Experience

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  PepsiCo

  • Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

  • Communications Lead, SA

    • Mar 2020 - Present
    • Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

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  Pioneer Foods

  • Cape Town Area, South Africa

  • Group Communications Manager

    • Mar 2018 - Mar 2020
    • Cape Town Area, South Africa

    Consumer Public Relations: including writing and editing press releases, dealing with press queries & interview requests and managing an external agencyReputation Management: including writing and editing thought-leadership and opinion pieces, holding media round-tables and monitoring online sentiment of the companyRegulatory & Stakeholder engagement: including attending parliamentary committee meetings, as well as building relationships with key Regulatory players, as well as industry bodies, service providers and the mediaPublic Affairs: Drafting written and oral submission material for public consultation sessions, researching various regulatory and political changes and crafting messaging for high level meetingsInternal Communications: Drafting and sharing regular internal communications messages, and launching new internal channels to communicate to office and site-based staff

• 

  Debbie Sharwood Consulting

  • Cape Town Area, South Africa

  • Independent Consultant

    • Jan 2015 - Feb 2018
    • Cape Town Area, South Africa

    Writing Website Content for Fintech companies.Writing and Creating templates for Automated and Manual Digital Customer Communications for Marketing, CRM, transactional, Customer Service and Collections

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  Wonga.com SA

  • Cape Town Area, South Africa

  • Head of PR and Communications

    • Mar 2011 - Nov 2014
    • Cape Town Area, South Africa

    Consumer Public Relations: including writing and editing press releases, dealing with press queries & interview requests and managing an external agencyReputation Management: including writing and editing thought-leadership and opinion pieces, holding media round-tables and monitoring online sentiment of the companyRegulatory & Stakeholder engagement: including attending parliamentary committee meetings, as well as building relationships with key Regulatory players, as well as industry bodies, service providers and the mediaPublic Affairs: Drafting written and oral submission material for public consultation sessions, researching various regulatory and political changes and crafting messaging for high level meetingsCustomer Communications: Writing all customer-facing copy including website, transaction communications, customer service and collections communications across all channels including social mediaMarketing Communications: Created monthly newsletter copy as well as stimulation messaging for CRM; editing marketing and advertising collateral where necessary

• 

  CNBC Africa

  • Cape Town Area, South Africa

  • Bureau Chief

    • Feb 2007 - Aug 2009
    • Cape Town Area, South Africa

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  CNBC Europe

  • London, United Kingdom

  • Senior Producer

    • May 2000 - Feb 2006
    • London, United Kingdom