Judges

Adel has worked across corporate, brand, public affairs and government communications, and has successfully managed and built strong teams throughout her two-decade career at some of the top communications agencies and newsrooms.

She is currently the General Manager at Allison+Partners Singapore, overseeing the agency’s Singapore presence, building the team’s capabilities and client roster while driving ongoing growth in the market.

She is the former MD (Sectors) at Edelman Singapore and had oversight of some of the agency’s largest clients in Technology and Health, including Microsoft in Asia Pacific and Singapore. She was also previously the regional lead for corporate, public affairs and government communications at BursonCohn & Wolfe as well as Bell Pottinger Singapore (now Klareco Communications), where she was in charge of the agency’s largest practice, and developed a diverse client base, from unicorn start-ups and Singapore Inc companies to multinationals and Government accounts.

Anele Nzimande-Maphanga is an Award-Winning PR Maven with a gift for story-telling and building relationships. An avid read and writer, she’s a co-authored two books and has several articles under her belt across various publications in South Africa which include Sunday Times, Bizcommunity, Daily Maverick.

After graduating with an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand, she decided to pivot into communications, to fulfil a life-long dream. She completed vacation work at one of the leading law firms – ENSAfrica and later secured a coveted spot to do her articles with the firm. Her leadership skills have always set her apart – from serving as the Vice Chairperson of the Law Students council to being selected from thousands of young hopefuls as a contestant on a television show called One Day Leader.

Her work experience includes FMCG giants such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever which has seen her lead award-winning campaigns recognized at the EFFIES, SABRES, Loeries, Smarties and more.

She is currently the Head of Public Relations for Beauty, Wellbeing and Personal Care at Unilever South Africa managing top brands such as Vaseline, Dove, Shield, Lifebuoy, Axe and many more ground-breaking PR campaigns. Anele was named at the Top 20 Women to Look Out for in 2024 by New York Weekly.

Bridget, co-market leader at Burson Africa, has over 30 years’ experience in public relations. Her expertise and proficiency across the African continent spans all aspects of communication including communication strategy development and implementation, reputation management, media relations, crisis communication and event management. She has worked with clients in various sectors including financial and business, bustech, environmental management, health and pharmaceutical, mining, technology, energy, oil and gas.

After running her own very successful agency for over 2 decades, Bridget joined the BCW team (see to be known as Burson). In addition to her business development role, her key responsibilities are Corporate Reputation, Crisis communications, Sustainability counsel, and PA.

Committed to the PR profession, Bridget is a seasoned international judge of PR industry awards, a committee representative of the PRCA Africa Network and the ICCO President of Africa region in which capacities she drives collaboration between consultants and practitioners across on the African continent.  She is an APR, a Fellow of PRISA and PRCA and a recipient of the coveted PRISM Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the PRISA President’s Award.

Managing Director of HUNTER: London, Daisy Pack has over 20 years of consumer lifestyle and thought leadership experience for a combination of mainstream, premium and luxury brands.

A specialist in insight-driven, multi-platform campaigns which earn media attention, excite influencers, and engage consumers, Daisy has delivered award winning work for some of the world’s most famous names as well as challenger brands and start-ups. Leading end-to-end global strategy and local execution, she has transformed perceptions, shown why shoppers should vote with their trollies and driven relevance for heritage brands.

Heading a growing team which builds brand love through current culture, Daisy’s expertise helps earn positive attention for Hunter’s clients.

Recently named SABRE EMEA’s Creative Professional of the Year, Emma blends creativity with sharp strategy to craft communication strategies that land. She’s worked with global brands like Uber, Google, Spotify, and Airbnb, always bringing fresh thinking and a bias for action.

Quick-witted and grounded, Emma knows how to cut through the noise and connect with what really matters.

Kate is Managing Director of the award winning consumer brands team at Cirkle where she looks after the agency’s team of publicists, creatives, social and influencer experts working on some brilliant clients including Dulux, Tango, Birds Eye and Mars Petcare.

With over 20 years working in the comms industry, Kate has worked at top agencies of all shapes and sizes and has developed and led integrated comms strategies and award winning creative campaigns for some of the UK’s best known brands including John Lewis Partnership, Morrisons, Aldi, Pets At Home, Caffe Nero, Vue Entertainment, McDonald’s, Persil and Warburtons.

Liz is Managing Partner within the Finn Partners UK Consumer team, working leading UK and global brands including 2k, wagamama, Ladbrokes and more.  Prior to this. Liz was UK Culture & Entertainment lead at Diageo, managing numerous agencies for brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray and Don Julio. She’s also spent time in-house at leading UK retailers, including M&S and Sainsbury’s. This is Liz’s first time judging the PRCA Platinum Awards and she can’t wait to get stuck into this year’s entries.

Liz hails from south London, is a massive football fan and in her spare time runs a Scouts troop in her local area.

Manuel is a partner and CEO of Milk & Honey’s first office in Munich, Germany. He is a communications veteran, with more than 25 years’ experience in the communication sector. He held leadership positions in international agencies, is consulting C-level and is a reputation management expert. At Milk & Honey, Manuel drives the agency´s ESG and new tech divisions.

Manuel worked as a University lecturer on reputation management and published a book in 2005 as a considered pioneer in that space.

Thinking outside the box is pivotal to Manuel, and he is driven by innovation and to create cutting edge campaigns, that work. Manuel also acted as a Senior Vice President of the CMO council – a global peer group of over 16,000 marketers across EMEA. Manuel also was voted Vice President of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) where he led the finance and marketing division. During that time he also has been an elected Member of the Committee „Social and Environment“ at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

Father of two, Manuel has previous been a lecturer and has published a book about reputation management.

Mikael Westmark is an entrepreneur and senior communications advisor with over 30 years of experience in international PR, communications, journalism, and teaching.

Since 2004, Mikael is the CEO of the communications agency Westmark in Sweden, catering primarily to clients in IT, telecom, and finance. He is also Senior External Advisor at the Paritee owned Nordic agency Geelmuyden Kiese, focusing on driving growth within tech PR.

Mikael was previously Vice President, partner, and co-founder at Hill and Knowlton in Sweden. At Ericsson, he worked on crisis management, media relations, and served as the global spokesperson on health issues (“radiation”) and CSR.

Saint-Francis Tohlang is a dynamic and experienced Corporate Affairs leader. He is currently the Global Senior Director of Communications for the Mars Cocoa Enterprise and a member of the Cocoa Enterprise Global leadership team – a role he assumed in April 2023. He was previously the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Director for Nestlé East & Southern Africa Region, where he was the executive in charge of the corporate affairs business unit for a region comprising of 23 countries. He was the youngest member of the Executive Committee having been appointed to the executive at 31.

His career spans different fields such as corporate affairs, innovation management, trend analysis and professional services with specialization in go-to-market strategy. He was expatriated to the Nestlé headquarters in Switzerland as Corporate Communications Manager for Asia, Oceania and Sub-Saharan Africa before returning to South Africa in 2020. Before his expatriation assignment he was Head of Communications and Head of the Innovation Awards Programme for the East and Southern Africa region. He worked for Deloitte, Flux Trends and Wits University before joining Nestlé.

From consultancies in the UK and South Africa, as well as on-site at Microsoft South Africa, Sarah has over 20 years experience in B2B and B2C corporate reputation and brand purpose communication in the EMEA region. Her focus is strategy development, crisis communications and spokesperson management.

Sarah is a spokesperson at various international industry conferences such as the Holmes Report In2Summit, Global ICCO Summit and Annual APRA Conference and sits as a member of the judging panel for numerous industry awards, including PRWeek Global Awards, South African Sports Industry Awards and PRovoke Africa and EMEA SABRE Awards. Sarah is a board member of the inaugural PRCA Africa board and current co-chair of the PRCA Africa Sustainability network. Sarah has a degree in journalism, a post-graduate in brand management and has recently completed the Business Sustainability Management course through Cambridge University’s Institute of Sustainability (CISL.) Sarah is currently MD of the We. Communications Africa team based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Stuart heads up Tourism Australia’s PR team in London.

Originally from Sydney where he managed the PR for numerous hotels, he relocated to London twelve years ago and has since managed the PR for tourism boards, airlines, hotel brands and operators across the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Yanina is working on one of the most promising and exciting new technologies: quantum computing. At Horizon Quantum, she heads all MarComms aspects including media relations, content strategy, sponsorships, events and more. With over 18 years of experience driving marketing and communications activities, Yanina specialises in content management and thought leadership programmes on innovation and new technologies.