Nadim Sadek

Nadim Sadek (born October 1962) is a UK-resident, Irish-Egyptian marketing-entrepreneur and published author.

Sadek was born to an Egyptian father (Fernando Habib Sadek 1928–2005) who worked as an epidemiologist with the World Health Organization and Irish mother (Marie Celine Meehan from Limerick city,1927-2016) who worked as a nurse then teacher. Sadek was educated and lived around the world in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Malaysia, Indonesia, Barbados, Antigua and Ireland. 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 founding 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, advertising, publishing, music, food, motorcycles, whiskey, marine services and charity. He is also a published author and frequent public speaker.

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', beginning with book publishing. 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 globally in English by Forbes Books and in all other languages by Mensch Publishing.

Career
After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, with a degree in Pure Psychology, Sadek embarked on a career in market research 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, Bacardi Global Brands, Kimberly-Clark, Vodafone and Sony Ericsson. 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, a company operating in 52 countries. This concluded his market research career.

Talking of ‘practising what I preach’ he then 'became a client' and created the Inish Turk Beg brand, based on the values of the eponymous island, 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. 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 May, 2024, Shimmr AI was awarded as UK AI StartUp of the Year, in London.

In the Media
Mr Sadek's increasing breadth of activity led to him featuring on the launch series of The Secret Millionaire in Ireland, screened by RTÉ (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'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. He has spoken publicly on the application of AI, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Bookseller's FutureBook conference, Riyadh Book Fair, Byte the Book, The Book Society, New Delhi World Book Fair, the Abu Dhabi Professional Congress for Creative Industries and at Publishing Scotland's annual conference. He contributes to many online platforms for podcasts and webinars. The Bookseller invited his predictions for the publishing industry in 2024, where he focused on AI and GenZ.

In February 2024, the UK's House of Lords published a report on AI to which Sadek contributed.

Mr Sadek also writes occasional features, such as on the topic of Brexit, general elections and brand management.