EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENTS

Simply Black media agency appoints Stephanie Thomas as first COO

By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2024

Among her responsibilities is enhancing operations and driving consistent adoption of its operating culture across 37 African offices.

Africa-focused media agency network, Simply Black, has appointed Stephanie Thomas as its first Chief Operating Officer. The agency has 37 offices on the continent and employs around 250 people.

Thomas will focus on enhancing the operations of the agency and driving the consistent adoption of its operating culture and ways of working across the offices in the diverse markets it serves.

Stephanie Thomas. Photo: Simply Black

According to Thomas, the agency has spent the past decade investing in home-grown talent in its various local offices.

“Our clients rely on our in-depth knowledge and experience to help them navigate these markets and help them craft campaigns that generate a measurable return on their efforts and investment,” she says.

“My focus is to ensure we remain true to our founding principles of ‘brilliant at basics’ and ‘expert execution’. However, as we build our business, my role will be to develop the tools and processes to support our teams in accessing our deep experience, specialist knowledge and local market networks in a unified framework.”

Critical milestone in the agency’s growth within Africa

Carine Haffejee, CEO of Simply Black, believes Thomas’s appointment is a critical milestone in the agency’s growth within Africa.

“Our experience across Africa’s diverse media markets, and the data we have accumulated, are invaluable in enabling the proper planning and execution of campaigns,” she says.

“But it is people that are the real secret to our business success. Steph is a perfect example of this. Her strong values, grit and perseverance, as well as her obsession with delighting clients, make her the obvious choice to take us to the next level.

“We are optimistic about the future of the continent and the talent in the markets in which we operate.”

Thomas holds a BA degree in Marketing and Communications and has been in the industry for more than 12 years.

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