Dubai-based production outfit MFORMEDIA has named experienced MENA formats executive Ziad Kebbi as managing director, taking the lead on its transformation into an IP-based studio.
Khalil Homeissy and Ralph Matar, managing partners of the firm, will continue to drive group strategy and key relationships, with Kebbi enlisted to oversee operations and a growing production slate.
The company is billing the restructure as a reengineering of its operations to address the transformations in the content business. The move puts original IP development across non-scripted entertainment, scripted content, digital media, and AI-enabled production at the heart of its business.
Kebbi is a former MD of Endemol Middle East, president of Sony Pictures Television Arabia, and CEO of Talpa Middle East.
Matar commented, “Khalil and I have built this company on a simple promise: deliver, every time, at the highest standard. That promise earned us the trust of the region’s most demanding clients, and that trust is our foundation. Bringing Ziad in is how we honor it. You protect what you have built by preparing it for what comes next, and there is no one better prepared for what comes next than Ziad.”
Homeissy added, “This industry is moving faster than it ever has, and the companies that will lead it are the ones that combine deep production craft with real creative networks across the region and beyond. Ziad brings both. He has developed, sold, and delivered some of the biggest entertainment properties this market has seen. With him leading our operations and our slate, MFORMEDIA becomes something rare in this region: a company that can take an idea from first spark to screen, on any platform, at any scale.”
Kebbi stated, “What drew me to MFORMEDIA is what Khalil and Ralph have built: a real production company, with real delivery muscle and relationships earned over a decade. The region is living its most exciting chapter, and the next great wave of Arabic content will belong to those who can move across genres and platforms without compromising on craft. My focus is exactly that: building on this foundation to create, source and produce content across non-scripted, scripted, and digital, shaped by the tools and thinking of what is coming, not what has been. The best stories from this region have not been told yet. We intend to tell them.”
