Simon Shaw Leaves King Salman Park For Advisory Work
Simon Shaw has left King Salman Park Foundation, stepping out of the chief communications and marketing officer role in Riyadh to work as an independent adviser.
- Outgoing role: chief communications and marketing officer, King Salman Park Foundation
- New position: independent adviser
- Previously: global chief creative officer at Burson, plus regional consulting across the Middle East
- Advisory focus: strategy, brand development, corporate reputation, creative transformation, communications and marketing
- Announced: through a post on LinkedIn
What The King Salman Park Brief Involved
King Salman Park is a major Riyadh urban development combining green space, cultural facilities, recreational attractions and community infrastructure under Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 programme.
Communications for a project of that kind is an unusual discipline. There is no product to sell for years, the audience includes residents, government stakeholders and international observers at the same time, and the thing being described does not physically exist yet. Shaw's summary of the tenure was about shaping the organisation's brand direction, strengthening its marketing and communications capability, and building a team for the next phase of development.
Why The Advisory Move Reads As Deliberate
The last of those three is the one that usually signals a planned exit rather than an abrupt one. A communications leader who has built the team meant to carry the next phase has, by definition, made themselves less necessary to it.
His background spans strategy, creativity and architecture, which is a combination that suits a built-environment client more than most agency careers do. Before the foundation he was global chief creative officer at Burson and consulted regionally across the Middle East, so the region is familiar ground rather than a posting. The advisory remit he has named covers strategy, brand development, corporate reputation, creative transformation, communications and marketing, which is broad enough to read as a deliberate return to consulting. More appointments.
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