Nadim Sadek

Nadim Sadek (born October 1962) is a UK-based, Irish-Egyptian marketing-entrepreneur. Sadek became a Director of Burns Sadek Research and founded Sadek Wynberg Research that was sold to WPP as Sadek Wynberg Millward Brown. He served as Global CEO of Millward Brown's Qualitative Network, and later as Worldwide Commercial & Strategy Director at Research International. He created the Inish Turk Beg brand, based on the values of the eponymous island, Inish Turk Beg. He sold the island in 2013, while keeping the intellectual property rights to the brand and businesses he established. He was Founder & CEO at brand management consultancy, TransgressiveX, based in London, specialising in developing business value through brands, particularly employing a contemporary iteration of Social Exchange Theory. This relaunched in June 2019 as proquo ai, the world's first and only automated brand management platform. Sadek continues as Founder & CEO of the business. He is also Chairman of Tryangle, a training and facilitation social-enterprise, Artist Manager of Shaefri at Off The Record Ltd, and Executive Producer & Presenter at Boss Bikes Club.

Beginnings

Growing up in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Malaysia, Indonesia and Barbodos, Sadek attended St Columba's College in Dublin from 1975–1980, before reading Mental & Moral Science for one year, then 4 years of Pure Psychology, at Trinity College, Dublin, from 1980-1985, from where he graduated with a BA Moderatorship.

Career

A career in market research began in 1985 at Lansdowne Market Research in Dublin, before he moved to London with his friend, Brian Pullman, remarking at the time that they were “like generations of other Irish emigrants, catching the boat to the mainland” to seek their fortune. Sadek became a Director of Burns Research Partners, renamed Burns Sadek Research two years later, a boutique qualitative research firm. After 7 years there, Mr Sadek founded Sadek Wynberg Research in Kensington in 1993, with Rebecca Wynberg. 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 bringing together many of the acquisitions made by the group into a coherent network offering common standards across a wide geography, before taking up the role of Worldwide Commercial & Strategy Director at Research International, a company operating in 52 countries. n this position, his responsibility was to make the organisation more efficient, and renew its intellectual capital base with innovation and renovation of existing and new services.

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. The island was a 63-acre sheep grazing piece of land when acquired, and 10 years later, Sadek had installed an all-weather access system on the island (and an associated mainland farm he bought to have a 'foul-weather base' and Connemara Pony Stud), a sewage system, roads, 5 homes, a Boatyard, fuel storage facilities, and numerous agricultural buildings. Fields were reconfigured with drainage and new planting. 10,000 trees were planted to reassert the traditionally wooded nature of the island. In addition, the island was connected by under-ocean electricity and water supplies, but investments were made in extensive solar-panel power and the burying of all utilities. The Inish Turk Beg brand spoke of ‘living life at a tilt’ and encompassed a luxury rental destination, a Connemara Pony Stud, a smoked fish line distributed throughout Ireland and the UK, Art Residencies and Exhibitions, a number-one listed music album ‘The Brilliant Irish Flute’, and ‘Maiden Voyage’ a single-malt Irish Whiskey, which has gone on to win industry awards. In 2013, a further whiskey bottling was made 'Chief Islander's Choice' to celebrate Celtic Whiskey Shop's 10 Anniversary. The brand also won a global 'Mobius' for best new brand, selected from almost 5,000 entries from 36 countries, in 2010.

The company that owned Inish Turk Beg went into receivership in 2012 and the island was put up for sale. Mr Sadek retains all the assets of the island, including the Intellectual Property Rights to the Inish Turk Beg brand. The whiskey business continues to be active. In a statement to the Irish Independent on 11 February 2013, Mr Sadek said: "Having travelled the world, I am certain that Inish Turk Beg is one of the most beautiful places on earth. It inspires, intoxicates, enlivens. Those who come after me benefit from a decade of loving investment, building and imagining. They will not be able to repeat that, for the place is now transformed, but they can love it as I have done. I wish them well. The island and the sea have taught me many things, among which is that some journeys are orbital and you never know when you might end up back where you started again."

Sadek is Chairman of Tryangle, a training and facilitation social-enterprise, whose purpose is to improve the lives of its clients by enabling them to have better job prospects, life coping skills and opportunities for constructive socialisation through sport.

His principal activity is as Founder & CEO at the world's only automated brand management platform, proquo ai, headquartered in London, with offices in Philadelphia and Johannesburg. This brings 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 £500 per month. TransgressiveX 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.

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). Mr Sadek also featured on RTÉ's long-running Late Late Show (September, 2011).

He is Executive Producer & Presenter at Boss Bikes Club, a Youtube review channel focused on the world of motorcycling.

Further involvement in the music industry came as co-manager of Shaefri, awarded Best New Singer-Songwriter, 2012 by the Irish Entertainment Awards, and tipped as ‘number one new act to follow’ in Hot Press's ‘Hot for 2012’ listing. Cracks, her 2017 EP has enjoyed more than 1 million listens. Her follow-up EP, 'Girl' has enjoyed rave reviews from The Sunday Times, Hot Press, Line of Best Fit, Ox Magazine, Earmilk, amongst others. This included signing a publishing deal with WSongs, a division of Warner.

In November, 2013 Mr Sadek presented a TEDx Talk in London, featuring his views on how interactions in life can be understood through an analysis of what he calls 'exchange', powered by the notions of seduction and persuasion. This thinking, now developed with Machine Learning and AI, is at the heart of proquo ai.

On RTÉ Radio 1's The Business Programme, during September 2014, presenter Richard Curran interviewed Mr Sadek about his career, stretching from Lansdowne Market Research in Dublin, and in London to Burns Research Partners, Sadek Wynberg Research, Millward Brown, Research International, WPP, Inish Turk Beg and TransgressiveX. During the interview, it was clear that global banking strategy, including a turn away from Euro-denominated assets in "delinquent markets" such as Ireland, had caused the interruption of the Inish Turk Beg brand. Meanwhile, "necessity is the mother of invention" was proven by the creation and commercial success of TransgressiveX, which culminated in the launch of proquo ai, colliding the worlds of neuroscience, technology and SaaS business models: it is operating globally.

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

Personal life

Sadek was born to an Egyptian father (Fernando Habib Sadek 1928-2005) who worked as an epidemiologist with the World Health Organisation and Irish mother (Marie Celine Meehan from Limerick city, born 1927) 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. Sadek 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, Searsha (b. 1991), Shaefri (b. 1993), Sean (b. 1997) and Oisin (b. 2004). They live in London.