Who is Richard Attias?
Richard Attias is a Moroccan-born civil engineer with a Master’s degree in Mathematics. So he’s not the most likely candidate for becoming an event organizer, let alone one who has done so on a global scale. His working career actually started as a sales representative for IBM France, but within a few years he formed an events organizing agency during the 1990’s.
His company produced various global events including those for IBM conventions, the Egypt Economic Development Conference for the Egyptian Government, and Boris Yeltsin's visit to France. In 1998, he sold part of his company to Publicis. After leading various subsidiaries of Publicis, he moved to New York City in 2014 and became the Chairman of Publicis Events Worldwide. And in 2009, he left Publicis to again open his own firm Richard Attias and Associates, with offices in New York, London, Dubai, Rabat, and Paris. They work with organizations worldwide, both governmental and non-governmental, to plan events and help with global marketing.
In 2012, he formed the DOHA Goals Forum, an organized annual event bringing all sports leaders together to discuss ways of driving social and economic changes in the world. DOHA was launched during the 2012 Olympic Games in London and is already starting to have an impact with its initiatives. They are empowering people to create “roadmaps” for social improvement through sports. Top stakeholders involved in meeting, planning, and enacting the work include CEOs, athletes, urban developers, managers, coaches, medical experts, government officials, and federation heads.
