In his new role, Rais will be responsible for driving the group’s Power of One strategy DUBAI: Publicis Groupe has appointed Tahaab Rais as its first regional chief strategy officer working across Publicis Groupe agencies in the Middle East and Turkey region. Rais joins Publicis Groupe from FP7 McCann and McCann Worldgroup, where he served as regional strategy head and was on the global strategy executive committee, leading the company’s strategy, effectiveness and data practices. Before that, Rais served as regional strategy director at J. Walter Thompson Worldwide. In his new role, Rais will be responsible for driving the group’s Power of One strategy, as well as leading integrated strategy across the group’s creative, digital, media and consultancy disciplines. The Power of One approach consolidates all expertise within one holding group, forming teams across agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Publicis Worldwide, Digitas, MSL, Prodigious, Sapient, Epsilon and Publicis Media. Rais will work in close collaboration with leadership teams across the agencies to drive long-term growth for clients. Bassel Kakish, CEO of Publicis Groupe Middle East and Turkey, said: “Having successfully established the Power of One model in this region, now is the time to build and scale even more extraordinary solutions for global and regional brands, and Tahaab has the perfect creative, data and strategy credentials to do so.” He added: “As our first regional chief strategy officer, he will bring our best talent together, across agencies and across the region.” Rais said: “I’ve always respected Publicis Groupe’s interconnectedness, so the opportunity to build on the Power of One vision was too good to pass up,” adding that he hopes to play the role of a “connector.” He said: “There are so many opportunities that can be unlocked by bringing people together across such diverse companies, disciplines and skill sets, and Publicis Groupe is the only network in the region with the scale and depth of resources to allow this.” Rais is one of the most awarded creative effectiveness leaders in the world, consistently leading agencies to top 10 rankings in the Global Effective Index and WARC Effective 100. Outside of advertising, Rais is an acclaimed film director, songwriter, speaker and writer.