Media personality Kris Fade and marketing executive Sarah Omolewu have launched KS Konnect, a Dubai-based platform aimed at connecting global sports and entertainment intellectual property with governments, brands and institutions across the Gulf, as the region accelerates investment in culture, tourism and live events.
The company enters a market where Gulf states, led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, are spending heavily to position themselves as global hubs for sports, entertainment and creative industries as part of broader economic diversification plans.
KS Konnect said it will focus on sourcing and activating international talent, high-value sports and entertainment IP, and culturally aligned storytelling initiatives that support national development strategies in the Middle East.
Fade, one of the UAE’s most recognisable media figures, rose to prominence after launching Virgin Radio Dubai in 2007 and hosting The Kris Fade Show, which became the region’s top-rated radio programme. He has since expanded his profile through television, live events and the Netflix reality series Dubai Bling, and is also the founder of local snack brand Fade Fit.
“What’s happening in the Middle East right now is unprecedented,” Fade said in a statement, pointing to rising global interest in the region’s sports, entertainment and cultural sectors. KS Konnect, he said, was created to connect global talent and IP with local audiences in a way that can also travel internationally.
Omolewu, who relocated to the UAE from the United States more than a decade ago, previously founded Maven Marketing and Events, working on some of the region’s early large-scale celebrity and entertainment marketing campaigns. Her projects included the DMCC Kobe Bryant Health and Fitness Weekend, high-profile film premieres, and celebrity-led tourism promotions for Dubai. She was also involved in early international speaker programming in Saudi Arabia ahead of the kingdom’s cultural opening.
More recently, Omolewu founded Access Abu Dhabi, a programme developed with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to support international companies – particularly women- and minority-led firms – expanding into the UAE.
“Governments and institutions across the region are actively seeking global IP, talent and storytelling capabilities that support economic growth and cultural ambition,” Omolewu said. “KS Konnect exists to meet that demand at scale.”
The company said it has already secured early partnerships, including a collaboration with The Sustainable City Dubai, a net-zero urban development, and involvement in a regional promotional campaign with Disney and National Geographic, producing Middle East premiere events for Pole to Pole with Will Smith.
KS Konnect also announced a strategic partnership with the International Sports and Entertainment Zone (ISEZA), a free zone cluster under the Dubai World Trade Center focused on sports and entertainment businesses. Under the agreement, KS Konnect will act as ISEZA’s official talent and IP agency partner, supporting the attraction and activation of global sports and entertainment projects in Dubai.
Fade said the venture was an evolution rather than a reinvention. “The region’s biggest cultural and entertainment stories are still being written,” he said.
