Rihab Abouzaki

Rihab Abouzaki grew up surrounded by journalists, broadcasters, and professionals whose work shaped public conversation across the Middle East. That environment exposed her early to media, strategy, and how ideas move through a culture, but she chose a different route. When she left for Dubai, she was intent on building her own career, starting in an entry-level data-entry role and working her way into design, branding, and cross-border business.

Over the next two decades, she moved through FMCG, manufacturing, and luxury goods across the Gulf. In the UAE, she helped introduce Dettol’s first consumer antibacterial wipes, taking them from medical settings into everyday households. At Marico, she managed regional brand strategy for Parachute, strengthening its presence with Arabic consumers. She later led a full-scale China–Dubai manufacturing operation producing metal gifts, special-edition products, and B2B jewelry and accessory lines for Middle Eastern clients.

Now based in Portland, Oregon, Rihab is the Advertising Manager and Creative Director at This N That Communications, a media and advertising company producing campaigns for clients across the GCC. Her work focuses on helping tourism boards, luxury travel brands, and real estate developers in the UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia reach US and other Western audiences, a task that, in practice, is far more complex than placing English-language ads from abroad.

Rihab is candid about how GCC governments are investing billions in tourism and real estate, how proxy layers and platform filters distort “reach” metrics, and why US-based buyers or travelers often never see Gulf-funded campaigns at all. With bilingual teams, US-based media operations, and lived experience across both regions, she brings a grounded perspective on what it actually takes for GCC capital, culture, and campaigns to land with Western audiences.