Fahad Qadir, Director Public Affairs and Communications of Coca-Cola Pakistan, has been selected as one of 40 young professionals under age 40 from across Asia-Pacific, for this year’s “40 under 40” list of Asia Pacific’s next generation of leadership by Campaign Asia-Pacific, a premium online publishing unit of Haymarket Publishing, the UK’s largest independently owned publishing group. It is for the very first time that a Pakistani has made it to this prestigious annual listing. This accolade is even more significant in light of the fact that this year, there was double the number of entries as compared to last year, including all types of marketing and communications professionals. A record number of 1500 nominations were received this year from which the brightest, high-achieving young people in the marketing communications business were chosen.
Writing about Fahad’s selection, Campaign Asia-Pacific stated, “Like the bubbles in a carbonated drink, Fahad Qadir is rising fast. Handpicked by top brass at Coca-Cola Pakistan in 2007 to join the company, Qadir started out as the manager of public affairs and communications and was promoted a few years later to his current position as director of the same function. Now, he leads stakeholder engagement on an ongoing basis with the government, media, social groups, customers and partners.”
It goes on further to state, “Managing corporate and brand public strategies, the 36-year old is also heading the company’s CSR portfolio. His focus is on water replenishment, women empowerment, and waste management. In partnership with United Nations Development Programme, Coca-Cola Pakistan has become water positive, putting back more water into nature than it uses in its business. Qadir is also pushing to establish an industry association to find sustainable solutions for management of plastic waste, especially PET bottles.”
With his selection in the 2019 ’40 Under 40’ list, Fahad not only brings pride to The Coca-Cola Company but also to Pakistan. Some other notable winners this year include Ian Loon (Managing Director, Starcom, Singapore), Nicola Eliot (Director BBC Storyworks APAC, BBC Global News Ltd, Singapore) and Jenny Gao (Vice President Strategy & Brand Planning, Ogilvy, China).
Providing insights and intelligence into the ideas, work and personalities shaping the region’s marketing-communications industry, Campaign Asia-Pacific dives deeper into important subjects and presents the most compelling information that matters to businesses in the fastest-growing and most exciting communications market in the world. It serves the marketing elite, those that are pushing creative advertising and communications to new boundaries, redefining brand experiences through multiple touch-points, both on and offline.
Campaign Asia-Pacific’s editorial focus investigates the ideas, work and personalities shaping the marketing communications and events industry. It dives deeper into the most important subjects and presents the most compelling, brave and game-changing work from across the globe.
