A seasoned ‘tradigitalist’ now chief strategy officer for Fogg Experiential Design Cape Town and previously CEO of Prezence Digital, Prakesh Patel is a strategist in a suit, an innovator and blue-sky thinker. Patel’s key focus at Prezence was driving and building the agency model (including mobile, apps and social media) by bringing together technologists and creatives as the incubators of ideas and innovation. Prior to Prezence, Patel set up a full service specialist digital agency (Mesh Interactive – now merged with Hello Computer) for DraftFCB SA as chief digital officer/MD working with brands such as Distell, Santam, Vodacom, Toyota, Pepsi, and AdCock Ingham. In less than 18 months, under his leadership, the agency received several industry accolades, including Loeries, Bookmarks, Apex, Assegais, Creative Circle, and AdReview. Before leaving London for SA, Patel spent 20 years in marketing and data for multinational agencies, including JWT, rmg:connect, FCBi and TBWA for clients that included British Telecom, Mercedes Benz Europe, Shell, DTC, HSBC and Charities. He also served as managing partner for a UK top-five independent digital agency, where he set up and successfully delivered the strategic global digital ecosystem for Bentley Motors, Sony PlayStation, Jaguar and Bowers & Wilkins. Since being in SA, Patel has become a regular keynote speaker at various conferences on the power and use of digital. He is a mentor to bursary students and also a regular contributor as a though leader to various journals throughout Africa. He assists universities and government bodies (with insights into the strategic digital readiness of SA) and was nominated as the Digital Maverick at the 2012 Bookmarks.
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