Linklove

About Me

 

I am 33 and an online expert that has been in the game since the browsed web was born with experience managing many of South Africa’s leading online brands, increasing their audience sizes and bottom line.

I live in Cape Town, South Africa.

I have intensely believed in the power of internet and mobile since the start and have been evangelising it ever since.

The digital space is changing all the time and working in it takes stamina and a little bit of stubbornness and most importantly faith.

The boring CV bit is below to hopefully illustrate that I am qualified to have an opinion:

CV

Below are the businesses I have lead and managed in my career to date.

Professional Employment

 

Aug 2009 – Current

AVUSA Media: General Manager Digital
Head of Digital (Web and Mobile) publishing including brands such as www.timeslive.co.za and www.sowetan.co.za in my portfolio.

Dec 2008 – Aug 2009

Naspers MIH Internet Africa:  Acting Head , Social Networking and Communications, Africa
New start-up division in the Naspers group which forms a division of MIH Internet, the Naspers global Internet busniness. Work in this role is focussed on Mobile rather than web.

April 2009 – Current

Property24.com portal: Acting General Manager
Tasked as a short-term project to redesign, redevelop and implement a new Property24 portal.

Aug 2008 – Dec 2008

Blueworld (on behalf of 24.com shareholding): General Manager
Short-term secondment to manage the investment in Blueworld.co.za – a local social networking, community business 24.com had invested in.

Dec 2007 – Aug 2008

24.com: GM: Social Networking and Media
Tasked to build and head a new unit to deliver Social Networking and Media products to 24.com. The role is strategic, innovation and product focused. Includes General Management of an acquisition we made, www.blueworld.co.za

April 2007 – Dec 2007

24.com: Publisher: News24, Sport24, Social Networking, Who’s Who, Youth strategy
My portfolio was increased and I was given greater responsibility to manage the commercial, strategic and operational aspects of these businesses.

January 2005 – April 2007

Media24 Digital/24.com: Publisher: News24
I came to Cape Town and joined Media24 Digital to run South Africa’s number one website. Duties covered commercial, strategic and operational overall responsibility of the business. Part of the portfolio was also to manage the Newspaper website Joint Venture strategically and operationally which included a co-ordination/relationship role with Media24 Newspapers.
In this time I also launched www.netads24.com a classified advertising destination in partnership with newspapers.
In this time News24 became profitable and passed the 1 Million unique user mark.

January 2002 – December 2005

Sunday Times: Online Manager (Dept Head)
Summary: I was strategically and operationally responsible for Sunday Times online. The strategy was very product focused as a brand extension to the newspaper. During this time I sat on the Sunday Times management committee which was the decision making body for every aspect of the paper. Through this experience I gained extensive knowledge of the newspaper publishing environment. I was only 25 then and it was good experience in my first leadership position.

January 2000 – January 2002

Sunday Times: Web designer/developer
Summary: This was in the good old days when people still referred to “Webmasters”. I was practically involved with all aspects of the product including lots of design work and HTML coding as well as content integration products with the Print team.

Part-time Work

 

2002 – 2004

Sunday Times: Columnist
Summary: To fuel my creative spirit I wrote a fortnightly column for the Award winning printed Sunday Times Lifestyle supplement on the social and lighter side of the Internet with the idea of introducing novices to the Web.
Reason for changing: After 2 years of writing for free and with more time pressures I decided to discontinue.

October 2001 – November 2001

Wired.com (San Francisco): Intern
Summary: Sunday Times wanted to reward and grow promising staff. They selected me and said I could go and do an Internship anywhere at their cost. I jumped at the opportunity to work at Wired.com – at the time, the best tech website there is in my opinion.

2001

World Wide Worx: Analyst
Summary: I was still on contract at Sunday Times and Arthur Goldstuck invited me to do part-time business analysis and strategic recommendation of clients websites. This included FNB and ebucks.
Reason for changing: Time constraints.

January 2000 – January 2002

Dot Design CC: Owner
Summary: While on a contract at Sunday Times I ran a part-time business building and designing websites for clients to generate extra income and gain more experience.
Reason for changing: Was appointed to a permanent management position which made it impossible to continue.

Education

 

2003 – 2004

Certificate in Management Henley Institute (1.5 year general management study): including a mini-thesis on Cross-media sales.

1996 – 1999

Bachelor of Journalism at Rhodes (4 year degree) specialising in Web Design and New Media. Majored in Political Science.

1995

Backpacked for the year in Israel on Kibbutz and through Egypt and parts of Europe.

1994

Matriculated St John’s College Johannesburg with an A aggregate (Distinctions in English and History.)

Achievements and Leadership Positions

 

2008

Re-elected Online Publisher’s Association Head of Monitoring and member of the executive.

2007

Online Publisher’s Association Head of Monitoring and member of the executive.
Chaired IFRA Beyond the Printed Word conference in Dublin (over 500 top executive from around the world in attendance)
News24 became the first SA site to reach 1 million local users.
News24 became profitable for the first time in a full financial year. (F2006/7)

2006

News24 won the Media24 Digital award for best online business.
Selected to participate as a mentor in the Media24 mentorship program.

2005

Selected to chair the Media24 Digital transformation forum.
Frequent Speaker at a number of conferences/events over the years and have had many articles published about the SA online market.

Professional Memberships

 

2004 – 2008

Online Publisher’s Association of South Africa.