Email: mari.lee@bairdscmc.com
Career Highlights
- Working with corporates to show the value of development communication in business issues. Specifically work with Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA), Sappi Ltd and the Maravest Group (Private education) stands out as projects that achieved significant business impact with strategic communication from a development perspective.
- Implementing R14-million commercially viable community development project – Limpopo Jewellery Cluster – for the European Union, SEDA, DTI, Anglo Platinum and Vukani-Ubuntu in Polokwane, Limpopo, in 16 weeks’ time-frame, passing financial and project delivery audit without any qualifications.
- DevCom winning 21 communication awards and being afforded the opportunity to receive a Best of the Best IABC Gold Quill award in New York in 2013, and a second Best of the Best win in 2014. Winning 12 Africa Quill Awards, 7 Gold Quill Awards and 2 Silver PRISM award.
- Becoming the seventh globally accredited business communicator (ABC) in SA in 2010. (Since then, only 10 ABC’s has maintained their status)
- Being accredited by PRISA as a Chartered Public Relations Practitioner (CPRP)
- Managing the relationship with Nataniël for Child Welfare SA as their Ambassador, generating more than R2 million of publicity and numerous in kind and cash donations for the organisation, and subsequently assisting Nataniël to formalise his own trust: The Nataniël Progress Project that I manage.
- Being a team leader in the social mobilisation project of the Khomanani HIV/AIDS Campaign under guidance of excellent mentors and reporting directly to the HIV/Aids Task Team of National Department of Health. Exploring South Africa (visited 68 rural, peri-urban and urban communities) and realising the impact of culture, values and individual attention was priceless experience.
- Experience in a variety of sectors including: communication & advertising agencies, banking, education, mining, jewellery & mineral beneficiation; health, specifically HIV/aids; social development & specifically child & women protection; information and technology, business development, philanthropy & non-profits, government, funding agencies.
Skills
- I am an entrepreneur. As a business woman, I have developed a number of business development skills, and I have experienced enterprise development from all angles – as an entrepreneur, as an incubation manager, as a consultant assisting to refine and expand incubators and enterprise development programmes, and as a customer of small businesses.
- Strong research skills, with a focus on communication based research and monitoring and evaluation – completed more than 90 communication based research studies to date in my career.
- Specialised in all corporate communication aspects, including internal and external communication, project management and planning.
- Experience in grass root community development, enterprise development, social mobilisation and capacity building through constant involvement in community development projects in rural, urban and peri-urban organisations.
- Experience in internal communication campaigns for large (260 branches nationally), medium (10 branches) and small organisations.
- Ability to strategically develop and implement business integrated marketing and communication strategies specifically for organisations with a development agenda.
- Ability to strategically identify communication and business problems and skills to find and implement effective solutions for these problems.
- Ability to assist Community Based Organisations in moving from a position of having no corporate identity and communication strategy to having a basic strategy and corporate identity in place.
- Mentoring and coaching junior team members.
- Proficient interpersonal communication skills and group communication skills.
- Excellent organisational and planning skills.
- Public relations communication skills including government, client and community liaison.
- Computer literacy and new media communication: including basic interactive media development and publication design and development (DTP).
- Extensive research skills, report and proposal writing.
- Workshop and training administration and facilitation skills.