OMD Middle East appoints new Regional Managing Director

Previously with Goodyear in Luxembourg, he fills in the post left vacant by Elie Khouri following his promotion to the Omnicom Media Group, in order to manage the network's development in the GCC, Levant and North Africa.

With more than 15 years of experience, including eight on the client side and seven in leading advertising agencies in Europe and the Middle East, Bequin brings to this role an impressive track record and expertise that will add tremendous value to the network.

"This appointment coincides with the next phase of development of OMD," explained Alain Khouri, chairman of the Omnicom Media Group Middle East. "Now that OMD has established its overall leadership in the region, we need to replicate this across all our existing and future markets to provide the most comprehensive service to our clients."

Bequin's primary objective is to spearhead the group's development in North Africa and other regional markets, streamline its resources regionally to better meet clients' needs and drive the development of the OMD brand. He reports directly to Elie Khouri, regional managing director of the Omnicom Media Group, the holding company of OMD, PHD and four strategic business units, OMD Digital, Integral, Fuse and OMD International.

"The success of OMD, as well as that of our operations within the Omnicom Media Group, is largely explained by our attention to identifying, attracting and nurturing the best talent in the industry," Elie Khouri commented. "Eric has shown that he is best equipped to integrate all our local operations further into the regional and global network, while focusing on increasing our footprint. We're looking to capitalize on his experience in managing a wide and diverse region at the client end of the business. He complements very well the talent pool and high level of competences we have built over the last five years."

In 1999, Bequin joined Goodyear in Luxembourg as advertising manager and in 2004 became the company's marketing director EEMEA, the region with fastest growth potential. He overlooked all marketing communications across five brands and three continents.

"It's a fantastic time to come back to the region," Bequin said. "OMD has achieved many great things in the last five years and it's a great honor to contribute to its next level of development. It's all about combining international best practice with local knowledge and excellence. My role is to harness both and put them to work for our clients' benefit, as well as that of our teams."

Bequin is a French national who also speaks Arabic.