Sales director appointed for CNN Africa

20 May 2009

CNN International has appointed Reme Al-Saiegh to the position of sales director for Africa and the Middle East region, based out of CNN's international headquarters in London. Al-Saiegh is responsible for overseeing CNN's sales teams across Africa, the Middle East and the UK. as well as a network of representatives throughout the region.

Says Al-Saiegh, "With CNN's increased focus on Africa, this is a great opportunity to lead a talented team dedicated to delivering innovative, industry-leading commercial solutions for our valued African partners."

Al-Saiegh has been at CNN for more than five years, starting as a sales executive and was promoted to account manager and account director before being appointed to her new role. She has lead the CNN brand across some of the network's fastest growing regions and played a role securing long-term commercial partnerships for the channel, including brokering a number of sponsorships around Africa-themed programming.

Rani R. Raad, SVP CNN International Ad Sales says: “Reme is a natural leader with a remarkable track record. She has built a network of close partners across the regions and successfully developed her markets by continuously generating new and innovate ideas and consistently delivering results to her clients. Under Reme's management, Africa and the Middle East regions have seen tremendous growth. Africa continues to be a key market for CNN and I can think of no more suitable person to lead our sales teams in such markets as Reme.”

Under Reme Al-Saiegh's leadership, and adding to Zenith Bank's longstanding "Inside Africa" sponsorship, the sales team recently partnered with clients sponsoring new African-focused programming on the network such as Nigerian Bank PHB's exclusive sponsorship of "African Voices", CNN International's new weekly half-hour interview programme. Intercontinental Bank Nigeria also extended its five year ad partnership with CNN with its sponsorship of the "Africa Inc" segment within CNN's flagship prime time business programme "Quest Means Business".

“Africa continues to be the continent to watch in world business. CNN's increased activity with African clients is indicative of strong growth in the market and a readiness amongst advertisers to communicate their message by engaging international audiences through web advertising, TV spot campaigns, sponsored programming and other multi-platform initiatives”, commented Raad.