9Yards Communications, the UAE capital’s largest independent, fully integrated marcoms agency, has appointed Fadi Zeidan as Head of Media, effective from 2nd November, as the agency looks to strengthen across its senior leadership team with greater emphasis being placed on the role of media in its integrated offering.Zeidan will lead the agency’s planning and buying operations, with a focus on building its capabilities, strengthening client partnerships and bringing media, strategy, PR, and creative advertising closer together. His appointment comes as 9Yards is also expanding its presence into new international markets, in 2027, and will be a catalyst for further developing its integrated approach to the agency’s communications offering.With more than 20 years of experience across the MENA region’s media industry, Zeidan brings a combination of agency leadership, commercial management and strategic media expertise. Most recently, he served as Regional Managing Director at Equation Media, part of The Network Communication Group. Before that, he was Regional Business Lead at Initiative MENA, leading a team of 30 professionals and overseeing integrated media strategies for more than 40 brands. Earlier in his career, he spent 17 years at Starcom Publicis and has worked with many major regional and international advertisers.Commenting on Zeidan’s appointment, Karim Fattal, Managing Director of 9Yards Communications, said: "Media has always been an important part of how brands build relationships with audiences and deliver business results; however, today, with the need for increasingly targeted approaches, this has become a more complex discipline that requires out-of-the-box thinking. “As 9Yards Communications continue to grow, we want to build a media offering that goes beyond planning and buying, bringing together strategic thinking, strong execution and accountability. Fadi brings leadership experience and commercial understanding to help us achieve that ambition."Zeidan said: "The media landscape in this region has changed significantly over the past few years. Audiences are more fragmented, platforms are multiplying and clients are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the value of their investments. I believe the opportunity is to move beyond treating media as a standalone discipline and make it an integral part of how brands approach their business challenges."9Yards has an interesting proposition, with strategy, creative, PR, and media capabilities coming together under one roof. My focus will be on building a media function that combines strong strategic thinking, data-led planning and commercial discipline, while creating the right foundations to support our clients and the agency's ambitions as we grow across the region."9Yards Communications sits under the recently established 9Yards Holding as the group’s flagship integrated marketing, advertising, events, public relations, media production, and media buying firm. The group is led by Group CEO Hussam Almulhem, who founded the 9Yards Communications agency in 2017.Under his leadership, this homegrown, full-service agency has, in just a short period of time, grown from an initial 10-person team to now employing over 160 people with both a regional and international footprint.