Eben Gewers is Head of Sales and trade Marketing at Arena Holdings. Eben is a relative veteran of the industry, having held various senior positions in the industry, including as Media Director of Vizeum (Cape Town).  Eben has vast experience in various media platforms including Print, Television and Digital and believes that integrated media solutions will allow for a longer industry lifespan

Justine Cullinan joined Nando’s three weeks before South Africa locked down in an effort to combat the spread of COVID-19. As General Manager of Brand and Strategy she is responsible for the overall direction of the Nando’s brand for South Africa, the development and implementation of its marketing strategy, the communications, media, advertising and public relations execution of the brand and the establishment and promotion of its new products, menu mix and pricing models. She is proud to act as a 2IC to Nando’s renowned CMO, Doug Place.

Cullinan graduated from Rhodes University Cum Laude with an Honours degree in Journalism and Media Studies in 2005. She cut her teeth working in PR and talent management under comedian John Vlismas and then at a small PR and Brand Management Agency called Red Cube, now part of the Hunt Lascaris group.

In 2008, she made her big career leap landing the coveted spot as Marketing Manager of 5FM. Her love for radio, dynamic personality, can-do attitude, meticulously planned strategies and all-in-all hard graft together with the 5FM team saw the listenership increase from 1.65 million to over 2.3 million in four years.  The station also won Coolest Radio Station at the Sunday Times Generation Next Awards every year for the duration of her tenure. By the time Justine began looking for a new challenge, she was accepting the MTN Radio Award for Station of the Year along with the 5FM team.

Having achieved goals in all three pillars of commercial radio (revenue, audiences and brand), and always one to leave on a high note, Justine followed her next biggest love – fashion. In 2012 she donned her most colourful sneakers, lacing up to take on the role of Marketing Manager at Skye Distribution managing 10 fashion brands including Nike’s cult-cool, Converse, and urban American favourite, Dickies.

During her time at Skye she brought notable acclaim to the South African music industry through the conceptualization and implementation of the Converse Get Out of the Garage campaign that introduced the world to musicians Matthew Mole and Jordi van Dyk.  The campaign was internationally acclaimed and adopted by numerous other Converse markets across the world.  Through Converse Get out of the Garage, Justine ensured that local musicians received the springboard they so needed to get their music radio-ready and label-worthy. Her campaign design provided them with opportunities to record music at the Converse Rubber Tracks studio in Brooklyn New York and perform on international stages at Café Charbon in Paris and The 100 Club in London.  In her final year at Skye, Justine’s team won the Converse award for Global Licensee Market of the Year.

In 2014 her SABC family would call on her to “return to her roots” where she was invited to take on the position of Station Manager at 5FM. As Station Manager of 5FM, Justine set the standard for broadcast management with a vision that ultimately took responsibility for the creation of the most memorable experiences that South Africans will make in their youthful years.

She appointed and mentored the station’s first black, female afternoon drive presenter, Thando Thabethe, launched 5FM’s first digital and integrated radio platform rate card, established 5FM TV and resourced it with a dedicated video content team and produced a 12-part mini documentary called Making the Weekender5 in response to the most asked question that youthful South Africans have for 5FM; “How do you become a 5FM DJ?”

In 2017 Justine took a four-month sabbatical to complete the exchange portion of her MBA in Milan at Université Bocconi. Upon her return she accepted the Veuve Clicquot Elle Boss of the Year Award and graduated with a Masters in Management: Strategic Marketing with distinction from the University of the Witwatersrand, Wits Business School. Her thesis, Corporate brand building and brand portfolio management in a South African state-owned enterprise, resulted in a co-authored academic article that was published in the Journal of Product & Brand Management in 2020.  She further published a case study on 5FM’s digital evolution in the Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies academic journal.

In 2018 Justine joined Coca-Cola Africa as Head of Integrated Marketing Communication for South Africa, a top 10 market for The Coca-Cola Company worldwide. In one short year she launched a bespoke teen-centric fashion range called Coke Threds in partnership with four South African designers, including Soweto-based design house, SGOD, who accepted a fashion accolade at the South African Hip Hop Awards for their interpretation of the Coke brand, and designer Rich Mnisi, who was invited to showcase his Coke Threds collection at China Fashion Week.

Justine also spearheaded the Share a Coke campaign at the end of 2018 that helped South Africans find their names and phonetic pronunciations on Coca-Cola cans and bottles, encouraging a much-needed conversation and engagement around the simple respect and dignity involved in correctly pronouncing a fellow citizen’s name.  Cullinan has been behind the launch of other Coca-Cola brands including Glaceau Smartwater, Hollandia Mageu and Cappy Juice. In 2019 Cappy Juice, with the help of over 500 South Africans, broke a Guinness World Record for the most people eating breakfast in bed at The Sheds in central Johannesburg.

Justine enjoys cooking and baking, gardening and hiking, and is a keen yoga and ballet barre enthusiast. In 2020 she completed writing the first South African academic textbook on Radio in partnership with her former 5FM colleague and good friend, Grant Nash. This text, published by local academic publishers Edge Learning, is the primary curriculum for Radio 1, 2 and 3 students at Boston Media House and has established itself as the handbook for South African radio industry professionals.

Her next ambitions range from being able to hold a free-standing forearm balance for more than five seconds to being present at a hearing at Constitution Hill’s Constitutional Court presided over by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.

With a decade of experience, Natalie Katz is an award-winning brand and digital strategist who builds businesses by asking powerful questions, then following wherever they lead.

By combining creativity, technology and human insight, she’s helped move the proverbial needle for brands like Nando’s, Converse, Momentum, Metropolitan, MTN Supersonic, L’Oréal, Nestlé, and loads more.

She spends her time working alongside inspiring people. She owns a business, runs a recipe blog, has 2 cats, travels lots, eats well and always does things wholeheartedly.

Lyndon is a results-driven change leader and former CEO with extensive brand management, business restructuring, strategic planning, and management experience acquired in Media, IT, banking, education, and sporting industries.  He is a multifaceted professional skilled in providing leadership and overseeing key change management, organizational design, and human capital development functions to drive the continued achievement of company objectives. His extensive network was garnered during his stints in Standard Bank (Portfolio Head Group Transformation, Director in Marketing & Sponsorships Division), Primedia (CEO of Primedia Sport), the South African Olympic Committee (CEO), and during his time spent as an entrepreneur in the IT industry (CEO) where he made various inroads into the sector by forming a formidable BEE competitor. Before joining Arena he did a stint as the CEO of Horseracing and then as CEO of The Strategy Imagineers. He is passionate about community and charitable work and often runs marathon to raise money for charity.

He holds the following qualifications:

BA, BA (Hons), Dip in Personnel Management, MBA (International General Management – London), Certificates in Strategic Thinking and Leading Organizational Change (Emeritus Institute of Management, MIT)

After living and working abroad for four years, Jeanine Rainier returned to South Africa firm in the belief that there is no place like home. She is now General Manager at TILT, one of South Africa’s leading influencer marketing and built-for-social content agencies. Before joining TILT in 2017, she was a Portfolio Manager at HDI Youth Marketeers where she specialised in – amongst other things – youth marketing. Jeanine holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Management Sciences (Marketing & Logistics) from the University of Stellenbosch.

Hennie is a media professional who is passionate about talent, innovation and collaboration. Hennie is currently the Head of Programming at Jacaranda FM, responsible for the strategic creation and delivery of products to the Jacaranda FM audience. His team is responsible for all things content on-air and online. Part of Jacaranda FM’s core offering is Good Morning Angels, through which the station has raised millions and assisted countless families and communities on a weekly basis. Jacaranda FM has collaborated with some of the biggest brands in the country to drive change and create a sustainable difference in people’s lives.

Natalie leads Kantar’s Creative Development solutions which include ad evaluation and optimisation solutions like Link™, and our agile ad testing platform Marketplace. She focuses on creative best practice and consults with clients on how to develop the most efficient and effective ad campaigns that increase sales and drive brand growth.

She is a frequent keynote speaker at industry conferences and has appeared on local shows to share learnings about what makes great creative TV advertising in the South African market and is an ambassador for Kantar’s Best Liked Ads that celebrate and acknowledge SA’s favourite TV commercials.

Natalie won a coveted SAMRA award for a paper that she co-authored, “Untold Emotions”, which focuses on TV creative learnings using neuroscience, particularly amongst LSM B South African consumers.

Natalie began her career with Millward Brown in 2002, working on advertising and brand health research across the continent. She has worked extensively across categories with clients like Unilever, TIH, Tiger Brands, Nestlé, Distell, DStv, L’Oréal and Dulux.

In her role as Kagiso Media Radio Market Engagement Manager, Charis Coleman is responsible for developing insights about audiences and what content they’re consuming to make recommendations to a variety of departments including programming, marketing and commercial, using a variety of data points. Charis Coleman has 17 years of digital and print publishing experience under her belt. Her experience includes many years as content head for two of South Africa’s largest radio digital publishers, a role as a sub-editor across a number of print publications, digital marketing workshop facilitation, and co-author of three self-help books. She has worked with small and large local organisations as well as large multinational organisations, and has experience working closely with international clients while managing specialist content teams. Content strategy, planning, execution, editor training, and market engagement are part of her skill set.

Cross functional digital, technology and media specialist with broad spectrum industry experience. ROI advocate. Enjoys tinkering…

Head of Media & Digital for Reckitt, Hygiene Africa. Strong passion for media, brands and communications, with eight years of agency and corporate experience within various industries, including FMCG, Alcohol and Premium Spirits as well as Health and Lifestyle brands

Paula joined the IAB SA, as CEO on 1 July 2018 with 20 years of experience in building brands and consumer engaging experiences; including brand marketing at Speedo, experiential marketing at Brand ID in London and Touchline Media.

Donald has been in the advertising and media industry for over 13 years and has held senior management positions for the past 6 years managing P&Ls of media agencies in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.

He is the former Managing Director for Carat SA and Posterscope SSA, used to sit on the Advertising Media Forum (AMF) board and has served as a judge for the media innovation category at the Loerie awards, Marketing Achievement Awards and the full media of the AMASA awards. He is a frequent speaker at digital marketing conferences and was featured among the inspiring Men of Media by Digital Fanta.

Benjamin has 10+ years of international digital marketing experience. He manages Google’s publisher relationships in SSA with a strong focus on monetization strategies.

Wandisile is Senior Manager: Media and Digital Marketing at Multichoice SA.

He currently heads up all above the line, digital marketing and on-air promo planning for the SA business. He has worked in various agencies & direct clients across different industries like banking, health, telecoms, retail, fast foods, automotive, etc. He has a big passion for media; which has allowed him to win over 17 paid media awards in the past 4 years across social media, search, branded content, tactical executions and integrated marketing campaigns. He holds a BA Honours Degree in Marketing Communications and has completed various media, marketing and advertising orientated courses such as a Diploma in Digital Marketing from Brand School, MLAP Diploma from Duke University, among others.

Chief Executive Officer of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), Vincent Peyrègne (52) spent his career in positions at the intersection of journalism, business and technology. Peyrègne worked for private news organisations, public bodies, and governmental institutions in France, Switzerland, Germany, and Spain. He took up duties as Chief Executive Officer of WAN-IFRA in 2012. Prior to joining WAN-IFRA, he was Head of Development at Edipresse in Switzerland, now TAMEDIA, with responsibility for consumer insights and editorial marketing research and product development, before joining the office of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication as senior adviser to the Minister. In 1997, he established Ifra South West Europe, the Ifra regional subsidiary with responsibility for the French and spanish-speaking regions, which he headed for seven years. He started his career in the news at La Tribune, a French Business daily newspaper, Libération in Paris and Sud-Ouest in Bordeaux.

Riaan Wolmarans is Head of Digital: Media at Arena Holdings, the publisher of some of SA’s foremost digital news platforms including TimesLIVE, BusinessLIVE and SowetanLIVE. He has previously worked for the Mail & Guardian, Business Day and ad agency MetropolitanRepublic in South Africa, and in London for the Financial Times.

Last corporate position was Consumer Insights Manager at Yum, KFC SA. There, Jackie was integrally involved in pioneering research projects providing first-hand experience of research techniques such as IAT, Eye-tracking, Biometrics, EEG and ZMET. She has been independent since 2015 (and most recently works in association with CloudArmy).