December 2016
Above: Keith Reinhard (third from left) with team celebrating winning the McDonald's account in 1971
Referred to as “the last of the Mad Men” – advertising legend and hall-of-famer Keith Reinhard is no small fry 🌟. Global Chairman & CEO of DDB Worldwide for 18 years (now Chairman Emeritus) – he turned Bill Bernbach’s talent, vision and creative revolution into not only one of the top global agency networks – but also into the most creative one, all the while building the strongest of corporate cultures. Indeed, we are well placed to know that thanks to Keith, DDB feels a lot more like a family than a global corporation, and that creativity, humanity and respect always run deep in our veins.
And so, we were obviously delighted when our client, Al Muhaidib Group, asked us to see if we could arrange for Keith to come over to Bahrain as the keynote speaker at their annual executive management conference. An email later and he had agreed! 🎉😍
Fair to say that this was Keith’s second visit to our shores 🏝: indeed, he had spent a week here exactly 20 years earlier, conducting a memorable four-day creative seminar for our MEA agencies’ creative directors – an experience he always seemed to recalls with much fondness.
Above: Keith Reinhard with H.H. The Amir Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and with H.R.H. Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister, during his first visit to Bahrain back in 1997
Needless to say, his presentation was mind-blowing, and hosting him once again – 20 years on – a real treat (again). The next day we drove to our client’s headquarters in Dammam, where he made another, completely different but equally amazing presentation – this time to the Group’s marketing teams. This was followed by a great VIP tour of the soon-to-be-opened Ithra Cultural Center in Dhahran (thanks Aramco/Ithra team for the wonderful welcome, and Al Muhaidid CCD for setting this up).
We’re proud to add that Keith was not the only speaker we arranged for the event: Peter Willats, globally acclaimed “Lean Management” guru was one of our guests too, as were Malin Nyman and Karen Hèden, a brilliant leadership coaching duo 👩🏻🤝👩🏼 from Sweden.
It was a pleasure and an honour to work with such amazing people. Thank you! And thanks to Al Muhaidib Group of course, for organizing such a great event every year, and for entrusting us, year on year, with recommending, sourcing and commissioning such high-level speakers.