Gareth McPherson

Chief Executive Officer

Gareth is an award-winning leader in the Communications & Marketing industry. Being recognised as one of F@stcompany’s Top 20 creative people in business, he has led both brand and communication companies.

A creative by trade, he is a rare blend of creative thinker, strategist & business executive. Over his 20-year career, he has worked on multiple blue chip clients across the globe, produced award-winning work and has been a member of both local and global management boards.

Passionate about fostering a strong work culture, he has led teams across multiple cities and is a visionary leader that is driven by purpose-led business.

Helen Ludwig

Chief Strategy Officer
Helen is a highly-regarded business-building strategist and leader with a very broad skill set. She’s had an illustrious career in top agencies working with blue chip clients across multiple categories connecting businesses to their customers across SA, Africa and the Middle East.

She’s successfully driven strategy for clients of all sizes, from startups to multimillion-rand corporates covering the full spectrum of B2B and B2C activity. She has developed a deep understanding of business and human behaviour and holds degrees in business science, psychology and holistic health.

She is passionate about growing purpose-driven businesses so we can build a world where everyone thrives.

Clementine Mojapelo

Project Lead
Clementine is an award-winning project lead who graduated top of her class at the renowned Red & Yellow Creative School of Business. Since then, she has been leading client relationships and driving creative campaigns over her 8 year career.

Clem has worked across an array of client industries including, financial services, FMCG and retail. She has steered & developed multiple campaigns in both the B2C and B2B space. Passionate about people and communities, she actively contributes to gender-based-violence projects and more recently collaborated with SheSays, a platform that empowers young women in the communications industry.

Having a strong values system, Clem strives to deliver work that creates impact and makes a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

Muzi Mthombeni

Head of Strategy

Muzi marries commercial knowledge with creative best practices to help brands do more with less.

Over his career, he has worked across multiple industries, including FMCG, FSP, QSR and Alcohol. He has been the lead strategist for brands such as Old Mutual, Visa, Spotify Africa and Pepsico SA. His portfolio has also included FMCG brands under Mondelez and Beiersdorf and alcohol brands under Pernod Ricard and Distell. He was also elected and served on the Next Generation Board for Publicis Groupe Africa.

As an Allan Gray Orbis fellow, Muzi explores his entrepreneurial passion through projects like Chicco’s Barbers – an initiative he cofounded.
His future is in blending purpose and impact into marketing practices.

Adrian Hewlett

Non-Executive Chairman
Adrian has extensive experience in Media, Digital, Advertising & Retail industries. He founded an awarded digital media business, Habari, at the age of 25. He grew the business quickly and it represented digital media giants Facebook & LinkedIn across the African Continent.

He also founded the award-winning brand communications company, Machine. He sold both businesses, and recently took up the reigns at Sealand. Passionate about the ocean and sustainability, he leads the eco-retailer and is growing their footprint into the global market.

He’s been recognised as Mail & Guardian’s Top 100 people in business.

Hanyani Shimange

Sports Personality & ex-Springbok
Hanyani is a former Professional Rugby Player who has represented South Africa and has also played for The Sharks, Free State and Western Province.

Hanyani is currently the Deputy Chairman of the Chris Burger Petro Jackson Fund in addition to his Media Broadcasting role for Supersport. He is also a consultant to The Stormers rugby team. Over his career, Hanyani has always been close to the marketing media landscape, having worked at one of South Africa’s leading independent agencies and also founding a consultancy of his own.

His ability and knowledge in the sports, sponsorship and brand space makes him a key advisor in the team.

Nicky Allen

Sales, Mobile & Digital Expert
Nicky began her career at Vodacom’s marketing and product development divisions. She was the Product Manager for the launch of Vodacom’s prepaid service, a world first at the time. A pioneer in the digital space, she co-founded the digital company 33 Degrees Interactive in 1998, which became Gloo and now the present-day Ogilvy Interactive.

She went on to be Head of Sales at WiGroup (now YOYO), a FinTech business that enables mobile transactions at retail. Currently, she is a Sales & Mindset coach and is passionate about self-improvement and accountability.

Her vast knowledge of sales, mobile gateways and digital transactions makes her a key member of the Wonder team.

Sketchy Bongo

Music Producer & DJ
Sketchy Bongo is an award-winning record producer & artist. He has collaborated and produced no 1 selling tracks in South Africa and also has been featured on the UK’s BCC Radio. Entrenched in popular culture, Sketchy is part of the Wolf Pack, a creative collective that consists of producers, music artists, rappers and Kwaito stars.

He is skilled in Audio Engineering, Strategy, Scoring to Picture, Communications, Marketing, Social Media & Content Marketing, and Radio Advertising.

Through his vast creative skillset, he leads trends, connects with audiences, and his intuitive approach to creating content that is in demand makes his viewpoints and experience very valuable to the team.

Sunu Gonera

Filmmaker & Storyteller

Prior to shooting Hollywood films, Sunu was a professional sportsperson and had a short stint in the banking world. His passion for filmmaking took over, and it saw Sunu directing multiple award-winning commercials and music videos for some blue-chip brands.

In 2006 he received his first Hollywood assignment, which saw him direct the film Pride. He went on to direct multiple long-form series formats for the hit show Madame Secretary. In 2020, he released his film Riding with Sugar on Netflix. Passionate about storytelling, he founded the Shekinah Tribe, a movement that spans the African continent with the purpose of telling truly inspiring African stories.

His understanding of how to connect stories to audiences and create engagement makes him a true asset to the Wonder team.

Gys Kappers

Employee Engagement Specialist & Technology Entrepreneur
Passionate about positive employee engagement, Gys is co-founder of the award-winning Wyzetalk company.

Through technology development, they have patented a mobile software that combines with content to deliver a unique employee engagement solutions. His interest in employee engagement came about after building the largest privately owned Concrete Masonry Business in South Africa. Deciding to further his studies at UCT’s GSB he entered into an Executive MBA Program where he completed a thesis on “the delay of social business software adoption in the enterprise and its effects”.

Dynamic and visionary, Gys’s deep understanding of internal employee development, technology and engagement makes him an asset to the Wonder team.

Elli Gorgievska

Digital Innovation Consultant

Elli has been on the forefront of digital strategy and product development in Europe and South Africa, across start-ups and corporates, operating in both old and new economies. She leads creative teams in solving brand challenges, designing and bringing digital products and experiences to market, with deep expertise in digital innovation, creative technology, consumer behaviour, experience design, design thinking, and go-to-market strategies. She helped top-tier businesses such as a major South African telco or the insurance arm of a global automotive brand to identify opportunities, addressing business challenges and co-create digital innovation strategies to futureproof their business models.

Tom Fels

Sustainable Business Consultant

A mission-driven brand expert, speaker, author and evangelist for conscious business, Tom Fels is the Founder and CEO of Animarem – a strategy advisory focused on sustainable business leadership – and the regional representative of the global B Corp movement in Southern Africa. His own journey to purpose saw him guiding the world’s top brands to growth as communication agency Publicis Machine‘s Group Managing Director, supporting digital transformation as CEO of Nurun – the Publicis specialist technology agency – and then embarking on a role as CEO: Hospitality at the iconic conservation tourism business, Singita. Inspired by the impact of this shared-value organisation, Tom set out to expand this ethos through Animarem, connecting people to powerful ideas that accelerate business and lead sustainable change.