Agency winners
Weber Shandwick MENAT dominated the evening with 26 wins, followed by Gambit Communications with 18 awards, securing their positions as leaders across popular categories. Weber Shandwick MENAT also claimed Large Agency of the Year, while Current Global MENAT was named Medium Agency of the Year, and The Romans took home Small Agency of the Year.

Individual honours
The Chairperson’s award was conferred upon Scott Armstrong (founder, Mentl) for accelerating mental health advocacy, whereas Brian Lott of Mubadala Investment Company won the Best Communicator of the Year. Tala Majzoub of HAVAS Red ME won the ‘Dave Robinson’ award for Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year, and Fathimath Nooha of Murdoch University won the Outstanding Student Campaign.

Kate Midttun, MEPRA Chairperson, commented, “MEPRA Awards has become a vital benchmark for recognising PR brilliance and exceptional talent in the Middle East’s PR and communications sector.  This has been a standout year for creative resilience, and work across the communications spectrum has been truly astounding. The honorees have showcased the power of PR to inform and engage, elevating the art of an insightful communications approach. Congratulations to all the winners tonight, and we would like to thank them for redefining excellence benchmarks, motivating the entire fraternity to gear up for the upcoming year.”

The 2025 awards were supported by Gambit Communications (Diamond Partner), TAQA (Platinum Partner), Weber Shandwick MENAT and CARMA (Gold Partners), along with Mubadala, Kibsons, SEC Newgate Middle East, Telum Media, Burson, Place Communications, First and Ten Productions, Current Global MENAT, Matrix Public Relations and AMEC.

View the full list of  2025 MEPRA winners here.

Pfizer has elevated Michelle Yuan Xiao to Director, China Communications. Based in Beijing, she oversees external and internal communications, including corporate, brand and digital functions.

Michelle has been with the biopharmaceutical company for over a decade and was most recently Associate Director of External Communications. Before moving in-house, she served as Beijing Healthcare team lead at Weber Shandwick.

Albert Shu has been appointed Chief Communications & Marketing Officer at SJ Group, a global urban, infrastructure and managed services consultancy. Based in Singapore, he will lead the Group’s communications and marketing functions across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, North America, Europe and Africa.

Albert brings three decades of international experience, including more than two decades with Weber Shandwick. He was previously President of the firm's Singapore and Hong Kong operations, where he oversaw their integration as a regional hub and advised clients on message development, corporate positioning, issues and crisis management, and stakeholder engagement.

Albert also served as Regional Head of Marketing and Communications for Deloitte Consulting in Asia Pacific and Africa, where he developed the firm’s marketing infrastructure and programmes across Australia, Greater China, South Korea, Southeast Asia and South Africa.