VMLY&R names Nick Walsh as MENA CEO to lead the newly unified business

5th July 2022, Dubai, UAE: VMLY&R today announced the appointment of Nick Walsh as MENA CEO, uniting under his leadership three brands and companies – VMLY&R, VMLY&R COMMERCE, and GTB – to deliver a seamlessly end-to-end brand experience, customer experience and commerce offering to clients on a global scale. 

In his new role, Walsh will be responsible for unifying and expanding the VMLY&R agency and brands’ footprint across the MENA region. Walsh will partner closely with Miguel Bemfica, MENA CCO, who joined from McCann WorldGroup in January this year, to offer the full depth of VMLY&R capabilities to client partners and create connected brands that drive growth for them. 

They will build on the strong foundation and collaboration across VMLY&R brands and company teams to unlock growth for shared global and local clients, including Ford, RTA, Coca-Cola, Danone, and Colgate-Palmolive.

“Clients no longer want partners that look after one aspect of their marketing mix; they want partners to have a complete view. Bringing together the three companies completes our end-to-end brand, customer experience and commerce offering,” said Andrew Dimitriou, EMEA CEO, VMLY&R.

I cannot think of anyone better to bring together the strength of our connected offer to bear fruit for clients. Nick’s dynamic leadership style and genuine engagement in our people and culture will ensure we continue to thrive in the dynamic MENA market,” he added.

In 2013, Walsh oversaw the transformation from OgilvyAction to Geometry and the launch of the new network in MENA.  Under his leadership, Geometry MENA experienced unprecedented growth and was the number one creative agency in the Geometry network – based on international creative award wins. In 2021, Walsh was appointed MENA CEO of VMLY&R COMMERCE. He was most recently recognised as one of the Top 30 industry leaders in MENA.

“It is an amazing privilege to lead the VMLY&R teams in our region. I am excited to become one connected company and leverage our rich and diverse knowledge, perspectives, skills, and talent. It will open a new world of possibilities for our clients and anyone in the business,” said Nick Walsh, MENA CEO, VMLY&R.

Georges Barsoum, CEO VMLY&R MENA, has decided to leave the company to pursue new opportunities. He will temporarily remain with VMLY&R in an advisory capacity and support Walsh with key clients.  

“I would like to thank Georges for his leadership and drive to grow VMLY&R in the region and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours.” Added Andrew Dimitriou, EMEA CEO, VMLY&R. 

VMLY&R also announced a new leadership team: 

∙         Miguel Bemfica, Chief Creative Officer  

∙         Ginny Kemp-Taylor, Head of Marketing and Operations 

∙         Chelly Megale, Head of People 

∙         Martin Barta, Chief Financial Officer

These high-profile announcements continue VMLY&R’s significant momentum globally and in the region. Following the win of the Alpro account, and Jumia, Africa’s leading e-commerce platform. The agency also had a strong showing at the Dubai Lynx awards with two Grand Prix for Twitter’s Feminine Arabic and Rolling Stones’ Rocking Mamas and six statuettes; and most recently a Silver Lions at Cannes Festival of Creativity for Twitter Feminine Arabic. 

This local success follows a year of global recognition with VMLY&R named Campaign’s creative network of the year and network agency of the year by The Drum in 2021.