Simon Shaw

Interviewed and written by Abeer Abdalla – Managing Editor | The Saudi Times

Under Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia is redefining how cities are lived, experienced, and remembered. King Salman Park sits at the heart of this transformation; a new civic landmark shaping the quality of life in Riyadh. As Chief Communications & Marketing Officer at the King Salman Park Foundation, Simon Shaw serves this endeavor by helping articulate the Park’s purpose to the world, ensuring it is communicated with clarity, integrity, and long-term responsibility.

Covering 17.2 square kilometers in the heart of Riyadh, King Salman Park is not simply an urban development. It is a generational reimagining of how people live, gather, and breathe in the city and one of the most ambitious city-making projects underway globally.

“King Salman Park is a national gift to the city of Riyadh and future generations,” said Shaw.  “Great cities are shaped by the places they give to people, and serving that vision is an honor.”

From Architecture to Systems Thinking
A global leader in brand, communication, and marketing, Shaw approaches communications as a strategic discipline designed to shape perception, culture, and long-term impact. His work is defined by systems thinking how brand, culture, creativity and trust interlock over time to drive relevance and influence. This perspective is further strengthened by his training as an architect, through which he blends architectural thinking with creative expertise to drive innovation and executional excellence.

Before Saudi Arabia, Shaw held senior global leadership roles as Global Chief Creative Officer at Burson and Global Chief Creative Strategy & Innovation Officer at Hill & Knowlton. Across the US, Europe, the Middle East, and China, he led transformation, marketing and communication programs for entities managing scale, complexity, and profound cultural change.

That experience is now applied in the service of a Saudi national project. At King Salman Park, Shaw is focused on ensuring an international perspective is balanced with deep respect for Saudi culture, ambition, and governance so that, when combined, they create something truly unique, never seen before, and that sets new global standards. 

Vision 2030, Communicated.
At King Salman Park, Shaw’s mandate aligns directly with Vision 2030: enhancing quality of life, embedding sustainability, strengthening cultural vitality, and supporting global competitiveness. But his role goes beyond visibility.

He is tasked with articulating a living idea of Riyadh’s future, one in which nature, culture, sport, and community are core urban principles. This requires a communications architecture as carefully considered as the Park itself: globally intelligible, locally grounded, and built for long-term impact. This considered approach supports international understanding of Riyadh and the Kingdom through clarity, credibility, and lived experience.

Under his leadership, narrative becomes a tool for public engagement, stakeholder confidence, and cultural dialogue shaping how the world understands not just a park, but a city in transformation.

Creative Authority, Earned
Shaw’s work has been recognized internationally through industry awards, including Cannes Lions, and through his participation as a juror and speaker at global forums such as D&AD, Cannes Lions, and the Athar Festival in Saudi Arabia. Within the Foundation, however, his focus remains on building enduring creative and communications cultures with teams defined by shared standards, collective accountability, and purpose.

Success is measured not by attention, but by trust: trust from leadership, partners, stakeholders, and ultimately the public who will experience King Salman Park as part of everyday life in Riyadh.

The Saudi Times View

At a moment when cities increasingly compete through lived experience rather than symbolism alone, Simon Shaw represents a new class of business leader. His work at King Salman Park demonstrates that communicating national projects responsibly is not about messaging, but stewardship ensuring meaning is carried forward with clarity, humility, and long-term intent. In Riyadh, that work is now unfolding in real time

Published by: Boudou Gueffai | Editor-in-Chief | The Saudi Times