I strongly believe that your attitude determines your altitude and will continue to strive for new heights across the board.
I came full circle after a 10-year hiatus from the College but there is probably nothing more worthwhile than feeling like you are truly helping to make a difference in the lives of others, and returning to something close to your heart.Â
Jeanné has over 40 years’ experience in marketing communications; with fundraising being added to her skillset in 2010.
After studying in KwaZulu Natal, she went on to work with two experienced, hard-core news journalists who launched one of Durban’s leading PR and publicity agencies. After cutting her teeth as a publicist across various sectors in the agency environment, she moved on to work in the corporate sector as Communications Manager for Tetra Pak South Africa. Tetra Pak is an international packaging company which at that stage operated across 140 markets worldwide providing her with valuable international exposure.
In following her husband to Songimvelo Game Reserve – kicking and squealing at the time given the isolation and severely limited communication tools – she then slowly became more of a bush baby. After a short sojourn in Nelspruit, where she worked and lectured part-time, the Southern African Wildlife College beckoned in 1996. Working in association with WWF South Africa, she helped launch the College whilst developing the institution’s first marketing and communications strategy.
In 2000, the development of the National Qualifications Framework for conservation was on the cards for her husband, and a move to Johannesburg was her new reality. Here she removed her bush hat and worked with boutique PR agency Cooper and Associates across a number of accounts and magazine titles before joining Ogilvy PR, where she headed up the pharmaceutical/health care portfolio of clients. These included Pfizer, Glaxo-Smith Kline, MSD and Janssen-Cilag South Africa and Nestlé. She then went on to set up the Johannesburg office for Eclipse Communications, where she worked across several international and local consumer accounts including Proctor and Gamble’s Olay, Gillette, Duracell, Head & Shoulders; Planet Fitness; Pioneer Foods’ White Star Maize Meal; O’Boticario and Quest Personnel.
In 2010, whilst working as a marketing communications consultant and freelance publicist, she was approached to join the College again as a service provider under the banner of River End Consultants where she was a director. In 2016, after helping grow the College’s fundraising income to over R20-million per annum, she was offered a position on the College’s executive. She continues to sit on the executive whilst heading up the College’s marketing, fundraising and media portfolio which has grown substantially since then. Her leadership skills are evident in her team’s growth and successes.