Allow me to
re-introduce myself.

I grew up between Cairo and America, and for the last four years Kuwait and Riyadh have been home. I do not visit these cultures; I belong to all of them. It means I can sit in a room in Riyadh, think in Arabic, argue in English, and know exactly where an idea will land with each audience.

A hybrid creative

My work grew up the same way. I was born a writer. Words were the first thing I loved and the first thing anyone paid me for. Then I learned to visualise, sitting next to art directors, directors and editors for years until I could see the frame before anyone drew it. And now I live in AI. An idea leaves my desk written, visualised and motion-tested, and nothing gets lost between what I see and what the team sees.

Born a writer, trained to see, living in AI. Lately that has taken me behind the camera too. Not because every creative needs to be a director, but because some ideas are so fragile they only survive if the person who wrote them is the one holding the shot. I spent sixty-eight shoots on set as a creative, standing next to the director. Now that I am the one calling it, I still get nervous and excited as if it were my first day on set.

Leading, still learning

I have led teams for twelve years, from three people at FP7 to a department of twenty-five in Riyadh. I would love to say I got it right every time. I did not. I am flawed, I have made mistakes with people I led, and those mistakes taught me more than any award.

So I lead from a place of learning, not certainty. I ask for feedback and try to actually hear it. I try to build a room where people feel safe enough to bring their strangest idea, because I have seen what is lost when they do not. Most of what I know about people I learned coaching American football, fifteen years building Gridiron Egypt from nothing. People do not grow because you tell them to. They grow because you give them a reason to trust you, and then get out of the way. I am still working on the getting-out-of-the-way part.

Lately

At Footballco I led the creative team, making content for Kooora, GOAL Arabic and a network of 45 million followers, and building season-long branded content for Saudi Pro League sponsors. It taught me more about branded content than any brief ever did: how to make something a fan actually chooses to watch, and how to put a brand inside it without breaking it. I teach at Saudi Ad School and Cairo Ad School, because someone once did that for me. Off the clock I lift heavy things competitively and train every day. I believe greatness is the byproduct of doing the little things right.