Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K) is delighted to announce that it has expanded its Middle East Sports Practice team with two new hires on-the-ground across the region. Most significant of these is the appointment of Nicola Milan, who joins the team as a Senior Consultant currently based in Doha, Qatar.

Nicola has a notable and prestigious sports background, and brings extensive experience in the field, particularly in bidding for and organising Olympic and Paralympic Games. She worked as Assistant to Sebastian Coe CH, KBE, Chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee, for eight years, first joining the Organising Committee during the Bid phase in 2004 and working right through the Games and until March 2013. Sebastian Coe indeed references her in his autobiography, Running My Life (November 2012): Nicola Milan has seen me through the day job with unfailing good humour.

Following her involvement in the 2012 London Olympics she moved to Istanbul in 2013, working for Hasan Arat, Leader of the Istanbul 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games Bid. Nicola studied Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Birmingham in the UK and has a life-long passion for sport.

Commenting on her appointment, Stephen Reid, Director of Sports Marketing for H+K across the Middle East, stated: Over the past five years weve developed a dedicated regional sports and entertainment team to service the specific needs of leading global sports brands and event organisers. We partner with those who want to work with passionate sporting communication professionals as we understand exactly what it takes to sell out events, support new products, grow sports at grassroots and manage sporting heroes from around the region and world.

We are as ambitious as the athletes weve worked with, which includes the likes of Rory McIlory, Novak Djokovic, Nasser Al Attiyah and Majed Bougherra. In light of this, were thrilled to bring such a seasoned professional as Nicola on board and further expand our dedicated sports personnel on-the-ground throughout the region. Nicola obviously brings an enormous wealth of knowledge and understanding in sports, as well as strong relationships with a wide range of international sporting organisations, event committees, government departments and ministers. She comes aboard ahead of our busiest and most exciting autumn for the sports team to date.

Nicola Milan comments: I am absolutely delighted to join such a passionate and professional team as H+Ks Middle East Sports Practice. The Middle East has become a
true sporting hub in recent years and is placing huge focus on developing sport at all levels. It is a very exciting time to have moved to the region and I am very much looking forward to bringing my knowledge and experience to a new sports culture.

Shrief Fadl also joins the Sports team as a Consultant. An Egyptian national with a passion for track and field events, Shrief was previously a Copy Editor and Copywriter for The Cairo Post, working closely with the papers sports journalists and assigning stories and editing copy on the local and regional sports scene. Shrief brings first class Arabic capabilities as well as strong experience of the Middle East in general, having lived in Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon and the UAE.

H+K has an impressive Sports Practice in the Middle East and is trusted advisor to many of the industrys high profile sponsors and sports organisations in the region. Clients include adidas, Porsche, Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, Flash Entertainment, HSBC Golf, Qatar Olympic Committee, Oman Sail Sail Arabia The Tour, Mubadala World Tennis Championship, FINA World Swimming Championships and the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).