Jean-Louis Daou

In this role, I have widened my engagement in the business to encompass managing relationships
with the clients and, fueled by my media buying background, driving the planning and strategic
fronts. Leading a group of talented individuals, I am in charge of nurturing their skillset, advance
their aspirations, and in turn empower the team’s collective potential to meet client requirements
where traditional, digital, social media and data collide together.

In addition to my previous responsibilities as a buying manager and given the strict requirements
on the buying side, my goal in this position was to generate year on year savings despite the
pressure presented by the media sales policies. As a Senior Buying Manager, I engineered and
implemented complex media solutions in the Iraqi market as to properly ensure brand visibility for
our clients. I was the mediator between advanced planning requirements and traditional market
dynamics.

Relocating to Iraq in 2009 gave me the chance to live in a country going through its early stages of
development. I had the chance to observe the birth of several businesses, which nurtured my
understanding of the various business and operating models while gathering a wide knowledge of
local market and cultural insights. Moving into the agency side of the advertising world was the
ideal opportunity to apply what I had acquired. As the Buying Manager for Starcom MediaVest
Group, I was in charge of migrating the Asiacell1
media-buying model to incorporate the presence
of a media agency while creating a proper workflow process and monetary efficiencies.
Additionally, I was responsible of activating SMG clients’ campaigns with a high level of commitment
and quality. I also headed the negotiations with around 90+ Media Suppliers guaranteeing
economies of scale for our client portfolio. Going beyond the buying aspect of the business, my
objective was to reshape the Iraqi media scene by providing the media with continuous training
and support and as such build win-win relationships.

At the helm of Promofix’s operations in Iraq was a position of great added value as it allowed me to
grow my experience in organizational structure, properly re-launch and eventually run a company
in one of the most challenging markets in the region. During the first 6 months, my objective was to
re-structure the company’s operations that were faltering after a challenging period of mis-
management.
Afterwards, I took charge of managing the operations; create a proper internal communication
system with the different offices inside and outside Iraq aiming for a smooth coordination workflow
process. Being part of the regional leadership group of Promofix, I was tasked with coming up with
a medium and long-term vision for the business which was to be implemented under my
supervision. This was achieved in addition to managing the office P&L.
The efforts throughout my tenure positively affected the company as it increased sales by at least
35% while also optimizing profit margins, making Promofix one of the leading media suppliers in
Iraq to date.

The marketing coordinator position was a newly created role under the partnership between
Hippodrome du Parc de Beyrouth and its counterpart in France, PMU which aimed to broadcast live
races in Beirut as they happened in France. I was in charge of launching this partnership and was
able to successfully introduce and implement a new simulcast bidding technique, which allowed the
Lebanese audience to participate in the betting and the business to grow its revenues further. On
top of the overall coordination, my responsibilities included designing and implementing the right
marketing strategies and plans.

During my short tenure at BREI, I conducted market research and gathered valuable data for the
real estate company, which covered residential buildings in Beirut and Faraya Mzaar. This led to a
continuous interaction with other leading real estate companies in the country and establishment
of a fruitful market network. At the end of the survey, I delivered a fully integrated report which
when presented to the board of directors was considered a key pillar of their data foundation.