Saul Kgomotso Molobi is the founding Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Brandhill Africa (Pty) Ltd (and Director of Brandhill Africa Foundation NPC). The latter is a not-for-profit registered company that drives the corporate social investment (CSI) programmes of Brandhill Africa (Pty) Ltd and project manages CSI programmes of other corporate companies effectively, cost-efficiently and sustainably.
He is a global marketing architect by profession and also by academic training. He is touted by many as one of the foremost marketing thought leaders on ‘nation brand’ and public diplomacy. He is a published author, filmmaker and a theatre practitioner by academic training.
He is also a former diplomat having worked as a South African Consul-General in Milan from 1 April 2012 to 30 June 2016. During this period he also served as South Africa’s Commissioner to the national pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale and the alternating Venice Architecture Biennale.
Previously he played an oversight role in the development of the corporate identity of the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) – which ultimately influenced the corporate identity of the South African government. While at the dti, he championed a multi-media campaign, aptly titled “Uzoyi ‘thola kanjani o hleli ‘khoneni“, which sought to encourage South Africans to be entrepreneurial by using popular music lyrics.
He also designed a multimedia campaign to reposition the Limpopo (one of the nine South African provinces) brand from “Africa’s garden of Eden” to “the heartland of southern Africa” in 2005 – the province still uses this brand positioning to this day.
This DBA candidate at the University of Northampton, already holds several degrees: BA from University of Limpopo; BA (Honours) and Master of Arts in Dramatic Art from the University of the Witwatersrand; a Post-Graduate Diploma from the IMM Graduate School of Marketing; and an MSc in Global Marketing from the University of Liverpool. He has also received vocational training in public diplomacy and international relations at the University of Southern California, the Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendal) and Diplo Foundation (Swiss/Malta governments’ initiative).
He has a full spectrum of experience from various backgrounds: private sector (having worked as Publishing Director for Heinemann Publishers), public entities (Senior Manager: Corporate Communication for Telkom; General Manager: Marketing & Communications at Trade and Investment Limpopo (TIL); most recently as Group Executive: Trade, Investment and Regulatory Enablement at the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA), the public sector (first as Chief Director: Marketing Communications at the Department of Trade and Industry; General Manager: Provincial Communication Services at Office of the Premier in Limpopo; and as Chief Director: Public Diplomacy at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation); and civil society sector (as Editor-in-Chief at Learn & Teach Publications and Director for the Independent Magazine Group).
He is also a former executive member of the Polokwane Chamber of Business.
A former student leader at the University of Limpopo, he spent thirteen months in detention for opposing apartheid in the mid-1980s while a student at the University of Limpopo.
In 2001 he was shortlisted for the coveted Sunday Times’ Bessie Head Fellowship for his proposed project on the life and times of the “Wire Gang” – a notorious gang that terrorised Johannesburg townships of Alexandra and Soweto.
He recently published the first in a trilogy of books focusing on his life. It’s titled “Sounds and Fury: The Chronicles of Healing”. The Foreword to the book was written by H.E. Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, the former President of the Republic of South Africa.
Power 98,7 FM offers him a monthly slot in which he co-hosts successful persons with disabilities in an attempt to mainstream issues affecting people with disabilities (listen to the podcasts under the “Media” button.