PROFILES OF THE SPEAKERS AT THE MONASH BUSINESS COMMUNICATION FORUMS
The speakers are respected senior communication practitioners and business executives with significant experience in and knowledge about allocated topics. The Forums are facilitated by Willem S Eksteen of Stone. Each Forum comprise two/three key note talks presentations and then a panel discussion Q&A and interactive debate session with real-time issue polling and testing with a voting system.
 | Facilitator: Willem S Eksteen – Founder and chairman of Stone, has a passion for business strategy, integrated marketing and communication. Willem loves the earth and the people of Africa, the continent of his heart and birth. He has lived and worked in South Africa, Europe and the United States with extensive strategy and communication implementation experience further afield. He consults to local and international organizations, developing business, communication and CSR strategies, balancing traditional and online platforms for best business results. He holds a law degree from the University of Pretoria and a post-graduate Honours degree in Journalism from the University of Stellenbosch. |
MONASH BUSINESS COMMUNICATION FORUM 3 (20 October 2009)
SPEAKER PROFILES
| Mohale M. Ralebitso Group Executive: Marketing at Absa Mohale is a graduate of the City University of New York with additional qualifications from Harvard Business School and McCann Erickson Worldwide. His strong marketing background has seen him hold several senior management positions in MSG Rimani, Liberty Group and TBWA/HUNT/LASCARIS (Gauteng). Mohale has worked on and driven strategy development for various leading international and local brands in different business sectors. He played a pivotal role in the drafting and adopting of the Advertising industry BEE scorecard. He lectured by invitation at RAU, GIBS and Vega School of Branding. He sits on the boards of several companies. |
| Freek Robinson Producer/presenter: Focus Freek Robinson holds an MPHill in Journalism among his many qualifications and is a seasoned television producer and presenter. He has held various positions both locally and internationally in News and Current Affairs. His international work spans chairing the Mandela/De Klerk debate that was broadcast to 800 million people around the world and producing/presenting several documentaries on economic and political issues in various countries around the world. Freek has received many accolades ranging from the Sanlam Award as best financial journalist on Radio and TV and Artes Award as best presenter on television among others. |
| Michelle De Pons Director: Fleishman-Hillard Johannesburg Michelle became a partner at Fleishman-Hillard Johannesburg (FH) in 1992. Her twenty year career includes working in the USA (New York) and South Africa (JHB). Some of the companies that have benefited from Michelle’s expertise include First National Bank’s eBucks.com, Business Connexion and Deloitte & Touche Human Capital Corporation for which her agency won the Financial Mail PRISM Award and PRISM Award for Investor Relations.Michelle obtained her Public Relations qualifications at the Technikon Witwatersrand. |
PAST FORUM SPEAKERS
MONASH BUSINESS COMMUNICATION FORUM 2 (20 August 2009)
TOPICS:
- Integrating digital channels into your communication mix for effective business communication - Speaker: Kate Elphick
- Measuring the effect and success of your digital communication on your business reputation - Speaker: Maureen Russel
KEY NOTE SPEAKERS:
 | Head: Digital Bridges, Kate Elphick – Kate Elphick heads up Digital Bridges, which creates high performance organisations by unlocking the business value of the web. She has spent the last twelve years on the business side of the IT sector with companies such as Dimensions Data, Business ConneXion, Datatec and more recently Primedia. Kate has an MBA from GIBS, where her dissertation was entitled The role of mobile internet in South Africa's macroeconomic growth. Her interests include innovation and growth using the Internet (www.digitalbridges.co.za) |
 | Major Account Manager: Dow Jones Solutions in Sub Saharan Africa, Maureen Russel - Her major clients include leaders in the region's banking, mining and consulting industries as well as Governments. she is Scottish by birth but South African by choice since 1995. Maureen was educated at Perth College of Business Science where she studied Banking, Economics, Tax, Law and Management Accounting. Maureen started her career at the Bank of Scotland and later Lloyds TSB, moving through the ranks to Regional Manager, Marketing and New Business Development. In 1995 she joined Reuters in South Africa with a focus on media products and solutions. Soon she became the country manager for Factiva, an information solution joint venture between Reuters and Dow Jones. Under her leadership the South African company grew to a turnover of more than R20M per annum. In 2007 Factiva was bought by Dow Jones and Maureen assumed her current regional role in Dow Jones Solutions. Maureen is ALSO an associate member of the institute of Bankers (Scotland) and member of the Special Libraries Association, South African Competitive Intelligence Association and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. She enjoys socialising with friends, reading and she is a keen traveller. In the last year she visited the Arctic to see Polar Bears, Kosi Bay to see Turtles and the Namib desert. (www.dowjones.com) |
MONASH BUSINESS COMMUNICATION FORUM 1 (2 June 2009)
TOPICS:
- The business value of integrated communication across various platforms – Mandisa Ntloko
- Real strategic business value of effective communication – Dr Barbara Jensen
- Paradigm shift to facilitate the modern and immediate nature of media – Pieter Bruwer
KEY NOTE SPEAKERS:
 | Mandisa Ntloko, Executive Marketing Director, Dimension Data Africa and Middle East - Mandisa joined Dimension Data in January 2008 as Executive Director for Marketing in Middle East and Africa. She has 12 years experience in marketing communications and has worked for a number of leading brands, both locally and internationally, including MTN and Nokia. Furthermore, prior to entering the private sector, Mandisa has six years of experience in running youth leadership and entrepreneurial skills development programmes in the non-government sector. She holds BA degree from the University of Witwatersrand, majoring in International Relations and Industrial Sociology and she was awarded the Nelson Mandela Scholarship to study her MBA at the Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom. |
 | Dr Barbara Jensen, Communication and Marketing Manager, Gautrain - Barbara has been involved in communication for the past twenty-four years, in a training, research and a practical capacity. Her expertise is government communication, international relations, communication research, and the implementation of stakeholder mobilisation and transformation campaigns. Barbara is part of the Gautrain's Project Management team since the project’s inception in 2000 and is specifically responsible for its communication and marketing. She holds a Doctorate in Business Management. The title of her doctoral thesis is The Search for Communication Equilibrium through Political Public Relations. Barbara is a senior member of the PR industry in SA and frequently delivers papers at national and international conferences. Under her leadership, Gautrain's communication had received numerous national and international awards, the latest being the International Association of Business Communicator's Gold Quill for media management in New York in June 2008. Gautrain's communication was also awarded the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa's Overall PRISM Gold Award in 2008. |
 | Pieter Bruwer, Regional Advertising Manager at Media24 – Pieter Bruwer, Advertising Manager at Media24, based in Cape Town - Pieter has held various positions in both editorial and advertising teams in the South African newspaper industry. After being a successful business journalist, he served as advertising manager of the Afrikaans dailies Beeld and then Die Burger, general manager of Die Burger, general manager of Sake24 (the daily business sections inserted into Beeld, Die Burger and Volksblad). He started his career as a general reporter, worked as a business journalist and was national editor for special projects for Media24’s daily business sections. He also currently serves as chairman of the Greater Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Vice-chairman of the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce. |
