BBDO SA announces new leadership team

BBDO SA has announced the promotion of Net#work BBDO’s managing director Boniswa Pezisa to Group CEO. Stepping into her MD position is current deputy managing director Gau Narayanan, who will assume the role of MD of Net#work BBDO.

BBDO SA executive chairman Keith Shipley says Pezisa has been with the agency for just short of twenty-one years.

“Mike Schalit and I have worked alongside Boniswa since the beginning and it’s been under her leadership that Net#work has enjoyed its recent surge of success," Shipley says. "Her unrelenting approach to a challenge, incredible skill with people and general joie de vivre are all elements that helped build the foundation of the agency,"

Pezisa is an active and well respected icon of the industry, says Shipley. In addition to BBDO responsibilities, she is the deputy chairperson of the Association for Communication & Advertising (ACA), sits on the advertising standards consumer complaints committee of the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASASA) and is the past chairperson of the Loeries Awards Company.

Pezisa was also one of the founding directors of The Dreamfields Project, sat on the board of Common Purpose SA and is still a board member of the Cape Town Ballet Competition.

The promotion of Narayanan to managing director is the start of a new era for the agency. Says Shipley; “We’re incredibly fortunate to have someone of Gau’s calibre leading our team in Johannesburg. Not only does he boast a wealth of experience internationally, but he’s known for his ability to shake up creative and strategic thinking – a skill that’s delivered time and again over his tenure in South Africa to date.”