Darren Leishman is the Cofounder of Spitfire Inbound arguably the most successful inbound marketing, sales and service consultancy in South Africa. He has a long history in the traditional advertising space having run Penquin for 18 years.

He sold a majority share in Penquin to the management team and founded Spitfire as a niche agency focused specifically on solving complex marketing, sales and service challenges for some of South Africa's leading brands. With Spitfire he has executed successful campaigns that deliver exceptional returns for customers and have resulted in a string of awards over the past 3 years for the growth and success they have delivered for their diverse clientele.

Lebo is a strategic communications expert, a content maverick, a brand builder, a technology enthusiast and a PR maven. Her 20 year journey in PR, digital, brand and marketing includes roles in both agency and corporate, as well as the less travelled journey of entrepreneurship.

She uses her blend of expertise in PR, brand and marketing, to help South African and multinational brands solve complex business challenges, and to build and protect corporate reputation.

As Chief Marketing Officer she handled the rebrand of a JSE listed digital technology provider (Etion), that included amalgamating 4 subsidiaries that came together through acquisitions under one brand, and taking them on a journey of the design of a common culture and employee value proposition, successfully entrenching the brand with its customers, developing go-to-market strategies, as well as transitioning and landing the name change with shareholders, media and the investor community.

In her roles in PR she has steered leading PR agencies Ogilvy PR and Influence, and FCB’s Redline, as well as running her own agency PR Powerhouse which she founded in 2011, until it was insourced into Etion in 2018. Her specialisation in PR spans across corporate and consumer communication, content, media relations, crisis and issues management, government relations, investor relations, creative strategy, intelligence and insights. She has done these for clients in aviation, mining, film and entertainment, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality and leisure, retail and technology.

Lebo is passionate about the industry and gives her time to award judging panels that include the 2020 New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards, PRISM Awards, recognising the best of PR in South Africa. She has a number of industry accolades to her name including being named among Avance Media’s 100 Most Influential Young South Africans in 2018. Her entrepreneurial journey has seen her placed in the top 15 in the South African chapter of the Goldman Sachs 10 000 Women Certificate Programme for female entrepreneurs at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS).

Uyanda Manana has more than 15 years industry experience working with heavyweights like MTN, Nando’s, Nedbank, Edgar’s, United Biscuits and L’Oreal. Uyanda honed her skills in integrated marketing communications and account leadership at agencies in SA and abroad, including Publicis UK, the Jupiter Drawing Room, M&C Saatchi Abel and Dubai’s Hariz ME.

The dynamic executive with a passion for harnessing and showcasing African creativity and talent heads up Johannesburg-based independent, BE Digital Agency – an exciting new addition to Conversation LAB Holdings.

Mpume joined the Joe Public team in 2013 as the Business Unit Director where she spearheaded a vast portfolio of brands that include the development of brand strategy and ATL campaigns for Nedbank, CCI’s Brothers for Life, Zazi, British American Tobacco, South African Breweries Corporate brand, Brutal Fruit, Redd’s and Castle Milk Stout, to name but a few.

She brought with her over eleven years of experience stemming from her BCom Honours Degree in Marketing and Management from the University of Natal. Starting her career in 2002 at Johnnic Publishing, Mpume kept her positions in the industry far from static as she continuously found the opportunity to grow and further her knowledge, skills and expertise within the industry. This was evident as she became the Account Director and later the Business Unit Director in 2008 at Yellowwood, where she transformed brand strategies into design strategies within various disciplines such as packaging design as well as 3D and 4D design. Her brand portfolio grew to include categories from financial services, media, hospitality and retail to biotechnology, petrochemicals, manufacturing and freight.

Lastly, Mpume has been a part time lecturer at Boston Media House for the past four years further reflecting how growth and development is important for young talent coming into the industry. In a world that is driven by technological and digital advancement and innovation, it is clear that Mpume strives to stay one step ahead of the latest trends and developments by broadening her range of knowledge and skills within digital marketing and advertising.

In light of the above, Mpume proves to be a strong candidate to judge at the New Generation Awards as her career and motivations reflect the groundings upon which the awards are based. This being the acknowledgment of innovative, creative and brilliant digital marketing media that shows understandings of the past and the future of our digital landscape. Mpume’s expertise will be a valuable addition to the candidate of judges.

Lynne Krawchuk is a senior executive with over 18 years spent across the spectrum of marketing and communications encompassing strategic brands solutions across digital, public relations, events and activations, media and advertising, having worked for and contributed personally towards the growth and development of some of the countries award winning digital and traditional agencies.

Lynne is currently the Executive Head of Client Service and Commercial Director of Clockwork, an award winning Independent, forward-thinking and dogma-free agency for an ever-changing world. Social, TV, outdoor, retail, PR or activations, Clockwork is channel-agnostic and do it all. Because any agency worth its salt should be able to create content for the strongest, most appropriate channel. It’s how Clockwork help their clients reach their audiences in memorable ways. Lynne’s role is a multi-faceted one that sees her drawing on a combined knowledge and experience of marketing of brands, people, business and commercials, to further grow the award-winning agency internally as well as externally via developing integrated, flexible and strategic solutions that enhance our customers’ brands and footprints in the market for the future.

Being passionate, having a robust opinion and understanding of what excellence should be in the field of communication, she has worked with, and helped grow, some of the best local and international companies including brands such as Exxaro, Gautrain, Seacom, STD Bank, Emirates, Loreal SA and Oracle to name a few. Lynne is passionate about developing women leaders in Africa and integrated communication. She considers that brands prosper when they engage in continuous conversations with people in a relevant and meaningful way.

Making a difference and adding value to those we engage with is key to delivering successful brand strategies and campaigns. “I believe that a business' talent is its biggest and most important asset and a company has to work hard to retain its valuable talent by creating an inspiring and positive environment. In South Africa we have a hunger and entrepreneurial spirit, and given the opportunity for growth, consider what that could mean for our people and indeed our agency”. Lynne also pursues her personal and strategic imperative of transformational and inclusive leadership fervently within the business.

Lynne’s core skills include executive management, commercial and business development as well as client relationship management and portfolio growth.

Patrick Palmi is the visionary African digital entrepreneur and mobile innovator, who has built the highly successful multi-million rand and multi award-winning mobile marketing agency, Justpalm.com, which specialises in helping leading brands connect, engage and convert consumers to customers using mobile technologies.

Justpalm.com mobile innovations have won over 10 prestigious local and global awards and the agency has been ranked among the top five EMEA Digital/Specialist Agencies at the annual Smarties awards. Justpalm customers include the top Fortune 100 FMCG companies in the world.

Kevin Power is a born and bred South African with 25 years global advertising and communications experience.

A qualified lawyer, he left for London in 1995, cutting his teeth with Marks and Spencer, followed by 11 years with top London advertising agencies – BBDO and Publicis.

He went onto head up accounts for global brands across Europe such as Shell, HP, easyJet, Citi, RBS, WWF and Save the Children where he picked up Grand Prix at the Caples Awards in New York and a Silver Echo in Atlanta, among others.

Kevin returned to SA and co-founded Conversation LAB in August 2012 growing the agency into arguably SA’s biggest independent digital agency with offices in 4 cities and 70 staff in under 5 years.

Kevin is now based in the UK but splits his time between UK and SA as Group MD of Conversation LAB Holdings which includes Power LAB (strategic comms agency) and BE (a black empowerment creative agency).

Lindy has over 17 years’ progressive experience in marketing; of which 10 have been dedicated to digital media. The culmination of her experience gathered via multiple marketing disciplines, has empowered her to approach the evolution of media in an informed and holistic manner. She is obsessed with the progression of media, technology, content and the role that data driven audience insights play in helping brands connect with the right people, at the right time, with the right content.

Luke Goller has been in the creative and advertising industry for over 18 years. Before heading up his own agency, Luke was a creative director who managed the campaigns of well-known brands such as Samsung, Philips and Xbox. 

 His experience and natural knack for technology has made his agency one of the most sought after for mobile app development. Luke’s expertise include creative strategy, art direction, design and mobile product development. Yet even with all this, what’s most impressive about Luke is his calm, control and focus under the most strenuous of circumstances.

Jared has over a decade of marketing expertise that spans digital marketing, media planning, buying, strategy, product marketing and media owner marketing across retail, finance and media globally; he has an unquenchable passion for digital, strategy and media.

Chairman of the internet marketing association of South Africa, Jared currently holds a diploma in digital marketing management, a diploma in social media marketing and a certified inbound marketing professional through Hubspot University. 

Past client experience:

Durex, Air Wick, Dettol, Disprin, E45, Finish, Gaviscon, Mortein, Nurofen, Scholl, Strepsils, Transact, Vanish, Clicks, Takealot, PNP, Dis-Chem, Dial Direct, First For Women, Hippo.co.za, King Price, Budget Insurance, Discovery and Junk Mail Publishing.

Claudelle Naidoo is an accomplished Marketing, Consumer & Media Research Specialist with 15 years of experience working across multi-million rand portfolios within organisations such as Nielsen SA, Media 24, Caxton, and Kagiso Media.

Currently, aswell as being managing director, Claudelle heads up MediaCom’s Analytics & Insights division, where she focuses on using technology and data modelling exercises to develop and execute insights that assist businesses in understanding the impact of their sales and marketing initiatives.

Claudelle considers herself to be a “changemaker” who finds a business problem, seeks a solution, and drives positive transformation for all stakeholders. As such, she was involved in the change in methodology and design of the Radio Audience Measurement Survey in South Africa; this involved sitting on the eight-man Tender Evaluation Committee and selecting a new supplier.

She has consequently developed a strong reputation in the industry for her ability to translate data into actionable insights with commercial value, which has led to her little black book of good relationships with some of South Africa’s top business leaders.

Over the last few years, Claudelle has been “giving back” and regularly lectures at Vega on topics that she is passionate about. In addition, she is also a qualified journalist who writes in her spare time for well-known sites such as Bizcommunity.

A marketing and communications junkie with extensive experience in the sport and entertainment industry, Kieren has over 10 years’ experience in digital and PR, consulting to South Africa’s biggest corporates.

Dani Morley has 17 years’ Digital innovation, marketing, media, advertising and communication experience working for award winning - global and local- digital and traditional agencies, whose success she has contributed to.

Bringing an honest, robust opinion and understanding of what excellence should be in the field of Digital, she has worked with, and helped grow, some of the best local and international companies including brands such as Sasol, Pnet, McCain, SAB\ AB Inbev, Appletiser, Tiger Brands, Chicken Licken and Ericsson to name a few.

Currently Dani is the Chief Executive Officer of a technology driven, digital media business called Digital Optimization, where she aims to explore and deliver on the relationship between Strategic Media, Technology and Creative solutions to accomplish connections and conversions for clients. Prior to that Dani started Joe Public Connect, a “green field” digital agency born to grow true connections for Joe Public United’s clients, and to head up the digital offering for the Brand and Communications group. Under her leadership, the team grew from 0 to over 60 talents in the digital hub, and from working on 0 to 19 clients, flourishing into a noticable and award winning digital agency in South Africa. Before Joe Public, she was at NXT Digital Innovation, based within the global Omnicom Group company – TBWA \ Tequila, and successfully grew their digital footprint from a commercial and business development perspective.

Career highlights include scooping up the prestigious Assegai 2018 Agency of the Year title and winning Digital Agency of the Year Twice in a row at the New Generation Awards (2017 & 2018). Dani credits these accolades – first and foremost – to the prodigious and hungry Digital talent South Africa has. “We have an entrepeneural and creative spirit in Africa, that when driven by a shared purpose, a clients hunger for growth and executed with strategic & creative clout ….is where the magic happens.”

Dani is committed to growing and transforming clients digital ecosystems through effective, innovative and creative digital through tapping into the value of true customer experience and engagement technology. Her philosophy also includes- building with ther teams- a unique brand of customer intimacy and partnering strategically with them to deliver innovative digital media, technology and communication solutions.

Her core skills include executive management, commercial and business development as well as client relationship management and portfolio growth. Dani also pursues her personal and strategic imperative of transformational and inclusive leadership fervently within her business.

Stephen Paxton has over 20 years’ experience in marketing and sales, and has extensive knowledge of the digital media and technology space.

A graphic designer by trade, Stephen worked at a number of leading publishing houses in the UK before moving to South Africa, where he joined Topco Media and progressed to the position of associate publisher on a number of well-known B2B magazines.

Stephen is a futurist, a purpose driven individual, with an innovative character who loves to embrace change and new technology. In a few short years Stephen grew the New Generation brand from the ground up to be a formidable force and sought after awards brand in South Africa. He is thorough, fair and considered in everything he does. A spirited individual with a big heart for people.

Templar Wales's career has always been centred around creating engaging experiences for marketing, communications and systems through design, creative thinking and strategy.

As chief marketing officer and head of Client Experience for Airborne, a fintech start-up, Templar was responsible for the brand and identity development, marketing strategy and the full client experience. For two years prior to this, as head of Digital for Investec Group Marketing, Templar led the development and execution of the brand’s digital marketing strategy. Before that Templar was a new media designer/developer at TBWA Tool Communications (South Africa's first integrated marketing agency), founder/ECD at Blink New Media (a fiercely independent digital agency) and MD/head of Strategy at Gloo (digital agency of the year for seven years running).

Templar has collaborated with most of the major agencies in South Africa, and worked on most of the top brands in financial services and insurance, vehicle manufacturing, medical, tourism and hospitality, apparel, FMCG, and management and training.

With a fairly full shelf of his own Loerie, Bookmark, Midas and Assegai awards, Templar has been on various judging panels, including the Loeries, for 12 years – once as chairman.

He has spoken at numerous conferences and lectured at Wits, Vega, AAA, UJ and MediaTech, and sat on steering committees for the Wits and UJ New Media departments. Having scraped into MENSA, Templar uses his membership just to access the free monthly geek talks.

Tara Turkington founded Flow Communications in 2005. Flow specialises in social media, web and app development, content writing and editing, graphic design, digital marketing, public relations and media training. Today, Flow has more than 150 clients, including some well-known South African and international brands and organisations, and has completed work in more than 30 countries.

In the early part of her career, Tara was a journalist and university lecturer. Tara’s dream is to continue creating meaningful jobs, and to further develop Flow’s brand globally.

Bokang Mabiletsa is a brand builder with over 13 years’ experience in the digital marketing sector, and has served both top international and local companies. He has worked on over 500 online digital projects, including work for clients such as Barloworld, Anglo American, L’Oreal, Telkom, Bidvest, Tiger Brands and many others.

As a director at Mind Interactive for the past 12 years, and current Marketing Director at Elite CV, Bokang has grown his strengths to include digital transformation, project management, leadership, strategy, social media marketing, and web and app development, and he has a fine eye for creative designs.

Bokang serves on various university advisory boards in web and application development, and he is active and passionate about educating and inspiring students in the digital space.

Jeff Siepman is a multi-award winning designer with over two decades’ experience in both traditional and digital advertising. He has worked with a multitude of brands across various industries, both locally and internationally, including Absa, Barclays, Jaguar, Land Rover, Danone, Russell Hobbs, Cadbury and Telkom, to name a few.

Entrepreneur. Perfectionist. High-octane creative director. Innovative strategist. Digital evangelist. Before co-founding G&G Digital, Desiree Gullan worked at the big-three creative agencies in South Africa, for a boutique agency in Singapore and had her own consultancy. Experience has taught her important lessons about creativity, innovation and how to produce work that breaks through.

Desiree is an unrelenting perfectionist with a passion for well-crafted work that resonates with people. She believes no matter how large or small the budget, real passion shines through, and results in work that stands out and adds value to clients, their brands and consumers’ lives.

A tough creative director who expects nothing but exceptional from her team, Desiree brings the same austerity to the New Generation panel of judges.

Our head judge, Gillian Findlay, has over 30 years’ experience in the financial and investment field, and also has extensive experience in a variety of financial media, having worked for both the Financial Mail and Finweek.

She was a panellist on the weekly TV programme Diagonal Street, winning the coveted Panellist of the Year Award twice. She contributed to the TV economics programmes Egoli and Gauteng, aimed at Zulu- and Sotho-speaking viewers.

She is a member of the Investment Analysts’ Society of South Africa, the Economic Society of South Africa and the Institute of Directors, and is Accredited in Public Relations by PRISA, the South African industry body. Gillian is a former chairman of the Public Relations Consultancy Chapter (PRCC), has sat on the Board of PRISA and has represented the PRCC on the Council for Communication Management.

Astrid Ascar has 29 years’ experience in marketing, communications and media. She started her career as a journalist, presenter and radio & TV executive producer, and over the years has worked for media brands including DStv, Carte Blanche, Summit TV (now Business Day TV), The Home Channel, CNBC Africa, SABC TV, SAfm, Highveld and Hot919 fm.

In 2004 she made the transition from TV and radio to digital, working alongside MTN, Vodacom and Cell C, handset manufacturers and content providers to trial South Africa’s first ever mobile TV offering, DStv Mobile. It marked her entry into the mobile and digital landscape and laid the foundations for the rest of her career.

By 2009 Astrid was working as an independent business strategy consultant helping clients and agencies across a range of disciplines – traditional and digital marketing and communications strategies, content creation and production, key messaging and copy, site audits and optimisation including UI and UX consulting, integrated digital marketing strategies across owned, earned and paid tactics, and data analytics and insights. She also continued to MC, give talks, and facilitate workshops and conferences, and offered training in media interview skills, presentation skills, crisis comms, and a host of digital marketig and strategy topics.

Astrid is a firm believer in a brand or business never doing anything that doesn’t make strategic sense, and brings a disciplined “no jargon business principle” approach to recommendations she offers. She still likes to be ‘hands on’ involved and is equally at ease writing SEM copy and selecting keywords, as she is presenting a strategy to Boards and Excos.

In February 2018 Wunderman South Africa, now Wunderman Thompson 'convinced her to join their team as Chief Strategy Officer, a role that offers her the strategic, creative thinking and operational inputs she thrives on.

Kenneth Garvie started his digital career in 2000, thus making him one of the most experienced digital marketers currently in South Africa. Since the introduction of the internet in 1996, few individuals can match his time spent in pure digital environments.

Kenneth holds an honours degree in marketing and with a strong technical background, his understanding of technologies and social platforms is a major advantage. It has allowed him to grow direct relationships with top industry partners, which continue to enhance his digital footprint.

Over the course of his career he has built multiple digital companies from the ground up: Eurocom, Havas Digital (formally Euro RSCG), DDB Digital and currently with TBWA. In all instances, the divisions were started with a single person. The companies still operate to this day and operate successfully.

Kenneth has worked internationally –The Netherlands, Sweden, France and Germany, which allowed him to build a skill set that is both valuable for the agency and the clients within the stable.

He has won awards both locally and internationally and has worked on brands in various sectors and industries. With a wide range and understanding of digital eco-systems, Kenneth is able to build and streamline business structures producing more than vanity metrics for brands. Now a social media expert, Kenneth is leading the forefront of social media innovation, changing the conception of how social media works for a business and turns into real business results. Being a business owner himself he has become invaluable to the awards, bringing a sense of business results over "likes" and other vanity metrics.

He believes that technology provides the power to shape not only the industry but the world and this, along with his vast experience,puts him at the forefront of digital innovation.

Prakash Patel is an established and award winning accomplished Senior Marketing and Digital Executive – one whose expertise spans both the digital, data, traditional marketing, branding and strategy realms – with over 25 years’ experience both in the UK and South Africa. Previously MD and Chief Digital Strategist for Fogg Cape Town, CEO of Prezence Digital SA and Head of Digital for FCB.

A strategist and innovator, a creative in disguise and a firm believer that all things are possible using technology as the enabler, creative as the idea-tor and data as the incubator of insights. Working in a world that is changing faster than ever before. Trying to keep up with tomorrow today and helping brands come to life in the Digital Era.

He is an active thought leadership writer, speaker and judge for both local and international awards (incl. Advisory Board Member for SXSW Innovations awards, The Webby’s, Bookmarks, Africa.com and New Generations Awards).