Appointed in 2012 as Ogilvy & Mather South Africa MD of Brand Activation, Bernard Matlhaga is a specialist in his field who brings 20 years of multinational marketing experience - spanning trade, channel, category, customer, consumer and shopper - to further reinforce Ogilvy & Mather South Africa's competency in these areas.

Matlhaga holds a bachelor's degree in communications from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh in Scotland, and launched his career at Unilever in 1992. Here he held several managerial positions over his 11 years with the company. He also worked for Nestlé as a product manager and for Coca-Cola South Africa, where he spent eight years in a number of senior roles as a channel marketing and shopper marketing manager.

During his tenure at Coca-Cola, Matlhaga worked extensively across many Pan-African markets, as well as the Philippines, as business development manager. Upon leaving Coke, he joined Brandhouse as head of category and shopper insights. Prior to joining Ogilvy & Mather, Matlhaga worked at South African Breweries (SAB).

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