The two have joined the leadership of Ogilvy's PR and influence division, aiming to boost Ogilvy's ability to make brands matter for industry-leading clients across sectors. The announcements follow last year's appointment of Lebo Madiba, who currently heads up Ogilvy PR.

This leadership group reflects Ogilvy's increasingly diverse and experienced client offering of specialist skills fundamental to the evolving marketing and communications landscape.

Coming into his new role as head of strategy, Conroy says that he was "highly motivated" to get going on developing Ogilvy's PR and influence capability as part of the group's integrated client offering.

Conroy is an industry innovator who launched ENCA, South Africa's first 24-hour news channel, in 2008 and helped run it until 2015, building it into one of the country's most credible media platforms.

He began his career at Talk Radio 702 and gained agency experience at the Jupiter Drawing Room before moving into television. In 2016, Conroy became managing director of entertainment satellite platform OpenView, taking the service from 300 000 viewing households to more than a million within 17 months.

"I'm excited to be at Ogilvy, a modern marketing agency with a passion for making brands matter," says Conroy. "I'm looking forward to achieving that for our clients in my new role and working with some of the best talents in the industry." Conroy has spent the past two years consulting to a wide range of companies on strategy, content and communications. 

Lerato Tshabalala, Ogilvy's new content director for PR and influence, has almost 20 years' experience in media and has held several top positions at leading print publications.

She became editor of Drum magazine at only 22 and edited the Lifestyle supplement at South Africa's largest Sunday paper, Sunday Times, for five years.

She edited iconic women's title True Love before leaving to take up a Mandela Washington fellowship in the United States. Most recently, Tshabalala has been a creative director in digital and social media, establishing content studios for major clients like Vodacom and AB InBev.

"As content director, I will oversee content strategy and shape Ogilvy's vision for their offerings," says Tshabalala. "I'm already finding it highly rewarding, and I look forward to furthering collaborations with the Ogilvy teams to add value."

Ogilvy managing partner for PR Lebo Madiba says that she looks forward to working with Conroy and Tshabalala in refining Ogilvy's PR and influence capability. "It's all about building even greater strategic effectiveness for the group," Madiba concludes. "We are excited to have people of Patrick and Lerato's ability on board to help shape the future of Ogilvy and deliver effective results for clients."

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