- ABOUT
A trailblazing advocate for a brand-led African renaissance
Thebe Ikalafeng is a Hall of Fame global African branding authority and THE leading advocate for a brand-led African renaissance. He is a trailblazing marketer who has been recognized as one of the Most Influential and Reputable Africans. Since being awarded a Marquette University American Marketing Association for marketing excellence upon graduation in 1992 in the United States, he has made a sustained, distinguished and consequential contribution to branding and in reframing the African narrative for over 30 years.
He is the founder of Brand Leadership Group, a multi-disciplinary branding advisory group at the intersection of strategy, creativity and intellectual property law; the founder of Brand Africa, the seminal non-profit pan-African movement for a brand-led African agenda, and pioneer of the ‘Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands’ initiative which is widely referenced as the definitive barometer of brands in Africa.
He has been recognized with Lifetime Achievement awards by Financial Mail AdFocus (2021) and the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (2022) for his contributions to marketing, branding and communications, and received a Special Recognition award for ‘extraordinary contributions to branding and Africa at the 7th EMY Africa (2023) in Ghana and was honoured as an “Industry Icon” at the GQ Men of the Year awards in 2023. He has been conferred with Honorary Doctoral degrees (PhD)(Honoris Causa) by the University of Johannesburg and the University of South Africa for exceptional contributions to the industry, branding and Africa.
He has been to every country in Africa and every continent in the world from Cape to Cairo, and the North Pole in Greenland to the South Pole in Antarctica.
