Anita Prendergast joins Interbrand Sampson

Anita is delighted at this opportunity to combine her wealth of experience into her passion for transforming organisations by creating and sustaining unexpected value within the arena of what she terms the Triple R's (Risk, Reputation and Return on investment). An accomplished entrepreneur, Anita adds value through combining her strategic branding expertise with an innovative/creative approach to internal and external communications opportunities. Says Anita, "Often organisations need to awaken stakeholder perceptions in alignment with company strategy and vision to ensure congruent brand message delivery."

Anita has helped define the South African Advertising Industry for the past 23 years, during which time she has had the opportunity to work globally with most leading organisations and captains of industry, contributing to her practical understanding of best possible practice in serving sustainable business. She has developed a special set of skills in guiding organisations to embrace new relational frontiers through effective stakeholder and brand engagement.

From 1996 to 1999 Anita was the International Consultant seconded to De Beers Corporate Identity Worldwide, responsible for overseeing the revamp of their corporate identity on the global platform. In the process Anita developed great insights into global organisational needs and brand solutions that transformed the De Beers brand in the 1990's. During this time she honed her art of collaborative marketing, pioneered the concept of "living identity" and proved that renovating a company's value is key to its sustainable future success.

Anita's business acumen led her to be a pioneer in establishing South Africa's leading national investor relations and branding agency, Motiv, in 1999AD, which agency she sustainably and successfully grew for nearly a decade. During her tenure as MD of Motiv, Anita worked with most listed companies, leading organisations and NGO's operating in Southern Africa and beyond including: the JSE, Nedbank, Standard Bank, Old Mutual, Absa, Petro SA, Woolworths Holdings, Foschini, Truworths International, Liberty Holdings, HCI, Grinrod, Mandela Rhodes Foundation, The Nelson Mandela Foundation and the UCT Graduate School of Business.

More recently, Anita successfully implemented a turn-around strategy for the Leo Burnett Group, where she innovatively integrated the above- and below- the-line creative agencies and secured and spearheaded several major advertising accounts, including Fiat Group; Chrysler and the coveted SABC 2010, " Feel It, it is here! " campaign!

After this successful transformation of Leo Burnett South Africa, Anita wanted to pursue her career passions from a new angle within a trusted and solid framework. "The brand is core to communication messages" and is delighted to have taken on a directorship at InterbrandSampson.

As Director, Stakeholder Engagement, Anita plans to outstrip client expectations by incorporating and developing two existing Interbrand tools, namely "Brand Valuation" and "Corporate Reputation Tracker", as starting points in her dynamic- often non-linear- approach to effecting sustainable brand renovations and effective stakeholder engagement strategies for clients.

"We are committed to embracing new communication frontiers in Africa and providing creative solutions to enhance our client relationships across the board. Anita's Stakeholder Engagement approach perfectly complements our ethos and future vision and immense value we bring to our clients," adds Interbrand's Chief Executive, Douglass De Villiers.

Anita is a member of the Institute of Directors (IOD) and an active advisor and contributor to the Walter Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Center for Africa; She is fervent about health, in all forms, and loves to play tennis.

Anita can be contacted at:

InterbrandSampson
Cape Town, South Africa
Telephone: +2721 4818004
Mobile: +2782 7724389
email: @ibsa.co.za
Web: www.interbrand.com