Memac Ogilvy's 'Eddie' Moutran voted 'Man of the Year' by ArabAd

ArabAd magazine, one of the most respected publications for the advertising and marketing industry in the Middle East, received nominations from 175 advertising agencies, media companies and their clients with an 80 percent landslide victory going to Moutran.

Moutran was the first Lebanese advertising professional to work in the Gulf. From the humble beginnings of working in a "tiny-billings" agency in Bahrain to heading Ogilvy & Mather, Mindshare and Ogilvy One for the Middle East and North Africa- Moutran has lived up to his unofficial motto of "I did it my way."

"As I pick up my award at the ceremony, I will not be alone," said Moutran, "you might not see them, but there will be hundreds of people who are up there with me. Those people are my colleagues, the clients, the CEOs and political leaders I have known in my life who make it possible for me to accept such an accolade."

In 1984, Moutran started his own company, Memac (Middle East Marketing and Communications) in Bahrain with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulla Al Khalifa. Two years later, an affiliation agreement was signed between Memac and Ogilvy & Mather. Today Moutran presides over Ogilvy's empire in the Middle East and North Africa and was once dubbed "the David Ogilvy of the Gulf."

Early on, Moutran showed eagerness in being very involved in industry issues and worked hard with several colleagues for the regions industry to have a regulatory body. He was one of the founding board members of the GCC Advertising Association (GCCAA) in the early nineties. Today the GCCAA is still very active with all of the issues faced by the industry, as well as playing an important role in organising conferences and providing training for the new generations - including the opening of an advertising college in Bahrain. In 1995, the Middle East Advertising Association, a brainchild of Moutran, was created. The MEAA was started as a body to deal with regional advertising agency issues.

Moutran, nicknamed "ever-ready Eddy" by Mike Walsh, Chairman and CEO of Ogilvy Worldwide, Europe, Middle East and Africa, was also recognised for his selfless contributions to the community. He is the Chairman of the Al Nahda Charity Foundation in Beirut, an organisation that works with the poor and underprivileged in Lebanon.

"Today I am doubly proud," said Liliane Maila-Moutran, Head of Business Development for Memac Ogilvy, Middle East and North Africa, "not only has my business colleague been voted 'Man of the Year,' but so has my husband. Eddy can be a fierce lion professionally and a soft teddy-bear on a personal level."

Moutran was born in 1944 to a large middle-class family in Beirut, Lebanon. He has four children from a previous marriage. He lives in Beirut with his wife Liliane, who has two daughters from a previous marriage. They were married in 1999.

"I have every reason to be proud of my achievements - to have become the man I am and to have practised at all stages of my life the values my parents taught me and that, in turn, I am passing to my children. In brief, I did it my way and continue to do so," said Moutran.

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