Nadim Sadek (born October 1962) is a UK-resident, Irish-Egyptian
marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
-entrepreneur and published author.
Sadek was born to an
Egyptian
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
father (Fernando Habib Sadek 1928–2005) who worked as an
epidemiologist
Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and risk factor, determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population.
It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decision ...
with the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
and
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
mother (Marie Celine Meehan from
Limerick
Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...
city, born 1927) who worked as a nurse then teacher. Sadek was educated and lived around the world in
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
,
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
,
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
,
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
,
Antigua
Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...
and
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. He has an older brother (Anis, b. 1955 - retired Managing Partner of Deloitte) and sister (Elizabeth, b. 1951 - retired teacher in Angers, France). He married Sandra O’Malley (b. 1959) in 1989 and they have four children. They live in London.
His working-life incorporates several start-ups as well as running global network businesses. He has combined interests in areas as diverse as psychology, market research, brand management, Artificial Intelligence, technology, Software-as-a-Service, music, food, motorcycles, whiskey, marine services and charity. He is also a published author.
The initial phase of his career was in market research. This was followed by creation of the Inish Turk Beg brand, based on the values of the eponymous island, Inish Turk Beg off the west coast of Ireland. Sadek's next career phase was as Founder & CEO of brand management consultancy, TransgressiveX, based in London, which was rebranded as ProQuo AI. Sadek then founded Shimmr AI, an AI-native business producing AI-advertising to put long-tail products 'into the limelight'. Combining AI, technology, psychology, advertising, media and publishing expertise, this multi-domain technology has been first mobilised in book publishing where Sadek speaks of "helping hidden gems of human creativity sparkle in the limelight". Most recently he has written about AI in book published by Forbes Books.
Career
After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, with a degree in Pure Psychology, Sadek embarked on a career in
market research
Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Mark ...
beginning in 1985 at Lansdowne Market Research in Dublin, before he moved to London. Sadek became a Director of Burns Research Partners, renamed Burns Sadek Research two years later, a boutique qualitative research firm. After 7 years there, he founded Sadek Wynberg Research in Kensington in 1993. SWR conducted research for the development of brands and communications for many of the world's blue-chip companies, including
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
,
Bacardi
Bacardi Limited (; ) is one of the largest privately held, family-owned spirits companies in the world. Originally known for its Bacardi brand of white rum, it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels. Founded in Cuba in 1862 an ...
Global Brands,
Kimberly-Clark
Kimberly-Clark Corporation is an American multinational personal care corporation that produces mostly paper-based consumer products. The company manufactures sanitary paper products and surgical & medical instruments. Kimberly-Clark brand n ...
,
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...
and
Sony Ericsson
Sony Mobile Communications Inc. ( ja, ソニーモバイルコミュニケーションズ株式会社) was a multinational telecommunications company founded on October 1, 2001, as a joint venture between Sony Group Corporation and Ericsson. I ...
. The firm grew to be the largest of its kind in the UK by 2000 and the world by 2003, whereupon it was sold to WPP, becoming Sadek Wynberg Millward Brown
Sadek became Global Leader of Millward Brown's Qualitative Network for the next three years before taking up the role of Worldwide Commercial & Strategy Director at
Research International
Research International was a British-based international marketing research company, created in 1962 as a daughter company of Unilever and originally known as Research Bureau Limited, RBL.Inish Turk Beg, off the coast of Ireland which he had purchased in 2003. He built businesses in whiskey, music, food, hospitality and a Connemara Pony stud, winning a global Mobius prize as 'best new brand'
Sadek then founded and served as CEO at ProQuo AI, headquartered in London, with offices in Philadelphia, New York and Johannesburg. It brought together breakthrough learning in neuroscience from its human sciences team, application of new technology through its machine sciences team, and the use of a software-as-a-service business model, creating subscription services to manage brands, for £1000 per month. The business formerly known as TransgressiveX specialised in developing business value through brands, particularly employing a contemporary iteration of
Social Exchange Theory
Social exchange theory is a sociological and psychological theory that studies the social behavior in the interaction of two parties that implement a cost-benefit analysis to determine risks and benefits. The theory also involves economic relation ...
. It was appointed globally on Unilever's business in 2015. Further successes with clients such as KCF and the launch of an innovative quantitative research framework for brands resulted in TransgressiveX being nominated as one of 2016's top disruptive marketing brands. This relaunched in June 2019 as ProQuo AI an enterprise software business offering marketing action plans built by AI. After building its recurring revenues to several million dollars, it was sold to private equity.
In 2022, he founded Shimmr AI that he leads as CEO. As an AI-native business, using specialised large language models and diffusion models, plus a media deployment engine, it's a multi-domain technology to disrupt the advertising industry. It enables long-tail products, previously uneconomical to advertise, to be publicised. Its initial focus is upon Book Publishing.
In 2023, Forbes Books globally published his book in English, 'Shimmer, don't Shake - how Publishing can embrace AI', which is also published in all other languages by Mensch Publishing.
In the Media
Mr Sadek's increasing breadth of activity led to him featuring on the launch series of ''
The Secret Millionaire
''The Secret Millionaire'' is a reality television show which originated in the UK, in which millionaires go incognito into impoverished communities and agree to give away tens of thousands of pounds (or tens of thousands of dollars in the US and ...
'' in Ireland, screened by
RTÉ
(RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...
(October 2011), and Channel 4, followed up by a ‘Look-back’ episode screened by RTÉ (October 2012),
which saw him return to the groups he had benefacted,
Cork Institute of Technology
Cork Institute of Technology (CIT; ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Chorcaí) was an institute of technology, located in Cork, Ireland. Upon its dissolution, the institute had 17,000 students studying in art, business, engineering, music, dram ...
's Cork Academy of Music (socially-inclusive music education), Cois Tine (welcome and pastoral care for refugees and asylum seekers), Rebel Wheelers (competitive sports for disabled children), and Cork Penny Dinners (nourishment without judgment). In 2020, Forbes focused on how ProQuo AI was transforming marketing, especially for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, through the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, led by Sadek. In June 2023, GallantCEO published a profile of him as a CEO.
Mr Sadek also writes occasional features, such as on the topic of
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...