Director, Partner Marketing at GetSmarter, a 2U brand. Six years shaping performance and partner marketing for global universities and institutions. UCT, MIT, Yale, LSE, Harvard, Cambridge, IBM, Microsoft. Operator, researcher, and part-time lecturer. The one in the room willing to say it.
Ten years in, I've come to think the craft is mostly about resisting the easy answer. Especially in a space like marketing, where there's no shortage of opinions but a real need for grounded perspectives and credible voices. The dashboard that tells you what you want to hear. The framework that travels well in slides but not in markets. The work I'm proudest of usually started with a number that didn't make sense and ended with a conversation that did.
What I'm still figuring out is AI. Not the hype version, the day-to-day one. It's collapsing the distance between question and answer in ways that genuinely change how a small team can move. But it's also flattening what makes good marketing good in the first place: judgement, taste, the conviction to disagree with the obvious answer, the friction between what the data shows and what your gut knows. The marketers who do well in the next decade will be the ones who know what to hand to a model and what to protect from it. I'm still working out which is which, but I know "use AI for everything" is the wrong answer. That much is easy.
I'm a marketing leader based in Cape Town, working at the intersection of performance, growth, and higher education. Over the past six years I've helped world-class universities and institutions turn ambitious enrolment goals into measurable outcomes. UCT, MIT, Yale, LSE, Harvard, Cambridge, IBM, Microsoft.
At GetSmarter, a 2U brand, I'm a senior leader on the Partner Marketing team. Before that, I spent years deep inside the performance funnel: forecasting, attribution, paid media, and the unglamorous work of making numbers move. Numbers were how I learned the craft. Relationships are how I extend its reach.
Off the clock, I'm a peer-reviewed researcher, a part-time lecturer at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and Chair of its Marketing Advisory Committee. I write because I think more clearly when I do, and I'm building this site as a place to keep the thinking honest.
I'm also a long-distance runner. Three-time Two Oceans Half Marathon finisher and a marathon finisher. The road taught me something the office rarely does: the work that compounds is the work nobody sees.
Senior leader on the partner marketing team. Managing the relationships between GetSmarter and our institutional partners, and shaping how those needs translate into our marketing strategy.
Stepped into the chair role, helping shape the next generation of marketers entering the industry, and giving back to the institution that shaped me.
Started teaching part-time in the Marketing Department. Joined the Industry Advisory Board the same year. Teaching forces clarity in a way the day job rarely does.
Published research with Professor R.G. Duffett on social media marketing strategy in health-related non-profits. Two papers in 2024, with two more in the pipeline.
Completed at CPUT. The bridge between practitioner and researcher, the lens that now shapes how I work.
Started as a Marketing Analyst. Six years and four roles later, the same instinct still applies: let the data tell you where to look, then trust the judgement to decide what to do about it.
Marketing intern at Berge Farrell Strategic Brand Design, then Communications Assistant at HPCA. The early roles where I learned that good marketing is, at its core, just clear thinking made visible.
Senior member of the partner marketing team, managing the relationships between GetSmarter and a portfolio of world-class university and institutional partners. Collaborate with executive leadership and cross-functional teams on portfolio performance, growth planning, and how partner needs translate into our marketing strategy.
Directed end-to-end performance marketing for university partners. Oversaw an annual advertising portfolio in excess of USD $50 million across paid search, social, programmatic, and partner channels. Built the forecasting and KPI frameworks used by senior leadership.
Led performance marketing strategy for prestigious institutions including UCT, MIT, Yale, LSE, Harvard, Cambridge, IBM, and Microsoft. Owned the full marketing cycle from lead generation to conversion, with a sharp focus on qualified prospect volume and cost efficiency.
Owned attribution, campaign performance, and revenue prediction models. Surfaced the insights that informed channel investment, regional prioritisation, and campaign optimisation for the strategy team.
Supported the strategy team with data analysis, reporting, and ROI optimisation across paid media, with an emphasis on data integrity and decision-ready insights.
Led B2B digital marketing for Unilever Food Solutions, building tailored programmes for chefs, delis, and canteens, and strengthening digital visibility across the foodservice channel.
Led global digital marketing for an international hospice-care platform. Returned as consultant from 2020 to 2022 to guide hospices through their Covid-19 digital pivot.
Built integrated marketing and communications strategies, combining digital campaigns and traditional channels into a cohesive brand narrative for the national umbrella body of South African hospices.
Four peer-reviewed papers on social media marketing in health-related non-profit organisations, co-authored with Prof. R.G. Duffett. 46 citations on Google Scholar and counting.
View on Google Scholar →Co-authored with R.G. Duffett. Published in the Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 37(3), 373–397.
A qualitative Technology Acceptance Model viewpoint. Co-authored with R.G. Duffett. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 10, 101042.
Co-authored with R.G. Duffett. Published by BP International.
Master's research at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The foundational study from which the published papers extended. Download the full thesis (PDF).
I lecture part-time in marketing at CPUT, chair its Marketing Advisory Committee, and speak at industry events on performance marketing, data-led decision-making, and the realities of growth in higher education. Open to keynotes, panels, podcasts, and guest lectures.
What I hand to a model, what I protect from it, and the line I've stopped crossing.
What AI did, what I still had to do, and what it tells me about using these tools well.
On the cost of being told to fit a professional mould.
Whether AI replaces work or transforms it. The choice is ours.
On microaggressions, authenticity, and refusing to shrink.
Marketing strategy lessons from the Major Arcana.
Most weekends I'm on the road. Some mornings, I'm running the dark at 5am with the Renegade Running Co crew. Discipline shows up before the sun does, and so do they.
