CEOGirl Effect
Launched over a decade ago and championed by the Nike Foundation in collaboration with the NoVo Foundation, United Nations Foundation and multiple partners, Girl Effect aims to transform how the world views and values the 250 million girls living in extreme poverty. The global organisation harnesses media and technology to inspire girls and fuel their ability to demand better services and more opportunities. Girl Effect has pioneered the creation of powerful brands rooted in local culture that counter negative social norms.
In September 2015, the organisation became a multi-funded, independent entity and appointed Farah as its first CEO to lead Girl Effect’s next phase of growth with funding commitments secured from private sector, philanthropists and institutional partners.
Farah has 27 years’ experience running market-leading businesses in the global creative industries, spanning advertising, TV and film content, as well as media and technology.
Between 2012-2014 she served as CEO of All3Media Britain’s largest Independent television production group operating through 19 subsidiary companies based in the UK, USA, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
Previously, Farah had a 25 year career in advertising, 22 of them spent in AMV BBDO, rising through the ranks of Britain’s largest and most creatively successful advertising agency (a subsidiary of Omnicom Group), to become CEO in 2005. She joined the BBDO Worldwide Board in New York City in 2007.
She serves on the Board of Trustees of Save the Children and the National Theatre, sits on the Advisory Board of the Cambridge Judge Business School and has served on the British Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group.
She graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, with a joint honors degree in modern languages. She has completed the Omnicom sponsored Advanced Management Executive Education programme at Babson Graduate College, Boston.