User:Mohammed Tayem/sandbox

Mohammed Ali Tayem (born 09 June 1977), is a serial entrepreneur from Jordan, CEO and Founder of entourage marketing and events. He founded entourage in Dubai in 2009 amidst global financial crisis. Entourage now has offices in Dubai, Riyadh and Jordan and plans on further expanding its regional footprint. Other brands under Tayem’s belt are en+, a full-fledged production house, Karamteena - a Levant restaurant in Dubai, Zwadeh - premium catering label and Tsawaq - the only e-commerce platform in Palestine. Tayem wants to focus on providing quality education in Jordan and therefore, plays an important role on the board of the British International Academy as one of the owners - one of the few IB curriculum-based schools for girls in Amman – Jordan.

Before beginning his entrepreneurial journey, Tayem worked with renowned regional and international brands such as Hyatt international, Orange telecom, Etisalat and DAMAC International, to name a few. His astute sense of business and keen eye for value creation always compelled him to think like an entrepreneur. He was always felt a strong pull towards entrepreneurship and took the leap in 2009.

Entourage, soon after it came into being, reaped the benefits of Tayem’s very capable leadership as the company was recognized at the M.E. Event Awards and MENA Effie, the most prestigious industry awards in the region. Entourage has seen a slew of success in the last decade including winning the prestigious SME100 twice by the Dubai Economic Department, the latest 2015 awards ranked entourage at No.19 among the top 100 companies in Dubai. In addition to this, entourage has also been acknowledged at the EFFIE Awards MENA, Dubai Lynx, MEPRA awards, Middle East Event Awards, and EACA Care Awards. The success marathon did not stop there as entourage also holds the Guinness World Records for executing some of the most unique campaigns in the region. The latest feather in Tayem’s cap is making entourage a part of TGW, an international group with offices in New York and London. Mohammed has personally consulted the leadership of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation to create and host the landmark Knowledge Summit for the first time in 2014 and since then, entourage has been responsible to make it bigger and stronger year after year. He is the creative brain behind the landmark Egypt Tourism campaign “Wahashtoona” and “Misr Orayba” that helped Egypt regain its market share in regional tourism landscape. Entourage is the proud partner of Prime Minister’s Office in hosting the World Government Summit, UAE’s top ranked event for three years. As a veteran in the event marketing industry, Mohammed Tayem was roped in as a board member of International Live Event Association. His role as a board member entailed working closely with the UAE Government, especially Dubai Chamber of Commerce to establish rules and regulations for event agencies and professionals in the country.

Tayem has managed to quintuple entourage’s growth in the last decade, while steadily diversifying his portfolio across the region. Entourage, today, works with some of the biggest names in the industry, vis-à-vis Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, Discovery Networks International, the Prime Minister’s Office of the UAE, the Crowne Prince Office of Saudi, Monsha’at – the general authority of SMEs and E-commerce in KSA, Snapchat in Saudi, Deloitte, ADNOC, UNDP and the Egypt government.

Early Professional Life:

Mohammed is a Jordanian national and grew up in Amman. He attended high school at Al Orouba Schools. He graduated in 1999 from Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan with a Bachelor’s degree in Business administration. Immediately after graduating, he started working with Orange in Amman. From there, he moved to an international hospitality chain, Grand Hyatt where he worked for 2 years. Later, he joined Xpress Telecom for two years before moving to the UAE. Mohammed came to Dubai in 2005, looking to fuel his hunger to grow his career. At the time, he was employed with Etisalat. After a successful stint at Etisalat, he joined a renowned real estate developer in the country, DAMAC Properties and stayed with the company for 2 years. His last stint before founding entourage was a UK Investment company specializing in Real Estate, where he served as the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales.

Personal Life:

Mohammed Tayem is married to Elham Al Nabulsi and the couple has three children; Tala Tayem, Sarah Tayem and Aoun Tayem.

Humanitarian Initiatives:

Tayem has been associated with many charitable causes over the years, having worked with Red Crescent, Du CSR, Dubai Cares, Adnoc CSR to name a few. Tayem pledged support to Palestine Children’s Relief Fund campaign to build hospitals in Palestine and the Dubai Autism Centre.

Entourage has been working with many charitable organisations over the years as a marketing communications partner at 50% of the cost, to help and support their initiatives and maximize their impact on the community.

Being an entrepreneur himself, Tayem actively seeks opportunities to coach and guide young entrepreneurs through his experience in starting and sustaining successful businesses. In 2015, he became an executive member of Young Arab Leaders, in a bid to guide and help entrepreneurs. Since then, he has participated in many events held in order to provide direction to young entrepreneurs in the region, conducted workshops and discussion forums with aspiring entrepreneurs in the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Jordan.