PROFESSOR ANITA ELBERSE
Renowned Harvard professor, award-winning scholar, and CO-FOUNDER of The Africa Sport and Entertainment Summit, Professor Anita Elberse is set to captivate delegates at the second annual Africa Sport and Entertainment Summit. Professor Elberse develops and teaches an MBA course covering the "Businesses of Entertainment, Media, and Sports," which ranks among the most sought-after courses in the School’s curriculum, and chairs a short executive education program, also named "The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports." She chairs a semester-long mentoring program, "Crossover Into Business," that is specifically designed for professional athletes. She further leads the Summer Venture in Management Program for college students from minority backgrounds. Poets & Quants named her one of the world's best business school professors under the age of 40, and she has received teaching awards on multiple occasions from both the Harvard Business School and its students, including the Charles M. Williams Award for excellence in teaching, "Best of EC Year" honors (for top faculty teaching in the Elective Curriculum), and the Faculty Teaching Award. In 2016, she won the "Outstanding Case Teacher" award in The Case Centre's worldwide competition, also known as "business education's Oscars."
OFFICIAL SUMMIT
HOST
OLWETHU LESHABANE
AWARD-WINNING MEDIA ENTREPRENEUR, MOM OF THREE AND DOULA.
Olwethu Leshabane is an award-winning media entrepreneur, mom of three, and doula. Olwethu is a speaker, MC/Facilitator, TV presenter, blogger, podcaster, social media content creator, and strategic creative producer.
Olwethu is also an early childhood development, maternal health, and women's advancement advocate and the founder of Art of Superwoman (AoS).
At its core, AoS is a multimedia content development and distribution platform that sets out to educate, inspire, entertain, and influence its audience (predominantly women and mothers) to make sound and wholesome parenting, career, wellness, financial, and lifestyle choices. AoS is also a marketing platform and online retail channel (marketplace) for various women-owned brands.
Olwethu is also the visionary behind CreativeSHOPPË, a digital hub and boutique creative agency that collaborates intimately with clients to link them with creators and their receptive markets. Departing from conventional creative constraints, CreativeSHOPPË crafts authentic and groundbreaking projects that not only resonate but also yield tangible returns on investment for clients.
CO-HOST
ZIMASA VABAZA
CHIEF MEDIA & ADVERTISING STRATEGIST /DIGITAL MAVEN / ENTREPRENEUR
Zimasa is a dynamic commercial media entrepreneur who merges the love of creating concepts from scratch to market inception and strategic business goals as a guiding light.
After serving as a marketing intern at Transnet, at the age of 22 Zimasa and Emmanuel Mphande (then business partner) created a student event placement company that focused on Below-The-Line marketing activations and corporate event logistics services. The key was seeing a commercial value opportunity in creating value for clients by alleviating the cumbersome task of crowd sourcing and managing capable candidates for various event logistics supply chain activities as well as on the ground crew management at events, activations and corporate functions. We excelled at this and became a de-facto staffing solutions and crew logistics supplier to a handful of JHB based medium sized companies.
OFFICIAL SUMMIT
PANELIST
TJ ADESHOLA
MEDIA EXECUTIVE
Internationally-recognized media executive TJ Adeshola is a leader at the intersection of tech, media, and culture. He currently serves as Operating Partner for the sports private investment firm, Arctos Partners. Prior to, he led the Global Media Partnerships team at Twitter, providing strategic consult for the world's largest media properties across sports, gaming, entertainment and news.
TJ has appeared on CNBC, Good Morning America, ESPN, NBA TV, NFL Network and more. He has been recognized by the American Advertising Federation as an inductee in the Hall of Achievement, Sports Business Journal, Ad Age, and Black Enterprise 40 Under 40 awards, and was named one of 29 “Young Influentials” by Adweek. Through all his ventures, TJ prioritizes amplifying diverse voices across the entertainment, music and sports industries, respectively.
JUSTIN VAN WYK
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF BIG CONCEPTS & MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TICKETMASTER SOUTH AFRICA
Justin Van Wyk is the Chief Executive Officer of Big Concerts, South Africa’s premier concert promoter, as well as Ticketmaster South Africa, the world's leading ticketing platform.
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Big Concerts and Ticketmaster South Africa are subsidiaries of Live Nation Entertainment, the global leader in live entertainment, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:LYV).
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Live Nation Entertainment is responsible for bringing to life 40,000+ shows and 100+ festivals annually, owns, operates, and books 200+ venues, including theatres, arenas, and stadiums; produces tours for 4,000+ artists, from global superstars to local and new and developing talent; and sells over 500 million tickets per year across sports, music, arts, theatre, and family events in more than 45 countries, made possible by 44,000 employees worldwide.
TUMELO SELIKANE
MANAGING DIRECTOR
NIELSEN SPORTS SA
Tumelo Selikane is a visionary leader with experience in driving revenue growth and market share. As Managing Director of Nielsen Sports SA, he's at the helm of pioneering cross-platform media valuation, fan insights, and digital media analysis. His influence extends to shaping the African sports industry and beyond.
LETHABO SITHOLE
PARTNER, AMILA AFRICA
Lethabo Sithole is a legal practitioner and development consultant specialising in international business, trade, and investment law. With public, private and policy experience she brings diverse expertise to her work. As Chairperson of the AfCFTA Youth Forum's Advisory Board, Lethabo drives inclusive development and youth engagement in Africa. Working with Amila Africa, Lethabo facilitates sustainable socio-economic development by mobilising resources and fostering trade and trade-related investment in Africa. She also serves as a partner and head of strategy at IFFAC, supporting, nurturing and financing Africa's creative and cultural industries across the value chain.
BRONWEN AURET
ACTING CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
SA TOURISM
Bronwen Auret is the Acting Chief Marketing Officer for South African Tourism. She is responsible for the brand and marketing of South African Tourism. South African Tourism is the destination marketing organisation for South Africa and has recently launched its global brand programme The Best of Us through the partnership with Siya Kolisi.
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Her substantive role is the Chief Quality Assurance Officer for South African Tourism and leads the quality assurance team for South African Tourism. Ensuring quality assurance is key to delivering on traveller's expectations and enhancing the customer experience. The Quality Assurance team at SA Tourism is responsible for the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA) and Visitor Experience.
The Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA) was established in 2000. Operating as a business unit of South African Tourism, the TGCSA is still the only recognised and globally credible quality assurance body for tourism products in South Africa.
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Bronwen has been with South African Tourism since 2018 and previously held the position of GM: Brand & Marketing. She is a seasoned business leader and is obsessed with business problems and finding smart strategic business solutions.
CLEOLA KUNENE
HEAD OF SME DEVELOPMENT
AND CX AT THE JSE
Cleola Kunene is the Head of SME Development and CX at the JSE. In her current role, she is responsible for economic growth drivers with a focus on SME development, Capital access, driving public-private partnerships, red-tape reduction and market access. Cleola is also responsible for CX strategy development and transformation. Cleola has co-founded several businesses over time from technology, a consulting firm, e-commerce, hospitality, water bottling and critical mineral refining.
She has led the growth of Say-Siyabonga, an ecommerce platform that was acquired. Had significant success as Director and co-founder of Riverlife hospitality and water. She is founder of Afri-Green Investments and a Board member of Isimiso.
In addition Cleola is a motivational speaker, MC and presenter on topics from self-development, entrepreneurship to financial wellness. She is a global mentor for Women in ETFs. Her prior roles include organisations such as T-Systems, Multichoice and Naspers.
Cleola holds a master's degree in business administration from Henley.
She also holds degrees in Linguistics and a post-graduate degrees from Wits University, University of Reunion and qualifications from GIBS.
LUXOLO SEPTEMBER
CAF HEAD OF BROADCAST/COMMERCIAL
Luxolo September heads Africa's biggest sport TV/media rights: as the Head of Broadcast (Commercial) at CAF. The Africa Cup of Nations is Africa's single-biggest event with 600 million viewers in over 150 countries every two years.
He has worked in international sport for the last 16 years: from FIFA, PSL and now at CAF where he is responsible for strategy and media rights. He serves in the CAF Executive Management Board.
In this period, he has worked at several FIFA World Cups in different roles.
September, a former Sport Industry Sport Personality Winner (2018) serves in several boards including CEO's in Sport, LIMAr Media Group, Read to Lead (Department of Education), uLwazi NPO (Chairman) and Tsomo-Kei Farm.
TIM MANGWEDI
FOUNDER: JOBURG FILM FESTIVAL
A cultural entrepreneur, focusing on creative industries mainly Art & Film. Founder & Executive producer of Joburg film festival & JBX content market. Over 20yrs experience in Business development, marketing & communications both in corporate & state own agencies. Tim held managerial & executive positions with SABC, MTN & SITA to name a few.