A respected brand and reputation authority, Thebe Ikalafeng has been named one of the ‘100 Most Influential Africans’ by New African Magazine. He has travelled to over 50 countries across Africa and the world and worked on over 100 brands, gaining an incomparable perspective and experience on building brands and reputations in Africa.

During a distinguished corporate career that started at Colgate Palmolive in New York and culminated at Nike as group marketing director for Africa, Thebe led Nike to the status of number-one brand across Africa, grew the business by over 450% and earned over 75 local and global awards.

Since establishing Brand Leadership in 2002, he has led over 100 brands across all spheres, including places, institutions, products and political brands such as Brand Ghana and Brand South Africa, Transnet in South Africa, University of South Africa and University of Botswana, Zanaco Bank in Zambia, Mail&Guardian Africa in Kenya, Africa Green Revolution Forum in Tanzania and Ethiopia, and the successful political branding campaigns for Presidents Atta Mills and John Mahama of Ghana in 2008 and 2012 respectively.

Thebe is a non-executive director of Mercantile Bank Holdings, Brand South Africa, WWF South Africa (WorldWideFund for Nature), South African Tourism, and chairman of Brand Finance Africa, a division of Brand Finance plc. He is the Founder & Chairman of the Brand Africa and Public Sector Excellence initiatives, and founder of the Brand Africa 100: The Most Valuable Brands in Africa.

Under Thebe’s guidance, Brand Leadership has been recognized as Marketing Services Agency of the Year by Fin Week (South Africa) and with several global awards for Effective Brand Transformations by REBRAND 100 (USA).

He has been recognised as one of the Top 10 Thinkers in Marketing in an Ipsos survey among business decision-makers in Southern Africa and one of the Top 10 Africans to follow on Twitter by How We Made It In Africa.

Thebe holds BSc and MBA degrees from Marquette University in the USA after attending Wits Business School and Harvard Business School. He is a qualified Chartered Marketer (SA).

Matthew Brown heads Echochamber, a London-based retail intelligence consultancy, which travels the world tracking retail innovation in order to inform and inspire.

Echochamber provides competitor intelligence, global best practice analysis and creative insight services to clients across all retail categories. The company has worked closely with Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Waitrose for over a decade helping develop new store designs and keeping them informed of the latest retail innovations. The agency helped develop new fast food brands for Compass Group and were instrumental in creating the Great Eastern Market, a revolutionary fresh food market concept in Europe’s largest shopping centre, Westfield Stratford in London.

Other clients include big global retailers, such as Wal Mart, Nike and IKEA, as well as major FMCG Brands such as Unilever and Johnson & Johnson. Echochamber also works with leading global shopping centre developers, such as Westfield, Unibail Rodamco, Lend Lease and the Majid AlFuttaim Group. Matthew is currently consulting on the retail strategy for the new terminal at Abu Dhabi International Airport, due to open in 2017.

Matthew is married with two young daughters.

John Baumgartner is the Director of Business Development at Nordic travel retail specialist Inflight Service Europe AB, based in Stockholm, Sweden. Having held various roles and responsibilities within Inflight Service, such as Head of Purchasing, Logistics and Sales, John now heads a team fully dedicated to the company’s ambitious growth plans, with airline retail and international expansion high on the agenda.

Since 2010 John has also served as Chairman of the Nordic Travel Retail Group, a sister organization to the European Travel Retail Confederation that works to protect and enhance the travel retail trade environment in Europe and in the Nordic markets.

John holds a Bachelor of Arts, Business Management degree from Fresno Pacific University (USA) and an MBA from Warwick Business School in the UK.

Issam AbdulRahim Kazim is the Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, the body responsible for the branding, promotion and marketing of the Emirate of Dubai.

With Dubai’s Tourism Vision to attract 20 million visitors per year by 2020, the Corporation is dedicated to working with private and public sector tourism and commerce partners to promote Dubai’s position as a leading international business and leisure destination around the world.

Under his remit he will oversee the development and activities of the Corporation, which was established in December 2013, as an affiliate of the Dubai Government’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).

Issam took up this post in February 2014, joining the DTCM from the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), where he was the Director of DXB Live, a subsidiary of DWTC. In his role he was responsible for creating and developing strategic live events such as Dubai Sports World, Dubai Music Week and Dubai Classics.

Prior to this, Issam was the Director of Corporate Marketing and Communication for DWTC. He has also worked with Nakheel and with Dubai Bank/Dubai Tadawul.

Anthony Fletorides began his career in the retail sector in South Africa, having worked for 21 years for two of the largest retailers in Southern Africa and the southern hemisphere, namely Woolworths and Edcon.

He has extensive experience in planning, buying, international sourcing and supply chain management, priding himself in building sound relationships with suppliers of both product and services.

Since joining Tourvest Duty Free in January 2008, Anthony and his buying, merchandise and replenishments teams have worked with the retailer’s suppliers to enhance the product offering and improve the supply chain. Some products and brands have been removed whilst others have been extended. Through Anthony’s guidance, TDF has expanded its ranges with key suppliers who have an extensive product offering and service, which has proved successful for the company across product, advertising and delivery performance.

The TDF operation mirror-images fashion retailers with regard to product execution, focusing on delivering what the customer wants.

Tourvest Duty Free is the inflight duty free concessionaire onboard the following airlines: South African Airways, Kenya Airways, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Arik Air, Precision Air, SA Express, Inter Air and Taag Angolan Airlines.

George Uriesi’s career spans more than 20 years, mostly in airline and airport operations as well as the safety and economic regulation of the industry. He also spent three years in the FMCG business as a Product Supply Manager with Procter & Gamble South Africa.

John joined Aer Rianta in 1977 having worked with two American Multinationals, Bechtel and Merck Inc. He went to Dubai in 1983 as part of the team that set up Dubai Duty Free and stayed on as Deputy General Manager until 1990.

He then joined Aer Rianta International and held the position of Director and General Manager at Moscow Duty Free which was then ARI’s largest business unit. In 1992 he transferred to Bahrain as General Manager of Bahrain Duty Free. The following year he was instrumental in establishing Aer Rianta International Middle East and held the position of Managing Director until he retired in December 2010. During John’s time at ARIME it grew to become the largest international operator in the Middle East with the greatest geographical footprint and turnover just short of one billion US Dollars.

John was instrumental in establishing MEDFA and was elected its first President in 2001. He has spoken at a number of trade conferences including ACI, The Trinity Forum, TFWA Asia Pacific & GATE ONE2ONE and MEDFA.

René Carayol specialises in leadership and culture, drawing from his experiences as a senior executive and board member of some of the biggest British and American organisations; from Pepsi (UK) and Marks & Spencer to IPC Media and the Inland Revenue.  He is the best selling author of the leadership and culture bible, “Corporate Voodoo”, a regular television and radio broadcaster for the BBC and a Visiting Professor at Cass Business School.  In 2004 he was awarded an MBE for outstanding service to the business community.

René is now CEO of the Inspired Leaders Network, with operations in London, Belfast and Johannesburg. He has provided leadership support to the likes of the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, the Home Office and McKinsey and Co. and has worked closely with some of the world’s greatest leaders; from former US President Bill Clinton and the last Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan and former US Secretary of State Colin Powell.