The Student Competition Jury 2022

Jury president: Austyn Allison

Senior Editor, Campaign Middle East

Austyn Allison is the editor of Campaign Middle East, the leading industry title for the region’s advertising and creative community. He has been in the role since July 2016; prior to that he was supplements editor on MEED (Middle East Economic Digest, a business-to-business title covering the major projects market in the Middle East and North Africa). From 2007-2011 Austyn edited Communicate, a media, marketing and advertising title covering the MENA region. Austyn is originally from Scotland, but has called the UAE home for the past 16 years.

“The student awards are important because they give students a chance to work on a real brief. That sounds obvious, but it makes a big difference. Suddenly it’s not about showing how much they know, or even how good they are at their favourite bits of advertising; this is practical, real and concrete. The winning submission will become an actual cover. On thousands of copies of an actual, printed magazine. It will land on thousands of desks, sit in offices around the region, be read, be shared, be stolen. For a lot of the students entering, this will be the first time their work will have life outside their university, and that means a subtle but vital shift in thinking. It is not a chance to show off how good they are at something they have chosen; it’s a chance to show off how good they are at answering real-world challenges, and an exercise that will prepare them for their future careers. And for the winner and the shortlisted runners-up it will show potential employers how good they are at translating their training into real life work.

Fadi Yaish

CEO & Chief Creative Officer, ‿ and us

Described by Forbes as MENA's Chief Creative Officer of the decade and 2021 Top 10 Most Influential Business Persons in the Middle East. Fadi has been credited with making his clients, agencies and the region famous. His work has been the only work from MENA recognized by TED 10 Ads Worth Spreading. He was the first creative director from his region to be ranked in the world’s top 10 in 2008. The only ECD from his region ever made it to the Top 5 Worldwide. #3 in 2015, #4 in 2016, #2 in 2017, #2 in 2018. His work has been recognized with over 700 industry honors at award shows across the world such as D&AD, One Show, Cannes Lions, Clio, LIA, NYF, Dubai Lynx, Loeries, Cristal, Effies and AdFest. He has chaired D&AD, Golden Drum, PIAF, Cresta, AdFest and judged other prestigious shows such as One Show, Cannes Lions, LIA, Clio, NYF, Spikes and Loeries. In late 2018, he established ‿ and us. A creatively led independent agency that heralds in a new era where creativity is the key to solving business problems. ‿ and us is paving the way for a new way of thinking that reinvents how agencies do business in the region. Not just redefining the creative status quo, but truly offering clients today what they really need to reach their business objectives.

“Dubai Lynx has helped our industry transform. Today, they play a more crucial role by nursing the very foundation of our industry, creative students. Dubai Lynx Students gives students a unique opportunity to discover more about themselves to develop and take further. I wouldn’t miss it”

Elie Abou Saleh

Vice President, Anghami

Elie Abou Saleh is currently leading the User Growth and Advertising team at Anghami, the region's leading audio streaming service. He is in charge of driving the company's user growth across MENA markets, while also scaling Anghami's ad business and transitioning it from a manual IO business into a self-serve tool. Elie launched Digital Audio advertising in the MENA region and drove it's adoption across client & agencies. He previously held the role of Monetisation Manager, for Global markets at Snapchat. His responsibility focused on growing the revenue of content creators on snapchat. This was achieved through partner sales training and strategy to incorporate snapchat into the partner's overall sales as well as the build and roll out of the private market place on snap's ad manager focused on content creators.

‘’We need to educate early on why creativity and storytelling matters. It's the foundation of advertising.‘’