Beyond Aesthetics: The Future of Creativity & Design

Beyond Aesthetics: The Future of Creativity & Design in a Converging World

This session will explore how creativity and design are evolving in response to shifts in culture, technology, and consumer behavior. It will challenge traditional views by emphasizing creativity not just as a tool for brand differentiation, but as a driver of cultural relevance, technological innovation, and meaningful human experiences. This fresh perspective is crucial for marketers and agency executives who need to stay ahead in an increasingly complex and converging world.

Session Chair

Fahad Ashraf

Vice President & GM

The Coca-Cola Company

Fahad Ashraf has over 22 years of experience leading winning teams for top brands in South Africa, UAE, UK, and Pakistan. He is currently serving as the Vice President of The Coca-Cola Export Corporation, Pakistan & Afghanistan Region, where he is responsible for bringing the company’s purpose to life and driving long-term sustainable growth.

A graduate of Karachi’s Institute of Business Administration, he previously worked at RB Pakistan, where he served as Marketing Director as well as Chief Executive and GM Health. An avid supporter of the Citizens Foundation, Ashraf also serves as SVP of the American Business Council in Pakistan.

Session Chair

Maria Gedeon

Founder & CEO

Gedeon Mohr & Partners

A strategic, transformative, and customer-obsessed executive with nearly two decades of experience shaping the luxury, retail, destinations, and leisure sectors in the MENA region. Her expertise lies in building brands and propelling them onto the global stage.

Maria founded Gedeon Mohr & Partners with a vision to service clients around the world helping them design, transform and grow sustainably. Previously Maria served as the former Chief Customer and Marketing Officer of the Chalhoub Group the largest fashion and beauty retailer in the MENA and the JV partner of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group conglomerate. In her capacity, Maria managed an award-winning team of 150+, driving the transformation, overseeing brand building, marketing, customer experience, customer engagement, loyalty insights and advanced analytics, commercial partnerships, and content for the group.

Maria’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2002 with the establishment of Select, an events and entertainment startup catering to the Middle East. In 2006, she relocated to the UAE to work on the World Future Energy Summit, a collaborative initiative between Turret Media, Masdar, and the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Centre. She also spearheaded marketing and sponsorship for the Turret Media consumer portfolio, playing a key role in the acquisition and growth of Taste of Dubai and the Abu Dhabi Art Fair, and the Abu Dhabi Motorsports Festival among others.

In 2009, Maria took up the role of Director of Marketing and Communication at the Abu Dhabi Entertainment Company (a Mubadala subsidiary) heading up the function for Zayed Sports City. Her responsibilities included transforming and growing the brand, driving a turnaround in the company’s performance, and transforming the marketing, sponsorships, events and customer experience organization.

Maria then moved to Majid Al Futtaim in 2016, the leading shopping malls, retail, and entertainment conglomerate in the MENA region, as Director of Marketing. As part of the senior executive team, she managed a cadre of 70+ award-winning marketers for the Entertainment division. Her tenure was marked by the transformation of the marketing and customer organization to instill an innovative, creative, customer-obsessed, and data-driven culture.

Presently, Maria serves as an external advisor to Bain & Company and holds positions on several regional boards, including the Marketing Society’s Middle East Chapter, the International Women Board of Directors, and Almentor.net, the largest e-learning platform in the Arab world. Maria earned her bachelor’s degree in Advertising and Visual Communication from the Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (alba) in Beirut.

She is a proud working mother of two and a huge proponent of diversity & inclusion initiatives. A former national ski champion and enthusiastic tennis player, she possesses a deep appreciation for art, hospitality, and food. In her spare time, she travels, exercises, and delights in cooking for friends. Maria also lends her support to startups emerging from the MENA region and mentors marketing leaders of tomorrow.

Session Chair

Kiranjeet Purba

Senior Director (Strategic Partnerships & AdTech)

Foodpanda

Kiranjeet is a senior technology executive who has over a decade of experience working at digital native businesses. He has operated across many APAC countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. The tech categories include food tech, mobility and quick commerce with experience in ad-tech, strategic partnerships, operations, commercial, amongst others. Currently, Kiranjeet leads both strategic partnerships and adtech for foodpanda (a Delivery Hero company) across 11 countries in APAC. Prior to foodpanda, Kiranjeet was at Gojek, Uber and Uber Eats. Kiranjeet also is a member of the regional board for IAB Southeast Asia and India.

Session Chair

Fawad Ahmed

Director, Strategy & Digital Transformation

Unilever Pakistan

Fawad joined Unilever as a management trainee in 2005 and has done brand management & customer development roles across categories, channels and countries including a global stint based out of Singapore. He is currently leading Strategy & Transformation for Unilever Pakistan which includes building future-fit capabilities in areas of Digital Commerce (eCommerce), Digital Hub (Media), Consumer Market Insights (Market Research) and UniOps (Info Tech).

Fawad thrives in leveraging the power of people and partnerships in building interconnected ecosystems which help Unilever drive competitive growth and thought leadership when it comes to building future-fit capabilities at an enterprise level.

He is an active advocate of creating an inclusive society and volunteers his time at the Karachi Down Syndrome Program (KDSP) as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Fawad is married, has three children and has recently taken up Padel with the hope of turning it into a family sport.

Session Chair

Muhammad Ammar Hassan

Chief Marketing Officer

Daraz Pakistan

Muhammad Ammar Hassan is the Chief Marketing Officer of Daraz, Pakistan’s largest e-commerce platform backed by the Alibaba Group which houses over 100,000 sellers from all across the country with 27 million monthly active users.

Under this role, Ammar leads a team of 150 people from various functions including Branding, Buyer Growth, Traffic Operations, Design Studio, Daraz Advertising Solutions, and Corporate Communication/PR.

With over 12 years of experience in Marketing, Ammar was previously responsible for laying the foundation for OLX (one of the fastest-growing network of trading platforms globally, headquartered in Amsterdam) in Pakistan where he served as the Head of Marketing & Digital Ad Sales. He has also held senior positions in advertising agencies such as Adcom Zenith and Dentsu.

Ammar holds an undergraduate degree in Marketing from the Institute of Business Management (Karachi). A passionate new-age marketeer, Ammar is a prominent thought leader with over 15,000 followers on the professional social network LinkedIn where he regularly writes about e-commerce, performance-driven marketing, branding, and organizational culture.

Session Chair

Ahsan Maykan

VP Marketing & Digital Platforms

Telenor Pakistan

Ahsan heads the Marketing and Digital Products division at Telenor Pakistan. In this role he is responsible for customer analytics, value propositions, products, journeys, communication, and go-to-market for the traditional telecom products as well as adjacent digital products and services. He has over 16 years of experience across 2 continents in the consumer-facing telecom business in the marketing function.

Session Chair

Rifah Qadri

Head of Marketing & Corporate Comms

easypaisa

With an extensive professional background spanning over 16 years, Rifah has demonstrated her marketing leadership across diverse industries like technology, retail and food packaging. She has worked on some of the nation’s most renowned brands, including easypaisa, foodpanda and Metro Cash and Carry. Presently, Rifah leads the Marketing and Corporate Communications department at easypaisa, Pakistan’s foremost fintech institution.

Throughout her career, she has orchestrated numerous successful campaigns and shattered gender-based barriers by consistently securing prominent positions within her various organisations. Her skill set spans the spectrum of brand management, creative strategy, and the creation of many consumer-centric initiatives. Beyond the realms of boardrooms and marketing campaigns, Rifah’s passion for travel provides her with a unique perspective on the world, infusing her work with a distinct creative flair. Her expeditions are the secret sauce to all the creativity that she brings into her work!