Nutshell:

I’ve been in the online game since MS Explorer where fighting Mozilla Netscape in the browser wars. The days of flat HTML in notepad and the word “interactivity” meant a lousy forum, the rise of Google and the search engine wars and now the social graph platform wars.

I’ve seen and experienced much from the ground up. I understand how to monetise online. How to build a business and how tough the SA market is due to it’s small size. But like all passionate web-people I am in for the long haul when we are finally proved right!

I regard myself as an inspiring leader and love to nurture raw and young talent.

Now:

Ok … so I am currently General Manager of Social Networking and Media at 24.com * - which in a nutshell means that I am responsible for building communities in the 24.com network as well as social media and networking products that “create conversations around content” and have local relevance.

At the beginning of 2008 I was tasked to build a team to deliver this strategy for 24.com.

Some of our products are Laaik.it, Answerit, 24blogs and Play.

Before that:

From 2005 to end 2007 I was Publisher of News24.com - In that time News24 reached the Million domestic user milestone and financial performance did a 360 degree - so I am really proud of my contribution there. My gig was to make money, strategy and operational management of the business. It was fun to be head of the largest site in the country but my work was done and I needed a new challenge. Social media offered the perfect opportunity : ) 

I’ve always been the guys they throw new challenges at so along the way I have been given many other businesses to incubate. These include Sport24, Who’s Who, Netads24 Classifieds.

Even before that:

I started by career in 2000 as a web designer for SundayTimes.co.za - going onto manage and grow the operation from 2002 for 2 years. Those were the days when I sat up at night building websites in notepad : ) - I was smitten by the online bug then. A cool highlight was that I was sent to Wired.com in San Francisco to do a 6 week internship and it rocked. I got to see the original webmonkey from where I drew my inspiration.I left because they were not ready for my plans. At that time Johncom (Now Avusa) were not interested to invest in the web - which was too frustrating. So I am glad that the guys are Avusa have risen to the challenge as Sunday Times was my first ever baby : ) 

Still before that:
I started my desire for the web at Rhodes University studying Journalism but specialised in graphic design and web publishing which was my passion. I never wanted to be a journalist - so when the web came along I was saved and invigorated. In fact I was a part of the second ever New Media class at Rhodes. - And that was back in the Browser war days (Explorer vs Mozilla).

Other education:

A post graduate Certificate of Management from the Henley Institute of London including a thesis on “cross-media selling.”

Memberships:

On the Executive of the Online Publishers Association (OPA) of South Africa.

* 24.com, a division of Media24 is a Naspers company and based in Cape Town, South Africa.