Tahaab Rais

Born in August 1984, Tahaab’s first word was "Astronaut". In February 1986, he skipped walking and started running. In November 1994, he watched a movie that changed his life: Forrest Gump. It taught him how to make an ordinary life, legendary. Just like Baby’s Day Out. In August 1997, he met Mr. Adolescence through a myriad of regrettable haircuts (Spock, Elvis, Wolverine). In September 2002, he wrote poetry and hasn’t stopped writing since. In June 2005, he learnt to add a little Bollywood to his creative job; some drama in presentations, sharing a romance with ideas and using self-deprecating comedy to keep his spirits up.

Since 2012, he leads the strategy office for FP7 (A part of McCann Worldgroup) across MENA, focusing on creative marketing, brand and connections strategy. He’s the MENA Director for Truth Central – an intelligence platform and also manages creative excellence across MENA.

Tahaab has been ranked the #1 Strategy Head in the world by the Big Won Rankings in 2016, and is the most awarded strategist in MENA having won over 300 awards across Effies, Warc, Dubai Lynx, Cannes Lions, New York Festivals, D&AD, One Show, Clios, The International ANDYs and Crestas, among others. He has also led the agency’s efforts that helped FP7 to be ranked the Most Effective Agency in the World at the Global Effie Index, as well winning Agency and Network of the Year for an unprecedented 5 years running, from 2013 to 2017. He has judged at the Global Effies, Effies and at Midas Awards, previously too.