SKILLS
Copywriting.
Creative Direction.
Content Strategy.
Content Marketing.
Creative Strategy.
Strategic Communications.
Integrated Marketing.
Digital Media.
Social Media.
Integrated Marketing.
CERTIFICATIONS
LinkedIn Marketing Strategy. (LinkedIn).
Career Essentials in Generative AI. (LinkedIn & Microsoft).
Integrated Marketing Communications Strategies. (LinkedIn).
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. (LinkedIn).
Education and career summary.
I started my career in a newsroom, sub-editing for a daily newspaper in Johannesburg. Today, I’m a creative director working at the intersection of creativity and generative AI. In between, i’ve been content manager, a copywriter, a digital director, a creative lead, and throughout all of it… a writer.
Career Summary
Creative Director (Generative AI & Automation) | The Up&Up Group (affiliated to the global M+C Saatchi Group)
(2025-present)
Leading the integration of AI across creative teams across the group, translating new tech into practical applications and frameworks that amplify everyday creative work. From Strategic Guardrails to training, to thought leadership, I work at the intersection of creativity, technology and strategy.
Senior Copywriter – Creative Lead – Creative Director | OLIVER+ (Now Brandtech+)
(2020 – 2025)
Five years across three roles at a global in-house agency, working remotely on clients across multiple continents. I grew into creative leadership, learned how to run teams at scale, and became one of the operators tasked with integrating the group’s proprietary AI tool across global clients, partnering with C-Suite stakeholders and country leads. This work was as much change management as creative direction: Understanding client readiness, building adoption strategies and translating new technology into something teams would actually use. I learned how to lead creative work at scale, across cultures and timezones, and how to think about creative technology as a strategic problem, not just a tooling one.
Senior Copywriter | Promise Agency
(2018 – 2020)
Copywriting and concepting across Rand Merchant Bank, FNB, RMB Private Bank, FNB CIB, PPS for Professionals, and others. I learned how to write inside constraints, how to concept for integrated campaigns, and how to get work through layers of compliance without losing what made it good. Three Loeries shortlists, a Pendoring Gold and a New Gen Gold for content marketing.
Digital Director | Longevity Magazine
(2017 – 2018)
Consulting into publications, agencies, and content studios and running all digital content for Longevity. Editorial and commercial across every channel. Grew digital readership 60% month-on-month. I learned how the editorial and advertising sides of publishing actually work together, how to make content measurable, and how to build an audience on purpose.
Content Manager | Engage Joe Public
(2016 – 2017)
I moved from pure social/content to PR. Content strategy and community management work across multiple brands taught me how content fits inside the broader creative ecosystem: When content should lead, when it should support, and how to judge whether a piece of work is worth it. The role taught me to think about content as a strategic lever, not a volume driver.
Content Manager | Cerebra
(2014 – 2016)
Social, strategy, and community management for Absa/Barclays Africa and Vodacom taught me how brands actually behave in public under pressure. Crisis communication, real-time judgment, brand tone of voice, and how to report meaningfully on the work. Monthly reporting taught me how to frame communications work for executives who care about outcomes. I was chose to represent the agency at WPP Stream Africa as Director of Social Media.
Sub-Editor | The Citizen
(2014 – 2014)
Sub-Editing a daily paper taught me which stories matter, which angles hold up, what to keep, what to cut, and what to stand behind.
Jacques Cilliers 