Advisory Board
Fares Akkad
Managing Director MENA, Meta
Fares comes into the role with a wealth of experience, most recently he was a Director for Media Partnerships at META with a global remit leading the News team across Growth Markets (APAC, LATAM, MEA). In this role he worked on some of the most sensitive issues facing the company including the Australian IP regulation, Afghanistan and Middle East unrest and Brazilian elections and regulation to mention a few. During his tenure, he managed to bring cohesion and synergy to a newly established region.
Prior to his global role, Fares was running the Media Partnerships team in MEA where he had great impact. Most notably, Fares built a case for MENA to be one of four play-to-win video markets for Facebook, securing funding of $45 million over 3 years for content from the region. He also played an active role in the design and kick-off of the 1Africa initiative and was key in securing funding and resources for SSA.
Prior to Facebook, Fares was leading digital business development and distribution for MBC Group (largest media group in MENA) and spent over a decade in management consulting both in the region and the US working across a wide variety of industries and companies.
Fares holds an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology (Cum Laude), a Master’s degree in Information Systems (Cum Laude) and an MBA with an emphasis in entrepreneurship and Finance (Highest Distinction).