CNN confirms commitment to Middle East region with senior appointment

As part of her new role, she will be responsible for overseeing CNN's sales teams across the Middle East, Africa and the UK as well as a network of representatives throughout the region.

Reme, who has been at CNN International for more than five years started as a Sales Executive before being promoted through the ranks to Account Manager and Account Director before being appointed to her new role.

Rani R. Raad, SVP CNN International Ad Sales says:

"Reme is a natural leader with a remarkable track record. She has built a network of close partners across the regions and successfully developed her markets by continuously generating new and innovate ideas and consistently delivering results to her clients. Under Reme's management, the Middle East and Africa regions have seen tremendous growth. The Middle East continues to be a key market for CNN and I can think of no more suitable person to lead our sales teams in such markets as Reme."

She has championed the CNN brand across a number of the channel's fastest growing regions for the past few years, and has been responsible for brokering a number of major deals and programming sponsorships for the channel such as DIFC's association with Marketplace Middle East, Qatar Airways' weather sponsorship and commercial deals with Egypt Tourism, Emirates Airlines and the Qatar Financial Centre.

She currently oversees a portfolio of clients and key accounts across the Middle East and Africa that represent a substantial share of CNN International's advertising sales business and sponsored programming.

Reme is one of the key players on CNN 's Abu Dhabi project and in her new role she is responsible for hiring and managing CNN's future Abu Dhabi-based sales team to help strengthen CNN's Middle East business working alongside Media International Services, CNN's long term representatives in the Middle East; to ensure a successful launch of the second UAE bureau later in the year.

CNN maintains its local partnerships with key industry events such as Dubai Desert Classic, Capitala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi, Cityscape (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia), Canvas Abu Dhabi, the Human Trafficking Conference in Bahrain and the World Economic Forum in Jordan and Cairo.

"At CNN, we take great pride in the partnerships we have, both new ones and those we've nurtured over the years. We look forward to continuing to work with our Middle East clients to provide great communications solutions that move the needle for their business", concluded Raad.