In August 2005, Tarek Ayntrazi, the Starcom Group’s Middle East chief executive, left the media-buying arm of Leo Burnett after 15 years with the company, to head up Future TV (FTV), taking over from Nadim Munla, now an economic advisor within the Future Movement. Not only was the new position a challenge in the sense that Ayntrazi was moving to another branch of the media equation, he had been handed the reins of a TV station that had been pushed to the forefront of the struggle for a new, independent Lebanon. In this exclusive interview with Executive’s editor, Michael Karam, Ayntrazi talks of his ambition to consolidate the financial fortunes of Future TV and the inherent challenges that go with preserving the station’s core values of responsible broadcasting to Lebanon and the region. E Your previous employers called the time of your leaving a “transitional period.” Was it a good
