Walid Harfouch

Walid Harfouch is the Head of Euronews in various countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. He is also the President of the Coordination Council of the Ukrainian version of Euronews. In 2001, he was appointed as the first goodwill ambassador of the United Nations, as commissioned to fight the Sida in Ukraine. He founded the public association “SOS Racism!” Nowadays, he is one of the most well known personalities of show business in Ukraine. He has worked with his brother Omar Harfouch to organize international beauty pageants, such as Elite Model Look and Miss Europe. He is the founder of one of the first Ukrainian FM radio stations, “Super-Nova”. He is also, along with his brother Omar Harfouch, the editor of the magazine “PaparaZZI”.
He was born on April 10, 1971 in Tripoli, Lebanon. His father, Mr. Adnan Harfouch, was a professor of Arabic literature, and his mother Najwa El Hajj was school director. He has one elder brother, Omar and one elder sister Hind.
In 1988, Walid Harfouch finished his education at the College Of Freres, and in 1990, his brother Omar invited him to come to Ukraine. Together, they were among the first people who came to reside in the city of Dnipro. In 1991, Walid Harfouch was admitted into the Faculty of Journalism at the State University of Dniepropetrovsk.

In 1995, Walid Harfouch and his brother Omar left Dniepropetrovsk and went to Kyiv, where they founded one of the first FM radio stations, “Super-Nova”

The collaboration with RFI (Radio France International ) has allowed them to appear on Supernova in various broadcasts and radio news in French, English and Arabic, as well as Russian and Ukrainian. The station collaborated directly with the French Institute in Ukraine, as well as the French embassy in Ukraine. Super-Nova broadcast live coverage of the Cannes Film International Festival. At one point, Super –Nova broadcast the program “Depoutatsky tchas” (“The hour of Deputies”) where a lot of representatives of the Ukrainian parliament participated. All these activities allowed Walid to become a quasi-celebrity in the public eye.

Between 1998-2000, Walid Harfouch, along with his brother Omar Harfouch represented the interests of the Elite agency in Ukraine. They became the official organizers of the international competition known as Elite Model Look.

In 2002, Walid Harfouch and his brother founded their own internet beauty competition, Miss@NetWorld. In 2006, they acquired the rights to Miss Europe. That same year, in Kiev, the international final of the competition was broadcast in more than 20 countries in the world.

At the end of that year, they founded a new competition “Miss CEI," with contestants from the Balkan countries and the CIS. The competition became a popular television program.

In 1995, the first public action “A girl for Boy" was organized by Walid Harfouch's station, Super –Nova, with the assistance of Ukrainian artists, with the goal of providing an elephant in a Ukrainian zoo named Boy a mate. The funds raised allowed the transport of a female from Germany to the Kiev zoo.

In 2000, Walid Harfouch became the first goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations, commissioned to fight SIDA in Ukraine. He was responsible for the creation and installation of a bronze statue to commemorate of the SIDA victims. It was inaugurated in 2001, in Kiev, by Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations. Due to this event, the song “Protect the life”, produced by Walid Harfouch and composed by his brother Omar Harfouche, became known as the anthem to fight SIDA in Ukraine.

In 2007 Walid Harfouch has created the public association known as “SOS! Racism!” and became its secretary general.

“SOS! Racism!” was responsible for many public events, such as "The Anti-Racism March", which was characterized by its great number of participants and caused debate in Ukraine. Due to this march, “SOS! Racism!” has prepared, with the support of Ukrainian deputy Anna German, a new bill to harden penalties for racism, anti-semitism, and xenophobia.

In 2003 Walid and Omar Harfouch began editing the magazine “PaparaZZI”. In 2005, the magazine published a scandalous article concerning the expenses of Andrey Ioustchenko, son of the Ukrainian president at the time.

In 2005, Walid Harfouch published a book, ” Sex Murder and Millions “at Gallimard-Edition Folio.

In 2002 Walid founded a public relations agency known as BTL or Super Nova Agency, which organized various large-scale publicity campaigns. The agency's clients includeHotel Premier Palace, Coca-Cola, the Yalta life rally, Red Bull, etc. One of the organizations' main activities was lobbying and public relations for large clients in Europe.

Due to his public active life, Walid Harfouch has appeared in many television programs and talk shows. In 2008, he became an editor for the program “Shuster Live”, starring Savik Shuster. In 2006, he played a small role in the film “Stariki Pokovinly", produced by known Ukrainian Andrey Benkendorf.

In August 2007, he was appointed as a general producer of the television channel TET. From August 2009 to February 2010, Walid Harfouch was head of the foreign press department for the candidate, and later president, of Ukraine, Victor Ianoukovytch. From April 2010 to June 2013, he was appointed as a vice president of NTU, the first Ukrainian television channel. Since October 2010, Walid Harfouch is the President of Coordination Council of the Ukrainian version of Euronews. As of June 2013, Walid Harfouch is the Head of Euronews in various CIS countries.

In August 2011, he started up the Ukrainian version of Euronews with the support of the vice prime minister of Ukraine, Borys Kolesnikov, with the advice of Ukrainian deputy Anna German.