Search Speakers: Johannesburg

For a man who’s been in advertising for 19 years, John Pace still has a surprisingly good head of hair. He started his career at Ogilvy & Mather in 1982, where he worked as an art director and later as a creative director. In 1996 he co-founded Bull Calvert Pace as creative partner.

Muzi Kuzwayo was born in Paynville, near Springs. He started his schooling at Nolwandle Lower Primary School and finished at Kenneth Masekela High in KwaThema.

Graham Leigh is director and retail branding specialist for the HKLM Group in South Africa.

Sandhya Lalloo won the Vukani Design Award for Best Young Designer in 2003. Determined to showcase her skills, she subsequently founded SIN, her clothing label, and has since supplied a number of leading retail stores in South Africa.

Nathan Reddy studied design in Natal at the ML Sultan School of Design. He began his career as a junior designer at FCB design where he remained for three years before moving to TBWA Hunt Lascaris as the head of design.

Roger Smythe began work at the Clearwater Group, holding the positions of creative director and new business development manager between 1997 and 2002. Then, with Reot Reolon, he co-founded motion design house Masters & Savant to service television channels, advertising agencies and corporates alike.

Maira Koutsoudakis is the founder and principal of Life architecture, interiors and creative direction. She’s garnered international acclaim for her firm’s multi-award winning work in the areas of luxury resort, boutique hotel, exclusive residential, restaurant projects and product design.

Tholoana Qhobela is the director of strategic planning with Ogilvy & Mather Rightford SeerleTripp & Makin, one of South Africa’s largest communication groups, which has interests in advertising, design, promotions, event and reputation management.

Veejay Archary was a founding partner of Herdbuoys McCann-Erickson, the first black-owned advertising and design company in South Africa in 1991. He has worked in New York for Diefenbah Elkins/FutureBrand, a world leader in branding. He was trained in Durban, Buenos Aires and New York.

Kassie Naidoo studied graphic design in Durban in the late 1980s before making her journey to Jo’burg. She started her career in magazine design by chance and loved it so much that she worked in the industry for 11 years.