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Paul Ardaji
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Paul Ardaji is a Palestinian-American film producer, restaurateur, and former advertising executive.<ref namela/><ref namewash/> Ardaji founded The Middle East Advertising and Marketing Company (MEAMCO) which later became part of Horizon/Meamco.<ref namenyt/> He produced the motion picture about the life of boxer Muhammad Ali, starring Will Smith.<ref namevariety/> Career Ardaji founded The Middle East Advertising and Marketing Company (MEAMCO), a New York-based advertising agency focused on Arab markets.<ref namenyt/><ref namescott/><ref name=nytimes/> In 1979, Ardaji signed Muhammad Ali as a spokesperson for Toyota Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region.<ref namela/><ref namenyt/> In 1984, Meamco merged with Horizon to become Horizon/Meamco, with Ardaji as its president. At the time, it was the third largest agency serving the Middle East.<ref namehorizon/><ref namemay/> In 1992, Ardaji formed Roundhill Pictures Corp., and obtained the motion picture rights to Muhammad Ali's life story.<ref namevariety/><ref namelos/> Ardaji was credited as a producer on the resulting film, ,<ref namela/><ref namescreen/><ref nametime/> which received 3 Oscar nominations.<ref nameaward/> Restaurants In 1991, Ardaji founded the TERRA Ristorante Italiano, his first Italian restaurant, in Greenwich, Connecticut.<ref namehart/> At the time, it was named one of the best top 10 new restaurants in the United States.<ref namepatch/> He later opened Le Figaro Bistro de Paris.<ref namenytime/> In 2005, Ardaji and his son launched national chain Paulimotos Asian Bistro, in partnership with Masaharu Morimoto of Iron Chef. The initial branch opened in Tyson's Corner, Virginia in 2005. There were nine locations planned including Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania,<ref namememphis/> Austin, Texas,<ref nametexas/> Kansas City, Kansas,<ref namekansas/> and Orlando, Florida.<ref nameorlando/> The project eventually failed when multimillion-dollar funding could not be raised in time.<ref namescott/><ref namepost/><ref namebiz/> Ardaji later launched Toscana Trattoria, an Italian restaurant voted Best Italian restaurant in Greenwich.<ref namect/><ref namegreenwich/> In 2014, Ardaji partnered with Intram Investments to open Bistro Clo Clo in Orlando, Florida, which was voted best French restaurant by readers of the Orlando Sentinel.<ref nameclo/><ref nameorl/><ref name=cloclo/> Filmography * (2001), producer 
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