Experience

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  Autonomy

  • Paris Area, France

  • Director and Founding Partner

    • Aug 2015 - Present
    • Paris Area, France

    The world's first consumer focused event to present new Urban Mobility solutions to policy makers, press and public. Autonomy has a partnership with the City of Paris and will take place annually at La Villette in Paris (starts 6 October 2016). http://www.autonomy.paris/

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  Sea Change Project

  • Cape Town, South Africa

  • Director, Trustee

    • Apr 2012 - Present
    • Cape Town, South Africa

    Sea-Change is a Foundation based in South Africa. In partnership with the Foster Brothers, I am developing a multi-media project that tells the story of our human and marine heritage. The project will comprise a travelling exhibition with augmented reality content, a film and a book. We have produced 3 exhibitions already, and are now producing the flagship episode for the next BBC Blue Planet series, and we are also working on the book. For more info http://seachangeproject.com/

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  Wavescape Media

  • Cape Town Area, South Africa

  • Owner / Director

    • Jul 2003 - Present
    • Cape Town Area, South Africa

    I started the Wavescape Ocean Festival in 2003. I raised sponsorship from First National Bank and Red Bull, and screened local and international films in a number of locations in Cape Town, including Clifton 4th Beach using an inflatable screen that I developed for this purpose (first in SA). The Festival was a great success, with First National Bank claiming it was the most professionally run event they have ever sponsored. In 2005 we extended the festival to include Durban and other coastal towns, and also launched the Surfboard Art Exhibition and Auction, which has raised over a million rand for ocean-focused charities.In 2011 we launched the Festival in Reunion Island, and the Art Board Project was presented in New York in 2012. We subsequently launched Slide Night and Fish Fry, and acquired the sponsorship of PETCO, Save Our Seas, WWF and Jack Black.The festival has grown from strength to strength over the years, and is now a household name throughout coastal South Africa. The Festival is currently presented by Pick n Pay.For more information: www.wavescapefestival.comIn 2005 I joined Steve Pike at Wavescape.co.za as a Director tasked with making the business profitable. My initial tasks included re-launching the site on an open source Joomla content management platform and building an advertising client base. I then pioneered the introduction of web-cams at famous surf spots and co-developed the Wavescape Ocean Watch surf-forecasting model, which is now the most popular service of its kind in South Africa. Wavescape is now a small but successful business and has the largest audience of any surf media in South Africa.For more information: www.wavescape.co.za

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  comPress

  • Cape Town Area, South Africa with offices in Johannesburg

  • Director

    • Jan 2000 - Jun 2003
    • Cape Town Area, South Africa with offices in Johannesburg

    I co-founded comPress in January 2000. By June of 2000, we had sold a 50% equity stake of the company to Johnnic, South Africa’s premier empowerment multi-media group. I co-directed the company until April 2003. comPress is a publications management company offering a full range of publishing services, spanning traditional print and new media services. We pioneered print-on-demand and electronic publishing in South Africa, being the first to produce a range of e-book formats. We published an extensive range of publications for the government departments of Education and Health, the Human Sciences Research Council, the CSIR, Stats SA, Nedbank, Rand Merchant Bank, Deloitte and Touche etc. As a director, I found work experience to be highly varied. My key areas of responsibility included financial management (monthly Johnnic board level management accounts), sales and marketing, new business development (distributed printing, content management) research and consulting. I also played a role in developing a team of project managers (in Cape Town and Johannesburg) and commissioning and project managing publications (approximately 30 publications per month). I travelled extensively for my company, attending the major international publishing fairs (Frankfurt, London etc). I sold my remaining shares in comPress in April 2003.

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  Cambridge University Press

  • Cape Town Area, South Africa

  • Editor

    • Jan 1997 - Dec 1999
    • Cape Town Area, South Africa

    I was employed by Cambridge University Press as an editor (and later as commissioning editor) to help maintain and develop sections of the publishing list working under the direction of the Director. I was solely responsible for the Press' Caribbean and East African lists, managing a significant part of the Branch's entire publishing budget and over 30 titles at any given time. As part of the Press's expansion programme, I edited and commissioned school textbooks and main course materials at ECD level in a wide variety of subject areas, for use in countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, where I travelled extensively. Key accountabilities included: quality control, managing projects through production, controlling project budgets, liaising with authors and freelancers and commissioning titles on time and to budget in accordance with the agreed publishing programme. I also wrote and published two children’s books during this time. I decided to leave a promising career with Cambridge University Press to start comPress, a publishing services company.