New Adham Center Associates Represent Range of Arab Satellite TV

MAY 15, 2000  With the appointment of three prominent professionals—Gulf DTH/Showtime CEO Peter Einstein, Executive Director of Orbit productions in Egypt Tarek El Kashef, and Director of Production for the ART network Milad Bessada—as Adham Center Associates this year, the scope of the Associates now covers virtually all major bases in Arab satellite television.

This follows appointments over the last two years of ART President Sheikh Saleh Kamel, Orbit CEO Alexander Zilo, and Chris Forrester, a prominent journalist covering the broadcast industry.

Peter Einstein was appointed president and CEO of Gulf DTH/Showtime in 1997, before which he spent 15 years with MTV Networks, most recently as president and business director of MTV Networks Europe. Under his leadership the audience of MTV Europe went from 17.5 households in 25 countries to over 61 million households in 38 countries. With Showtime, a direct-to-home digital satellite pay-TV service for the Middle East, Einstein holds overall responsibility for programming, marketing, sales and distribution, technical operations, and more.

During the award luncheon, Einstein announced the inauguration of two Showtime internships for outstanding graduates of the Adham Center. “The Adham Center is key in developing the rich pool of media talent in the Middle East,” Einstein said. “As the fastest growing regional pay-TV network delivering the best in Western entertainment for an Arabic audience, Showtime has a responsibility to help develop student’s skills and practical experience within a commercial media organization.”

Milad Bessada’s activities span over 30 years and a range of producing, directing and developing television programming and holding top executive positions in the industry in Canada, Italy, and Egypt. Bessada has for the past six years served at the highest levels of network authority in Arab Radio and Television (ART). He set up the entire Operations and Transmission system for the ART Broadcasting facility in Avezzano, Italy and trained the entire staff (many who were AUC graduates). Since his arrival back in Cairo in 1994 he has developed, produced, and directed some of the most successful programs on ART, and he also created the Live Production Unit which generates hours of daily live programming.

In a note of thanks to the center, Mr. Bessada said, "I have for many years admired the excellent training in television production provided by the Adham Center...Your graduates have assumed positions of leadership in the various fields and we now depend upon them to ensure the progress and success of many of the operations and production of the network."

Tarek El-Kashaf is an innovator in the field of broadcasting and entertainment in Egypt. He has introduced the international and professional format of field reporting into Orbit’s entertainment programming, and in doing so employed many Adham Center graduates. His accomplishments as a media pioneer go back to the late seventies when he designed, built and established the first multi-track sound recording studio in Egypt and the Middle East. His work as an innovative sound engineer and his personal contributions as a music producer revolutionized the way music was recorded and sound produced in the region, and he was to have a major impact on the Arab music, film, television and advertising industries. In the mid-eighties he was a partner in establishing one of the first complete video facilities in Egypt, and as such played a major role in changing the way TV commercials are produced. He applied these advertising techniques to Arabic music and introduced into the region the video clip format that was just beginning to be popularized in Europe by MTV.

Part of his programming included a Ramadan Special in which he introduced the concept of field reporting, done by Adham Center graduates, in the areas of entertainment, culture and the arts integrated into the daily three-hour packages. His commitment with Orbit to expand the team of Adham Center alumni producing these stories for a permanent three-hour daily program from Cairo breaks new ground in Arab broadcasting.