Marwa Kaabour headshot

Marwa Kaabour

Marwa Kaabour is a CMO-level executive and an international best-selling author with 25+ years’ of experience in establishing and leading strategic marketing communications for global and regional brands in the Middle East. Among her achievements is establishing marketing and communication functions from scratch for companies and government entities. In addition to her strategic ‘from scratch’ capabilities, developing core functions for large and portfolio businesses, leading cross-functional teams, and creating harmony and efficiencies in both marketing and comms — as well as contributing to organizational transformation.

Marwa is a diverse expert with specializations such as business transformation and digitization, strategic marketing, sustainability, branding, public relations, brand management, corporate communications, and executive profiling. Her core expertise lies in elevating strategic management, creation and launch of B2C, B2G, and B2B brands, media relations, corporate communication, change management, and growth marketing. 
 
Marwa started her career with award-winning international agencies like Leo Burnett and Impact BBDO. She then moved to the client side, bringing agency-level expertise into solo-firm marketing and communication. Her experience spans multiple industries, including energy, manufacturing, automotive, airlines, banking, FMCGs, F&B, construction, and retail businesses. This versatile background has led her to contribute to a broad spectrum of global and regional brands such as Nissan, Infiniti, Renault, Volvo Penta, MTU, Nestle, Emirates Airline, Pizza Hut, and entities that fall under the Government of Abu Dhabi such Al Hilal Bank.
 
Marwa was named Campaign’s Middle East 2021 Marketing Game Changer and was selected as one of LinkedIn’s Most Engaged Marketers in 2014. She was also selected to be the UAE’s ‘Highly Commended Female Marketing Leader’ by Women in Marketing Institution in London in 2018. Marwa was named “Best CMO in UAE” by the Digital Stallions Community and winner of Al Masaood’s ‘Best Leader Award’ and ‘ Best Support Department Award’. She frequently lectures on the topic of Marketing, CSR, and Communication at Abu Dhabi Universities. She is part of the Advisory Committee for the Abu Dhabi School of Management. She is consistently recognized for exemplary management performance in leading marketing campaigns, driving innovative strategy, and establishing procedures to increase enterprise-wide efficiency.
 
An advocate of women's empowerment, health, and financial literacy, she often blogs about the topics of CSR brand’s higher purpose. She is a member of the Marketing Society, UAE Chapter, and frequently publishes articles. She holds an MBA from the American University of Sharjah and a Bachelor of Marketing and Management (with honors) from the same university. She is a Certified Sustainability Marketer, with an accreditation from the Center for Sustainability Excellence and a Certified Digital Marketer from the Institute of Digital Marketing in Ireland. Marwa is a frequent lecturer at Abu Dhabi University on the topics of communications and CSR.
 
Currently Marwa is the Group Head of Marketing and Communication for Al Masaood Group, Abu Dhabi’s largest family-owned business conglomerate. She was selected as the Best Leader in the Group in 2019 and 2020.