Catherine Young

PANELLIST - Founder, Thinkroom; Managing Partner, Grindstone Ventures

Catherine Young is an African entrepreneur with executive level experience across a number of businesses, including a successful corporate career, holding various senior and executive positions in companies including Deloitte, Chevron and SAP Ariba. She is the founder of Thinkroom and Managing Partner of Grindstone Ventures. 

Her capabilities are underpinned by deep engagement and care for people across her work career, with an astute ability to build and grow businees. As the founder of Thinkroom, she is involved in entrepreneurial ecosystem development across Africa and currently expanding into Europe and the UK, as well as acceleration programmes through her co-ownership in Grindstone Accelerator and Grindstone Ventures. She is an SME ecosystem influencer in Africa and works with clients in the space of entrepreneurship development across the continent. Catherine also co-founded Grindstone Ventures, a post-seed, pre-series A fund for businesses in the Grindstone Growth Engine. 

Catherine holds a B.Comm with specialisation in Marketing and National Diploma in Procurement from University of South Africa and Nelson Mandela University respectively.

Mamela Luthuli

PANELLIST - Founder and CEO, Take Note IT

Mamela Luthuli is a seasoned business professional, founder and CEO of Take Note IT, a company which provides cyber security and innovative IT solutions for its cliets. 

Mamela is extremely passionate about mentoring young people and creating opportunities for them. She is championing Take Note's Cyber Security Centre of Excellence by training young people straight from schools, colleges, and universities and equipping them with the skill required for work opportunities within Take Note IT and its associated companies internationally. This is critical given the estimated 2 million vacancies in cyber security worldwide. 

Mamela has been an entrepreneur her whole life, having started a number of informal ventures since the age of 14, to now being at the help of one of the few black, female-led cyber security firms in South Africa.

She has a number of qualifications including an MBA from Henley International School and has received numerous awards.

Charles Lee Mathews

MODERATOR - Publisher & CEO, Inc.Africa

A former investigative journalist, advertising agency owner and growth hacker, Mathews founded and exited Idea Engineers, and worked to drive global scale with pioneering teams at Naspers and Tutuka.com. A part of Daily Maverick's startup team, Mathews has been published in Guardian and Rolling Stone Magazine and done investigations for AmaBhungane and the Centre for Public Integrity in Washington.

Moky Makura

PANELLIST - Executive Director, Africa No Filter

Moky Makura was born in Nigeria, educated in England and has lived in London, Johannesburg and Lagos. She has been a TV presenter, producer, author, publisher and a successful entrepreneur in her own right. She is currently the Executive Director of Africa No Filter, a donor collaborative focused on shifting the African narrative.

Moky started her media career as the African Anchor and field reporter for South Africa’s award-winning news and actuality show – Carte Blanche. She conceptualized, co-produced and presented a lifestyle TV series for the pan African pay TV channel MNet called “Living It”, which focused on the lifestyles of the African continent’s wealthy elite. She also played a lead role in the groundbreaking and popular MNet Pan-African drama series Jacob’s Cross.

Her book Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs with a foreword written by Richard Branson, featured on the top 10 best-selling business books in South Africa when it launched. Moky has since compiled and published a number of non-fiction titles under her imprint MME Media. Titles include South Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs, Going Global which tells the stories of South Africa’s most successful global companies and a biography of one of its top entrepreneurs; Herman Mashaba, called Black Like You. Moky started a fiction book series called Nollybooks aimed at getting young Africans to read, and then adapted the series for television co-producing over 21 television movies for the South African TV station etv. The books are available on Worldreader, and Okadabooks.

Watch Moky at:

-Living it promo

-TED Talk on telling the African story

Dr Stacie CC Graham

MODERATOR - Global Racial Equity Programme Director, WPP

Dr Stacie CC Graham is the Global Racial Equity Programme Director at WPP. The Racial Equity Programme refers to the $30 million commitment to antiracism that Mark Read, WPP’s CEO, made on behalf of WPP in June of 2020. Prior to joining WPP, Dr Graham worked as an independent management and strategy consultant and executive coach. She is also the founder of Colour Balance Images (CBI), a two-sided marketplace licensing images and footage that are representative of the global majority. CBI has it strongest presence in Africa, partnering with prominent cultural institutions, such as Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Nubuke Foundation in Accra, Ghana.

Victoria Henry

PANELLIST - Head of Group Marketing & Fractional CMO, Alphawave

Victoria is a B2B technology marketing and communications leader with almost 20 years’ experience. She is currently Head of Group Marketing at Stellenbosch based technology investment company, Alphawave Group, responsible for Group marketing and supporting the companies in the portfolio as a Fractional CMO.

Prior to joining Alphawave Group, Victoria was CMO at DataProphet – recognised as a World Economic Forum (WEF) Technology Pioneer and selected for CB Insights 100 most innovative AI start-ups.

Victoria spent most of her career in London, both in-house and agency side working with a range of start-ups and global tech firms including Symantec, VeriSign and Salesforce.

Ifeoma Jibunoh–Dozie

PANELLIST - Group Chief Marketing Officer, Liquid Intelligent Technologies

Ifeoma is Chief Marketing Officer of Liquid Intelligent Technologies. She was previously Director of Marketing and Communications for Sub-Saharan Africa at Mastercard, where she was responsible for the development of an integrated marketing and communications strategy that drove Mastercard’s business performance, brand salience, and reputation in the region.

Before MasterCard, she worked at Heineken for 17 years in senior marketing roles across multiple markets and regions in Europe and Africa.

Ifeoma has a law degree (LLB) from the University of Bristol and a master’s degree in international business (LLM) from Kings College London.

Asha Patel

PANELLIST - Head of B2B Marketing SSA & Head of Marketing South Africa, Google

Asha is an innovative leader with over 17 years of experience in tech and media across emerging and developed markets.

Prior to Google, Asha spent 4 years at Standard Bank, where she established the group's web and mobile presence across 18 African markets. Before that, she spent 3 years at Primedia subsidiary, The Mobile Games Company.

Asha is a passionate diversity advocate and has been deeply involved in transformation from the age of 16 when she was appointed to the Junior City Council. She has been recognised as one of Mail & Guardian's Top 200 Young South Africans and as a One Young World Ambassador. 

Asha holds degrees in Informatics, Honours Cum Laude in Business Management, and multiple Business Schools certifications.

Elizma Nolte

Keynote - Regional Marketing Manager, Facebook Africa

Elizma Nolte is Regional Marketing Manager for Facebook Africa. She is passionate about media, technology and Africa – and finding ways to connect the three for positive change.

Before joining the Facebook Africa team, she did so as Country Marketing Manager for Google South Africa and as media entrepreneur, journalist and publisher. She holds a B. Computer Science and BA Honours Journalism from Stellenbosch University, M.Sc Online Publishing from City University London and an MBA from INSEAD in France and Singapore. In her free time she is an avid trail runner and maker, whether with pen and ink, brush and paint or Maya and Unity.

Stacey Grant

SPEAKER - Consumer & Market Insights Director Africa, Unilever

Deeply passionate about people, Stacey Grant leads the Africa Insights Team and is a member of both the Unilever South Africa leadership team, as well as the Unilever Africa Leadership Team. In this role, she is ultimately responsible for showing the business where and how to win – through converting data into insights that inform solutions to the unmet needs of consumers across the continent. A strong believer in African creativity and solutions, Stacey has led her team to a number of major Global Unilever honors, including awards for Innovation and Communications excellence. Her biggest passion is centered on building sustainable businesses and Stacey believes that this is one of the key elements in unlocking the potential of the African continent. 

In over 13 years of Unilever experience, Stacey has continuously leveraged her ability to empathise and advocate for the needs of the consumer, and combined it with her technical expertise to lead for innovation. This has included provocative research into gender narratives, as well as understanding the evolution of female identity in Africa. Insights from this work have directly fed into the powerful creative executions and purposeful brand messages which have seen Unilever rise as an industry thought leader and society shaper in areas like gender stereotyping and racial equality. 

As a working parent with a busy household, 2 energetic sons, a couple of pooches, and a demanding job, Stacey is fiercely passionate about helping people advance in both their careers & personal lives.  

Taweni Gondwe Xaba

Chief Marketing Officer, Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Stéphane Rogovsky

Founder & CEO - R-Squared Digital South Africa

Stephane is a 40 year old Belgian citizen. He grew up in Brussels, lived in Switzerland and moved to South Africa in 2014.

Authentic conversations with real people inspire Stephane, an entrepreneur with more than 15 years’ leadership experience, utilizing strategic foresight, analytical abilities, and trend spotting in diverse areas. He worked for 13 years in finance and reached Senior Management level in a Swiss Private Bank, before making a career move to marketing. He is now the CEO of R-Squared Digital, a leading Influencer Marketing Agency in South Africa, operating locally and internationally.

Experience defines joy. Cigars, food, travel and his pets are his life.

Nneka Keshi

Client Partner - Facebook Africa

Nneka is a Client Partner at Facebook Africa managing some of the organisations biggest clients.

A global digital strategist and marketer, Nneka has over 11 years of highly successful digital marketing expertise, leadership, seasoned business development and client account management acumen to her credit. Her strength lies in focusing on the ROI and her engines rev best when she is in the digital realm, building an army of ambassadors to promote a company, clients, products, people or services. Nneka has extensive global digital marketing expertise meaning she can provide immediate value navigating the US, European, African and Middle Eastern markets.

Amanda Onamandla Mathe

Founder and Director - Ndlovukazi Media Online

Nicked named the digital matriarch and known to agencies as the Olivia Pope of social media. Amanda prides herself in building recognisable brands and providing support in the love of building a better community. She is a professional journalist, with years of experience in the news media, corporate social media management, and online development space

Andrea Opoku

Director and Africa Ambassador - Women in Marketing (WiM) CIC

Andrea has been a founding member of the Women in Marketing (WiM) network since its creation in 2004 when it was part of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. In December 2017 she was brought on as a Director to support the activities of the organisation which had recently been formed as a Community Interest Company (CIC). Andrea has led onWiM’s global expansion strategy, specifically on the African continent, hence the launch of WiM Africa.

Andrea runs astrategic marketing and branding consultancy and was formerly Executive Director at BSP Media International, a UK-based market and industry intelligence provider – producing and delivering conferences and industry events on Technology, Media and Telecoms across Africa.

Andrea’s career began at a multimedia software publishing company in Paris and over a 10-year period moved into campaign management and communications roles in property, education, food retail, men’s fashion, office design and build, and outdoor adventure sports.

Andrea trains and lectures on marketing planning, social media and digital marketing strategy; she also blogs and writes about marketing, business and Africa.

WiM Africa Launch Presentation

Stacey Grant

SPEAKER - Consumer & Market Insights Director Africa, Unilever

Deeply passionate about people, Stacey Grant leads the Africa Insights Team and is a member of both the Unilever South Africa leadership team, as well as the Unilever Africa Leadership Team. In this role, she is ultimately responsible for showing the business where and how to win – through converting data into insights that inform solutions to the unmet needs of consumers across the continent. A strong believer in African creativity and solutions, Stacey has led her team to a number of major Global Unilever honors, including awards for Innovation and Communications excellence. Her biggest passion is centered on building sustainable businesses and Stacey believes that this is one of the key elements in unlocking the potential of the African continent. 

In over 13 years of Unilever experience, Stacey has continuously leveraged her ability to empathise and advocate for the needs of the consumer, and combined it with her technical expertise to lead for innovation. This has included provocative research into gender narratives, as well as understanding the evolution of female identity in Africa. Insights from this work have directly fed into the powerful creative executions and purposeful brand messages which have seen Unilever rise as an industry thought leader and society shaper in areas like gender stereotyping and racial equality. 

As a working parent with a busy household, 2 energetic sons, a couple of pooches, and a demanding job, Stacey is fiercely passionate about helping people advance in both their careers & personal lives.  

Andrea Opoku

Director and Africa Ambassador - Women in Marketing (WiM) CIC

Andrea has been a founding member of the Women in Marketing (WiM) network since its creation in 2004 when it was part of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. In December 2017 she was brought on as a Director to support the activities of the organisation which had recently been formed as a Community Interest Company (CIC). Andrea has led onWiM’s global expansion strategy, specifically on the African continent, hence the launch of WiM Africa.

Andrea runs astrategic marketing and branding consultancy and was formerly Executive Director at BSP Media International, a UK-based market and industry intelligence provider – producing and delivering conferences and industry events on Technology, Media and Telecoms across Africa.

Andrea’s career began at a multimedia software publishing company in Paris and over a 10-year period moved into campaign management and communications roles in property, education, food retail, men’s fashion, office design and build, and outdoor adventure sports.

Andrea trains and lectures on marketing planning, social media and digital marketing strategy; she also blogs and writes about marketing, business and Africa.

WiM Africa Launch Presentation

Nunu Ntshingila

SPEAKER - Regional Director, Facebook Africa

Nunu Ntshingila is Facebook’s Head of Africa, with responsibility for leading the team that engages with agencies and brands in Africa to help them make the most of the company’s products including Facebook itself, Instagram and related services.

She is passionate about the role of technology in driving social inclusion in Africa and about Facebook’s mission of giving Africans the power to build community and bring the world closer together.

Before joining Facebook, Nunu helped drive the creation of Ogilvy’s network in sub Saharan Africa, which spans some 34 countries. During a long career at Ogilvy & Mather South Africa, Nunu served as Managing Director of Ogilvy Johannesburg, Chief Executive Officer of the Ogilvy Group, Chairman of Ogilvy Africa and member of the Ogilvy Worldwide Board

A graduate of the University of Swaziland and Morgan State University in the US, Ntshingila has also held senior marketing positions at Nike SA and the South African Tourism board.

Nunu has served on a number of boards including Telkom, Old Mutual, Transnet, and the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront Property Group. Today she serves as a council member of the Women’s World Banking Council.

Nunu has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Financial Mail for her work in leading and transforming the advertising business in South Africa. In 2016 she became the first woman to be inducted into the Loeries Hall of Fame in recognition for driving creativity in Africa. 

Suhana Gordhan

SPEAKER - Creative Director, FCB Agency Africa

Suhana is passionate about the art of copywriting and loves parenting an idea well enough so that nobody molests it along its journey from birth to maturity. She believes that the best agency-client relationships are more marriage and less bondage. She entered the advertising industry in 2001 and has worked on some of the country’s much-loved brands at agencies like Ogilvy, Black River FC, NativeVML and Net#work BBDO.

WiM Africa Masterclass Presentation

Zumi Njongwe

SPEAKER - Marketing & Innovation Director, Diageo

Zumi Njongwe has been named marketing and innovations director for Diageo South Africa. With her appointment, Njongwe takes responsibility for further growth at Diageo locally.

Njongwe has spent the last two years in Ethiopia as marketing and innovations director at Diageo’s Meta Abo Breweries. She also led the establishment of ETEAGE (“queen” in Amharic), a women’s network within Diageo which drives coaching, mentorship and empowerment of women in order to contribute to the diversity agenda.

Njongwe has been with Diageo since 2005, working in various roles across Africa and in London. Prior to her role in Ethiopia, she held a number of roles in the Diageo business, from marketing manager on J&B to regional marketing manager for Guinness (Africa), responsible for Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, until she was portfolio manager of whisky, leading the development of the category and strategies to deliver business results for the category. She was also an active member of the marketing leadership team driving the talent agenda and team training, as well as leading the Spirited Women of Brandhouse (SWOB) initiatives. She holds a BSC (chemistry and psychology) and honours degree in psychology.

Diageo owns the five of the top 10 whiskies in SA (Johnnie Walker, J&B, Bells, Vat 69 and Black & White) and is a market leader in vodka and rum with Smirnoff and Captain Morgan; and it also leads the fast-growing premium gin category with Tanqueray.

WiM Africa Masterclass Presentation - Pt 1

WiM Africa Masterclass Presentation - Pt 2

Shaadia Vawda

SPEAKER - General Manager Ice-Cream Southern Africa, Unilever

Based: Global citizen living in Durban

Growing up in pre-1994 South Africa, and with a dad who was diagnosed with Cancer when Shaadia was 16, and a mum who valiantly worked to get her and her brother through school and university, Shaadia has never been afraid of a challenge! And gets most joy from the challenge of turning around impossible briefs, challenging markets and segments. She has 20years business experience working across 4 different industries, 10 different categories, 2 different continents & multiple countries.  She is currently the General Manager for the Ice Cream Business Unit in Southern Africa which she leads with a talented business unit team comprising of marketing, finance, CD, supply chain, factory, R&D, legal, media, HR & shopper. 

She is a passionate member of the Unilever South Africa Executive Leadership team. She is proud to hold this seat, as she represents hope and belief for a younger generation of women who believe that they CAN have a seat at the table, and contribute meaningfully.  

We are in the middle of a gender revolution! Global studies show that 40% of women DO NOT identify with the women they see in advertising! 3% of ads feature women in leadership/professional roles. In most of the ads women are confined to domestic chores! This is staggering, and we can something about it. Banishing stereotypes goes beyond the misrepresentation of women in advertising. This is about creating multi-dimensional people in our ads – ‘unstereotyping’ people, not just women. Advertising can be a real agent of change and a force for good, by inspiring people with positive and progressive portrayals. This isn’t only a moral case it is also a business case.

At home, the nest is kept frenetically busy with a 9-year-old daughter, who keeps her parents grounded, happy and in touch with all things slime and squishy. 

Fahmeeda Cassim-Surtee

PANELLIST - CEO South Africa, DStv Media Sales

Holding a variety of qualifications in media management, strategic marketing, business management and journalism, Cassim-Surtee began her career at City Press newspaper as both an advertising consultant and freelance sports writer. This extended to radio broadcasting and contributions to international publications. She joined the MultiChoice Group in 1998 and has since held a variety of positions within DStv Media Sales, the advertising and sponsorship arm of the business, rising to her current position as CEO of DStv Media Sales in October 2017. Nominated for SA Woman of the Year and SA Business Woman of the Year, she says of work, “I love it because I don’t treat it as a job. It’s integrated into my life. It’s different everyday. I like the opportunity to influence people in our organisation.” Never one to shy away from a challenge, Cassim-Surtee lives by the motto, “I can do anything even if it scares me.”

Emma Reeves

SPEAKER – Executive Director,
Free The Bid

Emma Reeves has an extensive background as a Creative Strategist working across all aspects of cultural communication and new media in the print, digital and live space. Emma became the Creative Director of the highly influential MOCAtv in 2012, a part of the YouTube original content initiative funded by Google, radically changing the landscape of access to art in the digital realm while managing and creating digital engagements. Whilst at MOCA, Emma programmed and oversaw production on the game changing, interdisciplinary cultural event Step and Repeat in 2014 and 2015.

Previously, Emma worked in documentaries and TV production in London before joining Gorgeous Enterprises from 1996 - 1999 working with Frank Budgen on his seminal work for Playstation and Guinness as well as multiple award winning commercials with Chris Palmer.

After Gorgeous Emma joined Jefferson Hack at the Dazed Group in London from 1999 until 2007 working as photo director for Dazed she also helped found Another Magazine and Another Man. Emma then moved to New York to oversee the branding agency Li, Inc working with Patrick Li for three years prior to moving to LA in 2012.

Emma continues to live in Los Angeles.

Since January 30th 2017 Emma has been Executive Director of Free The Bid:

Free the Bid is a 501c3 non-profit initiative advocating on behalf of women directors for equal opportunities to bid on commercial jobs in the global advertising industry.

Leigh Andrews

MODERATOR - Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media, Bizcommunity.com

Leigh Andrews (@leigh_andrews) is Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com and Lifestyle contributor. Leigh is passionate about issues of inclusion, equality and diversity, and was the only South African finalist shortlisted for the Women in Marketing #WIMawards2017.

Responsible for keeping a finger on the pulse of the latest happenings in the marketing and media industry, Leigh writes top breaking news stories interviewing key people in the industry, as well as driving the daily delivery of fresh and accurate content, aligning editorial goals with the BizCommunity.com strategic direction. Having spent 12 years in the industry, working for companies such as Microsoft, Kagiso Media, Fleet Street Publications, the Mail & Guardian Online, Caxton Community Newspapers and Newsclip's publications, Leigh is at the forefront of all this marketing and media in South Africa.

Leigh Ogilvie

SPEAKER - South Africa Ambassador, Free The Bid

Leigh has been directing professionally for twenty years.

She started her career in 1997 specialising in African music videos that saw her as four-time SAMA winner amongst other accolades.

In 2003 she transitioned into a multi award winning commercial director for a diverse spectrum of clients both locally and internationally, enjoying repeat business from brand giants such as Diageo, Jim Beam (US) Coca-Cola, Castrol, SAB, Virgin Money, Cell C along with Channel O, Metro FM, Nedbank, A1 (Austria) Ingdiba (Germany) and First for Women.

Locally Leigh is represented by Monkey Films and is the local ambassador for Free The Bid, a global initiative that asks clients and agencies to consider taking a pledge that one in every three way bid be a woman director.

Czerina Patel

PANELLIST - Manager - Advertisers Activists Collective, Accountability International

Czerina Patel works for Accountability International (AI), an international civil society organisation that holds leaders accountable for their responsibilities to human rights, equality and transparency. Czerina manages the Advertisers Activists Collective (AAC) Initiative, which engages activists, advertisers, marketers and businesses in promoting equality, with a focus on LGBTIQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer) inclusion in Africa ads. Czerina holds a BA in Economics and in Philosophy from Brown University, and a MSc. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Her journalism and broadcast recognitions include the George Foster Peabody Award and three Third Coast International Audio Festival Awards.