Fares Akkad is a seasoned executive with a wealth of experience in media partnerships and business development across various regions. Fares joins us from META, where he served as the Director for Media Partnerships with a global remit, leading the News team across Growth Markets. In this role, he successfully managed some of the most sensitive issues facing the company, including Australian IP regulation, Afghanistan and Middle East unrest, and Brazilian elections and regulation. During his tenure, he was able to bring cohesion and synergy to a newly established region, resulting in the highest News revenues for Growth markets globally.
Prior to his global role at META, Fares ran the Media Partnerships team in MEA with great impact. He was instrumental in building a case for MENA to be one of the four play-to-win video markets for Facebook, securing funding of $45 million over three years for content from the region. This initiative made MENA the leading play-to-win market for Facebook in terms of ROI. Fares also played an active role in the design and kick-off of the 1Africa initiative and secured funding and resources for SSA.
Before joining Facebook, Fares spent over a decade in management consulting, both in the region and the US, working across a wide variety of industries and companies. He also led digital business development and distribution for MBC Group, the largest media group in MENA, where he was able to grow the business by over 4X in five years and expand the largest Arabic VOD in the world, Shahid.
Fares is an entrepreneur at heart, having started, funded, and exited several startups both in the region and the US. He continues to be a very active advisor and investor in the startup scene, guiding some of the most exciting startups and VCs in the region.
Fares holds an undergraduate degree in Bio-Technology (Cum Laude), a Master’s degree in Information Systems (Cum Laude), and an MBA with an emphasis in entrepreneurship and Finance (Highest Distinction), all completed in the US. He is fluent in English, Arabic, Spanish, and Portuguese and has lived and worked in the US, Europe, Africa, and South America. Fares is currently based in Dubai, where he resides with his wife and two kids.