Louay Al Samarrai is a British national and a resident of Dubai, a place he has called home for over 20 years. He is an Associate Member, Chartered Institute of Public Relations, UK and Chairman of the Arabian Public Relations Network. After completion of his education in England in 1989, he worked in the fields of import and export, film production, and travel and tourism. He then moved to Kuwait for five years; five difficult years as Louay describes it; however he learned and benefitted a lot from the experience.

BondPR International has inked a string of joint ventures as part of a plan to set up 10 new offices across the globe.The agency, which recently won global lead duties for serviced office provider Regus' PR programme, has identified a number of local agencies which it will set up joint ventures with. These include Argentina's Mazalan, Dubai's Active PR and Priority Consultants in Singapore.

Dubai-based Active PR has sought to find a viable solution to offer services across the region, and has launched the Arabian PR Network (APRN). The network, which is planning to launch it website by end of January, aims to compete with international agencies that affiliate with regional PR agencies to offer local experience, or set up offices in different markets across the Middle East.

Sawsan Ghanem, Managing Director of Active PR, carries a Bachelors degree of Science in Chemistry and Management from London, and a Masters degree in International Business from Webster Graduate University. She is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, UK and has won an award for Most Admirable Woman Entrepreneur Award Winner in 2008. As a result of working in PR, the skills she has gained have stood her in good stead in her career in Public Relations – strong memory, analytical, attention to detail, multi-tasking an a wide range of tasks at any one time, researching & asking the right questions at the right time.

As a network of independent PR agencies, the APRN is a new concept for the region. Can the alliance of local consultancies square up to international giants? Last month three PR agencies - Active PR from Dubai, 4PR from Cairo, and MPR from Riyadh - came together to form the Arabian Public Relations Network (APRN).