenge given, El Hadidi has more than 15 years of experience in the media industry to understand what will benefit her clients. Although she is a graduate with a bachelors in Law, and accepted jobs that require legal contribution, Shereen found her path towards marketing. In 1996, she began as a marketing executive for MCI; a communications corporation in Egypt, gaining substantial experience in the marketing industry and shortly moved a year later to join Orascom Touristic Development as the marketing manager for El Gouna & Taba Heights resorts. She created campaigns, handled promotional events, and built a marketing plan for the long term. Soon after, her career climbed its way up to a higher position, by becoming Senior Marketing Manager at CIRD, a real estate development company. El Hadidi experienced working for Sony Music Egypt, where she broadened her practice in the entertainment field & paved her way to join Melody Entertainment Holding; one of the MENA region’s renowned entertainment conglomerates, where she lead, managed and supervised on air content, strategies online, planned & executed successful corporate award winning rebranding campaigns for the Melody corporate brand & TV channels, and so forth. While carrying out her role for 12 years in Melody Entertainment, the company ranked number one as a brand in Egypt and number 10 in the MENA region, the Melody Corporate & Melody Tunes campaigns won several grand prix awards & Melody was honored the “Advertiser of the Year” award from the Dubai Lynx in 2009. Afterwards, El Hadidi joined CBC network of channels to develop the network’s strategy, meeting growth objectives as well as successfully launching 2 new channels to the group. El Hadidi is currently the marketing director at Creative Arab Talent, handling the marketing as well as PR for the company & its reputable talents.
Maha Awad
Los Angeles Operations
Arab-American TV host, Producer and Media Consultant with over 18 years of experience in front of and behind the camera in culturally diverse environments. Maha has built her name through her unique blend of natural on-camera personality and proven production business savvy, with extensive knowledge of the Middle East media and entertainment industry. Since 2012, she has been lending her intricate and nuanced knowledge of the region to Hollywood, consulting on media projects related to the Arab and Muslim world, as well as global brand ad campaigns for the Middle East. She was in NYC as Project Manager on the strategic media consulting campaign for TLC’s groundbreaking reality series All-American Muslim, responsible for coordinating all facets of the campaign: publicity, grassroots outreach, social media and creative and content consulting departments, as well as handling all communications with the Network. She also regularly consults for the hit CBS series NCIS. After graduating from UCLA with a BA in Communication Studies, (Mass Comm. Emphasis), Maha decided to move back to Egypt to make the most of her western education and upbringing in an emerging entertainment and media industry. Her hosting career flourished, from covering red carpets to live programs and large audience talk shows. Her distinctive blend of “East meets West” led Maha to be chosen as the sole middle-eastern host to conduct a wide array of A-list star interviews and cover numerous international events, such as the World Music Awards in Monaco and Las Vegas. On the production side, she worked her way up through all facets to become Executive Producer on numerous projects shooting throughout the Middle East and Europe. Before returning to the U.S., she was simultaneously balancing TV personality and Network Executive responsibility as Head of TV Production at MazzikaTV and Zoom, two of the region’s leading music and entertainment channels at the time. A balanced blend of East meets West with deep ties to both worlds, Maha is always seeking to bridge the gap between her two worlds. Her experience in middle-eastern and western markets gives her an edge, and allows her to bring a valuable and unconventional perspective to all her projects, entertainment and otherwise.
