Corporate Communications, Middle East & Africa
Citi
Total years of experience :25 years, 1 Months
Part of the Middle East and Africa public affairs team, performing a wide array of corporate communications and public relations functions across 25 countries.
Media
• Managing proactive media opportunities: press releases, interviews and media briefs.
• Managing reactive media requests.
• Monitoring coverage.
Community
• Administering an overall community budget of US$ 7M in 2017 for MEA.
• Managing relationships with non-governmental organizations.
• Reviewing grant funding applications and overviewing programs implementation.
Internal communications
• Planning and delivering employee engagement projects; such as cross-region town halls, learning and development as well as diversity initiatives.
• Preparing presentations and talking points for senior stakeholders across businesses and functions.
• Planning and implementing the quarterly MEA e-newsletter, intranet content and videos.
Branding and Sponsorship
• Ensuring alignment of key messages across internal and external communications.
• Identifying brand amplifying opportunities for Citi businesses and leadership opportunities for key stakeholders.
• Supporting industry award submissions.
• Managed the marketing and communications functions for TTC’s global portfolio of luxury boutique hotels, trains and cruises for outgoing travelers in the GCC to increase brand awareness and growth across the region.
• Managed social media and website data analytics across different channels to measure performance, trends and ROI.
• Leveraged co-marketing partnerships with similar brand image entities.
• Planned and organized familiarization (FAM) trips in collaboration with airlines, travel agents and media partners across the region to promote the represented hotels and their destinations to increase outgoing travelers in the GCC.
• Led the marketing and communications activities in the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) trade show 2016 in Dubai.
Achievements
• Established and launched all Arabic collateral as well as the media release and coverage templates.
• Improved media base and expanded reach across the region by 75% in 2.5 years, achieving above target on media coverage with a yearly average of 35%.
• Developed the social media marketing plan and achieved a 50% increase in traffic and engagement contributing an annual 25% increase in sales margin.
• Revamped existing print and web-based marketing collateral in English.
• Taught different levels of business and social Arabic as a foreign language to a diverse array of non-Arabic speaking adults, using a communicative, task-based methodology that incorporates a combination of spoken Arabic and a simplified form of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).
• Developed and implemented teaching materials, methods, lesson plans and in-house training programs.
• Designed and delivered courses tailored to the specific needs of an organization or individual.
• Revamped course curricula, materials and assessments for different levels.
• Achieved a yearly average student retention rate of 50%.
Proposal funding and business plan consultancy for private airlines in Egypt.
• Managed corporate marketing and communications and private jet charter services across Middle East and Africa.
• Led the marketing and sales activities in business aviation exhibitions such as the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva and the AVEX air show and aviation expo in Egypt.
Achievements
• Launched the business Jet Club, a by-the-hour charter flight program, and sold 65% of a 100 hours jet card membership card within 6 months, generating a 50% sales margin.
• Contributed to negotiating the purchase of 2 Embraer Phenom 100s.
• Revamped existing print and web-based marketing collateral in English.
• Managed corporate marketing and communications, charter sales and leasing functions serving the Middle East and Africa and Europe, overseeing a $1M budget at the startup and 3-member team.
• Implemented brand management, media relations, B2B sales, advertising, marketing collateral and trade shows.
• Led the marketing and sales activities in international aviation exhibitions such as the FITUR in Spain, the BIT in Italy and the Mediterranean Travel Fair in Egypt.
Achievements
• Founded and deployed the peacekeeping forces air transportation services generating $3M in annual sales.
• Expanded client base by 25% yearly and achieved 70% increase in charter sales for the first year, and sustained a constant annual increase of 25% to 30%.
• Reduced marketing and operational costs by a yearly average of 10% yearly by leveraging strengths in operations planning as well as cost effective marketing management and third party negotiations.
• Managed and executed the company’s marketing collateral and media plan under the supervision of the advertising consultancy firm.
• Executed the marketing office showroom and signage.
• Planned and organized the launch event at Cairo Opera House in 1998.