Leila Hatoum

Founder of MENA Comms, Co-Founder of mideastwire.com

Leila is the Advisor to Caretaker PM of Lebanon for International Media Affairs. Founder, MD MENA Comms, a boutique strategy, communications, and crisis management agency. 

She is a Cross-board media expert (Print /TV / International Newswires) with adventures in the field spanning over 20 years (GCC, Levant & wider MENA region). Founder of The GCC Exchange. 

Co-founding partner of mideastwire.com and the Beirut Exchange program. Managing Editor, Newsweek Middle East. Macroeconomist for Dow Jones newswire, and The Wall Street Journal.

In addition, she has expertise in MC-ing, media training, consultancy, and strategizing. An OP-Ed writer for Sky News Arabia & Arab News. She is a Member of the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association and was a judge for the South Asian Journalists Association. In 2007, she was a member of the Public Information Office (PIO) United Nations interim forces in Lebanon. 

Among her many credentials she is a freelance writer, fixer, translator, documentary translator, and correspondent to a number of local and international media outlets including CNN TV, CBS TV & The Washington Post, to name a few. 

She covered Lebanon’s former PM Rafik Hariri’s assassination as well as a number of important conflict zones. 

Some of her top interviews include interviewing the UAE VP, PM Defense Minister & Dubai’s Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rahid Al Maktoum; Former Syrian VP and ex Acting Syrian resident Abdul Halim Khaddam; Princess Haya bint Al Hussein of Jordan and Former UK PM David Cameron, Plus many more. 

She is Fluent in Arabic and English.