Success Stories
I've worked with...
Pinion Search (Global)
As the Chief Operations Partner. I work alongside the founder, playing a central role in driving deep operational and commercial transformation, strengthening the business, redefining what technology can achieve in executive search, and laying the foundation for long-term sustainability and continued future growth.
- Revenue Growth: Increased revenue by 100% in 18 months through stronger systems, commercial focus, and disciplined execution.
- Net Profit: Expanded net profit to 70% through improved financial and delivery efficiency.
- OPEX Reduction: Reduced operating costs by 50% with no increase in headcount.
- Operational Efficiency: Elevated efficiency through automation and streamlined workflows.
- Founder Partnership: Act as the founder’s strategic right hand, ensuring alignment, momentum, and results across the business.
- Virtual Partners: Built and managed a world-class virtual partner ecosystem to support and accelerate growth.
- Strategic Leadership: Provided direction and stability through rapid expansion, keeping the business lean, profitable, and scalable.
As Chief Operating Officer, I work alongside the founder to drive the strategic, operational, and commercial growth of Nordic House across all verticals. I have helped transform the organisation from an informal network into a structured, high-performing business with solid foundations, a rapidly expanding membership base, and a strong presence across Cape Town’s business ecosystem.
- Business Transformation: Built Nordic House into a structured, high-performing organisation with scalable operational and financial foundations.
- Membership Growth: Expanded membership to hundreds and the wider network to thousands, launching the paid programme and loyalty benefits.
- Partnership Expansion: Secured high-value partnerships across business and government, increasing influence and ecosystem reach.
- Event & Community Impact: Delivered high-impact events that created meaningful connections, collaborations, and new revenue opportunities.
- Commercial Growth: Drove new business development, proposals, and client relationships, supporting sustained revenue and partnership growth.
- Brand Visibility: Significantly increased digital visibility and engagement across all major platforms.
theSalt (Global)
As Head of Global Growth for a world-leading nano-influencer platform, I drove rapid international expansion, commercial acceleration, and strategic market entry across multiple regions.
- Global Expansion: Launched theSalt in six new countries within three months, with active negotiations underway in two additional markets.
- Market Development: Built the commercial foundations for scalable international growth, including partnerships, pricing, positioning, and go-to-market strategies.
- Revenue Potential: Opened multiple high-value pipelines across new territories, increasing future revenue opportunities and diversifying global reach.
- Strategic Acceleration: Fast-tracked market entry by establishing repeatable processes, frameworks, and partner structures to support rapid scaling.
As Joint COO, I helped steer FlexClub through an ambitious growth phase, driving the commercial, operational, and organisational momentum needed to unlock the next round of funding.
- Membership Growth: Led the team to acquire 1,000+ new global members for a high-value subscription business worth $4M+ in just eight months.
- Revenue Expansion: Accelerated commercial performance by scaling high-value subscription uptake across multiple markets.
- Team Growth: Managed and supported double-digit growth of the cross-continent internal team, ensuring alignment, delivery, and stability during rapid scaling.
- Operational Leadership: Built the systems, processes, and cadence required to meet – and exceed – aggressive growth milestones.
- Funding Readiness: Helped position the business for its next investment round by delivering strong traction, tightening operations, and clear growth signals.
BackaBuddy (South Africa)
As Interim Chief Operating Officer, I stepped in to stabilise, optimise, and prepare BackaBuddy for its next phase of growth — strengthening the team, the platform, and the commercial engine while ensuring continuity across all core functions.
- Revenue Growth: Achieved the platform’s highest-grossing months (R8M+), driving significant uplift for one of South Africa’s leading NPO crowdfunding platforms.
- Operational Transformation: Redesigned team structures, processes, and operating rhythms to create a more efficient, scalable organisation.
- Platform Optimisation: Improved platform systems and workflows to support higher volumes, better user experience, and future product expansion.
- Commercial Strengthening: Stabilised and enhanced revenue generation channels, ensuring healthier long-term performance and sustainability.
- Growth Foundations: Laid the groundwork for the business relaunch, positioning BackaBuddy for stronger growth, clearer operations, and improved market competitiveness.
Cognician (Global)
As General Manager and later Chief Operating Officer, I was instrumental in scaling Cognician from an early-stage software company into a fast-growing global business with strong commercial traction, a high-performance team, and a robust operational foundation. Working closely with the CEO and Exco, I helped shape the company’s future across products, people, systems, and global delivery, building core operational architecture that still underpins the business today.
- Revenue Growth: Scaled Cognician from a zero-invoicing startup to a multi-million-dollar business, setting a trajectory toward $20M+.
- Team Expansion: Rebuilt and grew a high-performing global team of ±40 people, supported by a strong delivery ecosystem.
- Operational Infrastructure: Established the systems, structures, and workflows that enabled near 24/7 global delivery.
- Client Impact: Delivered exceptional service to Fortune 1000 clients, consistently earning top-tier satisfaction and strong endorsements.
- Product Excellence: Contributed to award-winning products, including the Leadership Accelerator, recognised at DevLearn in Las Vegas.
Quirk (UK & USA)
As Business Director and later Client Service Director, I helped steer Quirk through a period of rapid commercial expansion, operational strengthening, and agency-wide evolution. As part of Agency Exco and second-in-command to the MD, I oversaw a 23-person Client Service division, drove revenue and profitability, elevated delivery across all major accounts, and helped shape the agency's future structure and processes.
- Revenue Growth: Delivered the highest-grossing revenue months in Quirk’s history, consistently exceeding revenue and profitability targets.
- Operational Excellence: Strengthened agency-wide operations by shaping key processes (large builds, invoicing, trafficking, inter-agency workflow, crisis PR) and supporting the Think–Create–Engage–Optimise rollout.
- Team Leadership: Led and developed a 23-person Client Service team, building a strong culture and promoting multiple team members into senior roles.
- Client Impact: Drove exceptional results across 30+ marquee brands, achieving customer satisfaction scores above 75% and leading regional Client Love initiatives.
- Agency Recognition: Contributed to award-winning performance, including Best Agency of the Year (2011) and Best Contribution to Digital Marketing (2012).
NBC Universal (USA)
As Regional Executive for the West Coast, I managed revenue, strategic accounts, and partner relationships for MSNBC.com across Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Working closely with Microsoft’s 200+ person sales organisation, brand teams, product teams, and regional leadership, I drove significant commercial growth, led major advertising and sponsorship initiatives, and supported MSNBC.com in becoming the #1 news site in the United States.
- Revenue Growth: Exceeded a ~$22M West Coast budget within an $80M+ business, driving strong year-on-year account expansion.
- Market Leadership: Contributed to MSNBC.com becoming the #1 news site in the USA for 12 consecutive months in 2008, ahead of CNN and Yahoo.
- Partnership Excellence: Managed Microsoft’s 200+ West Coast sales team relationship, earning Best Microsoft Partner in 2009.
- Innovation & Monetisation: Launched new digital ad formats and platforms, growing T-Mobile by 600% YoY and Best Buy by 174% YoY.
- Cross-Media Expansion: Led one of MSNBC.com’s first cross-platform campaigns, achieving 190%+ YoY growth and consistently delivering 100%+ YoY increases across major accounts.
Microsoft (Global)
Across six years in the UK and USA, I progressed through commercial and strategic roles at Microsoft—managing multimillion-dollar advertising portfolios, driving strong account growth, and consistently delivering industry-leading customer satisfaction. I worked across MSN, Xbox, and more, leading major campaigns, building new processes, mentoring teams, and earning multiple Microsoft awards for excellence, innovation, and revenue performance.
- Revenue Growth: Managed and expanded £4M–£6.5M+ (UK) and $5M+ (USA) portfolios, with multiple accounts growing ~50% YoY or more.
- Customer Satisfaction: Delivered some of the highest satisfaction scores in both regions, earning multiple Microsoft awards for excellence and innovation.
- Innovation & Monetisation: Launched new digital products and formats, including the UK’s first MSN bot-led campaign and Visa’s first original video program, driving 50%–600% YoY account growth.
- Operational Excellence: Built key frameworks for creative, campaign, and ad-serving operations, maintaining 100% CRM accuracy and 2% forecasting precision.
- Leadership & Recognition: Mentored and promoted team members, collaborated with 200+ Microsoft sales staff, and was recognised as Best Microsoft Partner (US), ultimately leading to being headhunted by MSNBC.com.