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Juries 2021 / President

Wayne Naidoo


Wayne Naidoo is founder and Group CEO of DUKE, voted best Medium sized agency in South Africa at the AdFocus Awards. A veteran adman, he believes that a fierce imagination, good data and a bold heart can liberate businesses and create new, profitable opportunities for clients. Wayne has over 25 years’ experience in the Marketing and Advertising industry, having begun his career in marketing as the Marketing Manager of the Cape Town 2004 Olympic Bid Committee. Seduced by the world of advertising, he joined Lowe Bull soon after its inception, where he started out in Account Management and grew through the ranks to business development director before moving across into general management. During this time he worked on a varied array of blue chip accounts across Sub-Saharan Africa including Nike, South African Breweries, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Pick n Pay, Nando’s, Heineken and Johnson & Johnson.  In 2007, Wayne was promoted to Managing Director of the Lowe Group and in 2009 he filled the hot seat as the Group CEO. During his tenure, Lowes was placed first in the Lowes Worldwide Network, ranked the No1 creative agency group in South Africa as well as being awarded Cape Town agency of the year. Lowes was also ranked 43rd Best ad agency group in the world by the Gunn Report – the only South African ad agency to have featured for over 3 consecutive years. In Oct 2012, Wayne took up the position as Chief Marketing Officer for the newly-founded afb (now known as JUMO World) which, in a 2 year space has become one of Africa’s fastest growing Fintech companies, issuing over 50 000 loans a day.  After a very successful client stint, Wayne returned to his first love, advertising, and started DUKE. Wayne is the current Chairman for the Association for Communication and Advertising in South Africa (ACA) and held the position previously in 2011, 2012 and 2020. He was also a board member for the AAA School of Advertising and Chairman of the Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) in Cape Town. Wayne was also recently voted as a contender for the most admired Agency leader in the Country.
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