Campaign’s PR Faces to Watch 2020 – Sarah Abdelbary, Account director, Brunswick Group
Age: 25
Jeehan Dahman Balfaqaih, partner – head of Brunswick Dubai: In five years, and still at only 25 years old, Sarah has become a trusted advisor, managing multiple large clients across the Gulf. Sarah has a strong grasp of the GCC’s unique culture and understands the intricacies of the financial and business worlds. She is diligent, curious, thoughtful and a self-starter. These traits, mixed with exceptional writing skills in Arabic and English, and a natural talent to forge relationships with media and clients alike, put her on the path to become the youngest partner ever at Brunswick in the Gulf.
Career highlights
I started my journey with Brunswick in September 2015 as a trainee executive, after graduating from the American University of Sharjah. I was quite an active student who wanted to be part of everything. I had a part time job at the student affairs office, travelled to Dublin to represent AUS at the One Young World summit and was the recipient of the Active Student Scholarship in 2014. Embarking in a field I haven’t studied was a challenge I craved because it had me learning something new every day, whether it was dealing with a crisis, thinking creatively, or growing relationships.
Guiding principles
- Never assume.
- There are no stupid questions.
- Don’t seek work/life balance, it’s all about harmonising.
Learning these took a collective effort.
Dream job
A filmmaker. I like to travel with purpose, so making this a profession would involve documenting and profiling things that matter. To me, working with refugees would probably come at the top of the list. Exploring different places and meeting new people would absolutely be a sweet bonus.
Side hustle
I used to do freelance translation when I was in university. Now, I enjoy traveling, documenting my trips, and turning them into short doses of positive energy for people to watch on my social channels. I’m also a self-taught Adobe Premiere user in the making, working on elevating the quality of my videos.
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