Judge for Arena

Chris Botha

Chris Botha is the Group Managing Director of Park Advertising – the owner of two of South Africa’s most prominent media agencies – The MediaShop and Meta Media. 
Chris was appointed to The MediaShop management team in 2006, and to the Board of Directors in 2008. In January 2011, was made Group MD of the entire MediaShop operation. 
Under his guidance The MediaShop has shown massive growth in billing and initiated various industry first initiatives that has set the agency apart from its competition. In 2018 the group launched a new media agency called Meta Media. The group further launched a large number of new services including Econometric Modelling, to a full digital capability, Outdoor production, as well as an Integrated Marketing services offering. 
He considers himself an “alternative thinker” and believes in doing things differently. Chris is a member of the board of the Advertising Media Forum (AMF) and served as Chairperson of the Board of the ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation). In 2022 he received the Shepherd Award at the prestigious MOST Awards.

Vicky Buys

Vicki was Business Unit Director at King James, and Client Service Director at Lowe Bull Cape Town.
Vicki Buys joined WPP Group in 2016. Vicki served as Deputy Managing Director at WPP Group.

Dustin Chick

Dustin is a Partner in the M&C Saatchi Group South Africa and Managing Director of its strategic communications agency - Razor PR.
Dustin is recognised as one of the top reputation managers and communicators in South Africa, having been named South Africa’s best PR Professional in 2021 by the Public Relations Institute of SA (PRISA) and was previously named as one of the Top 25 Innovators in public relations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2019 by leading industry publication Provoke. In 2023 he was once again named as one of the Top 25 PR leaders in EMEA by Provoke, and in 2024 was named best PR Professional in the World by PROPr. Dustin has served on the jury of the Sabre Awards in 2020 and 2023.
Dustin chairs the Ethics & Practices Board of the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) in Africa and is also a member of the PRCA’s Executive Board for Africa. He also serves in a global capacity for the PRCA as member of its Global Nominations Committee.

Sadika Fakir

Sadika Fakir, Integrated Media & Digital Director, has more than 18 years of agency & corporate experience collectively. She is a firm believer of integrated and seamless marketing communications that focus on the consumer.
“As marketers, we are responsible for standing for more than just sales of products and services. We have a responsibility to improve and enhance the lives of the consumers we serve”.
With an ever-evolving customer base and shifting media landscape, she states that we must consistently reinvent our approach to market - taking customer shifts and nuances into consideration to drive simple, seamless & integrated communication solutions.
Sadika has judged for the Loerie Awards (Middle East Africa), MMA (Mobile Marketing Association SA) Smarties in 2020 & 2021 and Effies 2022.
She was also the Chairperson & Head Juror of the Youth Owned Brands Awards 2022 & 2023.

Luca Gallarelli

Luca Gallarelli, the group CEO of TBWA\South Africa, a collective of award-winning agencies, that includes TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, GRID Worldwide, Yellowwood, Magna Carta and Sting Content.
Since his appointment in 2019, the group has seen significant growth, industry recognition and he has sought greater cohesion amongst the collective of agencies under his stewardship.
Under his leadership, TBWA\SA was named Creative Circle Agency and Creative Circle Group of the Year for four years in a row, and was named Group of the Year, Overall Agency of the Year, Large Agency of the Year (TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris), and Medium Agency of the Year (GRID Worldwide) at the Financial Mail AdFocus Awards in 2022. Gallarelli was personally acknowledged by industry peers as the most admired agency leader by the Marklives Agency Leaders poll.
Prior to joining TBWA\South Africa, Gallarelli was Managing Director of Ogilvy Cape Town for four years and Group Managing Director of Ogilvy South Africa for two years.

Judge

Sharleen James

Sharleen James is a dynamic leader with extensive experience in strategic leadership, business development, and creative innovation, specialising in both local and international markets.
She has a proven history of expanding business portfolios, optimising financial performance, and leading transformative campaigns for globally recognised brands across the UKIA and EMEA regions.
Currently heading Accenture Song South Studios, she excels in managing diverse, regionally dispersed teams and developing strategies that resonate with global audiences.
Committed to nurturing talent and fostering innovation, she has launched training academies to enhance organisational capabilities.

Nkgabiseng Motau

Nkgabiseng Motau holds a bachelor's degree in creative brand communication from the Vega School Of Brand Innovation. During her time there, she was awarded a gold Pendoring for the branding of the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital among other accolades.
Nkgabiseng began her career at Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg working on some of South Africa's most loved brands such as DSTV, Cell C and Cadbury.
She has also worked at FCB Africa on brands such as Old Mutual, Wimpy and Coca-Cola for which she was awarded a Gold Loerie in the category of Effective Creativity.
Nkgabiseng now works in a through-the-line creative agency called Think Creative Africa as Co-Founder and CCO.
She gives back to the industry in the form board membership in Creative Circle and The Loeries Committee as well as mentorship through The One Club Creative Bootcamp and The Loeries Open Chair.
Through Think Creative Africa, she is pursuing commercially viable business that puts society first.

Katherine Madley

Katherine’s career spans twenty years in Marketing, Innovation and Strategy.
She has spearheaded various internal and external strategies for her clients in the advertising arena, as well as in executive leadership roles at FirstRand, Alexander Forbes, the JD Group and Game. Currently Katherine is Vice President of Brand Marketing for Massmart (including the Builders, Game and Makro brands as well as their Cash and Carry brands).

Katherine holds a degree in Marketing from the University of Johannesburg, a post graduate qualification in Strategic Development from WITS Business School and is a Chartered Marketer, CM (SA).
Her professional accomplishments include being awarded the National Top 10 Young Marketer of the Year award (1997), FNB Future Leader Award (2007) and being ranked The 3rd highest ranked CMO – The Loeries (2021).
She is a lifelong academic, having lectured both locally and abroad.
She has a passion for metrics and analytics, especially to prove the effectiveness of marketing and creativity through statistics.

Pepe Marais

Pepe Marais is the founding partner and Group Chief Creative Officer of brand and communications group Joe Public United. He lives for creativity that deeply connects with people.
His passion is to co-create an environment and culture that breed exponential growth.
Moved by the obvious gap in our system and a driving need to give back as well as actively grow our country, Pepe established Joe Public’s CSR programme, One School at a Time, in 2004. OSAAT is an organisation with the single-minded vision of creating an educational system that is a shining example to the world.
Pepe has been the recipient of numerous local and international industry awards, most recently being inducted into the Loeries Hall of Fame.
He has annually served on various judging panels of the Loerie Awards since 2004, has judged at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival twice, has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Creative Circle since 2007 and is currently ranked as the ‘Most Admired Creative Leader’ in Johannesburg.

AdFocus Judge

Judge

2024 Jury Memeber

Yatish Narsi

Yatish Narsi trained and practiced as an architect for 15 years, before moving into advertising as chief experience officer at the multi-award-winning agency Grid Worldwide.
He is now chief marketing officer (CMO) at MultiChoice.
Narsi graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and then joined Design Partnership, an international architectural firm. He went on to work for Grid Worldwide as the agency’s chief experience officer, working on some of the country’s most admired businesses and brands, including MTN and FNB.
As MultiChoice CMO, Narsi’s mandate is two-fold: the first is to rebuild belief that the best days of MultiChoice are still ahead of it and, second, to play an authentic, meaningful role in adding value to the lives of its customers.
Narsi was named the 2023 AdFocus Shapeshifter of the Year.

Dean Oelschig

Dean Oelschig is the Managing Director of Halo - a fiercely independent creative and design agency.
Halo champions creativity while designing and communicating brands to relevant and strategic markets with one goal in mind, to stand out. A small agency with big thinking.
Halo aims to be the most creative small agency in Africa and is privileged to work on fantastic clients including Exclusive Books, Yoco, Capital Hotels, Pineapple Insurance, iStore, Lanseria Airport and Peregrine Capital.
The goal is to bring together the best talent and the best clients and allow the freedom and courage to produce work that gets spoken about and we all love.

Sbu Sithole

Sbu Sithole is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Director of The Odd Number, South Africa’s Agency of the year 2017 and 2019 respectively.
Since it’s founding in 2015, The Odd Number has consistently won awards in all South Africa’s major award shows including The Creative Circle, the Loeries Awards, as well as the Pendorings Awards - most recently ranked 2nd most awarded agency to feature in the show.
In 2018, Sbu was voted most admired Executive Creative Director in Johannesburg, and second most admired Executive Creative Director in South Africa 2019, in a local poll amongst South African Creative leaders.
Most recently The Odd Number won its first 4 One Show Merits, becoming the first 100% Black Owned Agency to ever garner this accolade.
The Odd Number, is currently at second place in the Creative Circle Rankings. Sbu has recently been appointed as Chairman of the Loeries Africa Middle East, as well as judged major international award shows including The CannesLions, The Dubai Lynx as Jury President and The One Show Awards.