JOHANNESBURG – Ogilvy South Africa has announced the promotion of Joanna Oosthuizen, Ogilvy South Africa’s Chief Operations Officer, to Director Public Relations & Influence for Ogilvy’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.
Oosthuizen is an Ogilvy veteran, having been with the company for 15 years. She has been responsible for building Ogilvy’s PR & Influence practice, growing it from 16 employees into an operation of more than 100 across three offices.
Among dozens of award wins, she led her team to a PR Agency of the Year title at the 2016 Financial Mail AdFocus awards and to a Platinum Best In Show award at the 2018 Holmes Report SABRE Africa Awards for the Life Uncensored campaign. Her team also won numerous PRISM awards under her leadership, and she served as a PRISM awards judge on several occasions.
In 2014, Joanna received an Ogilvy Giant Award as one of the top-performing senior people at Ogilvy worldwide, and in 2016 she was named in the PR Powerbook as one of the top PR practitioners globally.
In 2018, she was promoted to COO for Ogilvy South Africa, a move that placed several operating units under her care. In her role as COO, she integrated these operating units to create greater efficiencies within the company, while still maintaining the deep specialisms that clients value.
“Joanna has spearheaded some of our most successful work and built some of our most valuable client relationships. She is also an inspirational leader, who mentored many of our greatest achievers,” said Ogilvy South Africa CEO Alistair Mokoena. “We are confident that she will achieve great success in this new role. We congratulate her on this exciting and well-deserved elevation.”
In her new role, Oosthuizen will be based in London, but will remain active within Ogilvy South Africa.