TBWA/Raad has promoted Manuel Bordé from creative director to executive creative director, a title he will share with Fouad Abdel Malek, who has been in the role since May 2016.
“This is something I have known before, in South America where I worked,” said Bordé, a Columbian. “This is a very common practice to have double ECDs leading a team, but it’s only possible when you have agencies that are big enough to have space for two ECDs who can help each other and not overlap each other.”
TBWA/Raad has had a good year, taking the title of Agency of the Year at Dubai Lynx in March and leading the region in its awards tally at Cannes Lions. Its #SheDrives campaign for Nissan KSA was led by Bordé and won a Gold Lion. He won 2018 Lynx Grands Prix for the agency with Camelpower for Nissan Middle East, McDonald’s Promoticon and Pril One-Drop Bottle.
Earlier this year, TBWA/Raad took the account for UAE telco Du away from Leo Burnett.
“This promotion wasn’t a surprise,” said Walid Kanaan, TBWA/Raad’s chief creative officer. “It came as a natural evolution for Manuel, who was really growing within the agency. He was proving more and more that he has the right skills, the right leadership, the right attitude. And it happened that the agency was also on a healthy track where the portfolio of clients and brands grew during the past three years. The responsibility also grew with it, so we reached a point where we saw space for Manuel to become a second ECD and co-lead the agency with Fouad.”
He said: “We were lucky that in terms of synergy, chemistry complicity, it was working perfectly between them. Fouad comes from an art background while Manuel comes from a copy background, so both of them are forming a super-creative team that leads the agency in Dubai forward.”
Bordé said: “This is more like perfect harmony. Like a marriage that has interdependence but still works very closely together.”
Bordé has worked in advertising for more than 12 years in markets including the UAE, Puerto Rico, Panama and Colombia.
