In his new role, he will lead a team of over 100 professionals based in Riyadh and Jeddah DUBAI: Multinational advertising conglomerate Publicis Groupe has promoted Thamer Farsi to the role of CEO for its Saudi operations, effective immediately. Farsi joined the conglomerate in 2008 and became regional managing director of Publicis Communications for Saudi Arabia in 2018. He then took over as chief operating officer last year. In his new role, he will lead a team of over 100 professionals based in Riyadh and Jeddah across the group’s marketing, creative, media and PR activities. “Saudi Arabia is a key strategic market for the Groupe, and it is exciting to be led by talented Saudis both at CEO and creative level,” Raja Trad, executive chairman of Publicis for the Middle East and Africa, said in a statement. “This is testament to our people-first approach and is instrumental in fueling collaborative relationships with client teams.” Farsi brings over 16 years of experience in the areas of marketing communication, communication strategy and client management within different industries. He has played a key role in transforming Publicis to enhance its digital and social media solutions. Farsi said: “Publicis Groupe has a deeply rooted commitment to fulfilling the Kingdom’s vision of establishing an empowered Saudi workforce. From the onset, developing our cadre of professionals to work on key Saudi and multinational clients has been an overarching priority.”