Ursula McAlpine

McAlpine was promoted from the managing director position. Her new position assumes responsibility for Havas Worldwide Johannesburg, Havas Worldwide Digital Johannesburg and the Havas Shopper Marketing business.

Havas Southern Africa CEO, Lynn Madeley, stated that McAlpine's dedication to Havas, her proven track record in growing the Havas businesses in South Africa, as well as her understanding of discipline-integration and its importance to their clients, had made her the perfect choice for the position.

"With the continued business growth of the Havas Group in South Africa, and particularly the growth of the Havas Sports and Entertainment business, as well as our direction for the next phase of our expansion strategy, it became clear that Havas Worldwide businesses needed a consolidated focus under the leadership of a single director," Madeley explained.

McAlpine's core business focus is to maintain positive business growth and ensure seamless and efficient integration of Havas service offerings, and to produce the best possible creative solutions and ROI for their clients.

"As new technologies emerge that influence consumer perceptions and decision making, the various disciplines within the marketing mix must work together and complement each other to facilitate a continuous conversation and meaningful connection between consumers and brands. This is discipline integration - where disciplines have had to integrate to ensure that brands communicate with the target audience across all touch points, consistently and coherently."

McAlpine believes the consolidated position will ensure greater collaboration and integration across the agency.

"The way in which we work and operate is undeniably integrated. This position will provide me a broader perspective of the business operations to ensure optimised teamwork between the businesses, ultimately ensuring that our clients' objectives are always at the heart of what we do, regardless of what discipline is required."

About Ursula McAlpine

Ursula McAlpine has just been appointed Group Managing Director of Havas Worldwide Johannesburg. She was promoted from managing director of Havas Worldwide Johannesburg. Prior to joining Havas, she was business unit director at Publicis in Johannesburg and at Lowe Bull Johannesburg. Before returning to South Africa, she worked in London as a senior account manager at Ogilvy & Mather and M&C Saatchi.

Q: What is your main business challenge?
A: Growing the business to be profitable and effective whilst ensuring that our people (our biggest assets) are looked after, inspired, and motivated.

Q: What do your new responsibilities encompass?
A: To ensure that our multiple businesses, each with their own specific service focus and disciplines, consistently deliver a quality integrated offering.

Q: As a business, what do you pride yourself on delivering to clients?
A: It's simply putting the brand first and at the centre of all we do as well as the decisions we make - with a channel agnostic approach. We try not push a particular discipline, instead looking at the communication challenge, strategically analysing how best to approach the brief and then engaging the correct discipline to achieve the best possible return on investment. In this way, we offer a marketing-centric partnership that is honest, responsible, and rigorous.

Q: Most important attribute needed to do your job?
A: A healthy balance of hard work and effort combined with emotional intelligence. Being 'always on' is also vital.

Q: The biggest trend to note in your industry?
A: The proliferation of good creative work that builds brands that stand for something good or change the world positively in some small way.

Q: What is your future focus?
A: We pride ourselves at being future first. This means having a deep understanding of our consumers with a wealth of insights that will inform the meaningful connections we aim to create between brands and consumers.

Q: What inspires you?
A: People who are able to affect change and inspire others through positive and empathetic leadership.

Q: What scares you?
A: Failure. It really scares me. But also motivates me.

Q: Tell us something about yourself not generally known?
A: I have a passion for true crime literature. Before I entered this industry, I really wanted to become a criminal psychologist.

Q: What do you do to de-stress?
A: I love to read - particularly crime novels.... with a good Merlot close at hand...

Q: At the top of my 'bucket list' is...
A: To cycle through Provence... sampling all the good Merlot along the way...