Dentsu Africa CEO will share lessons from growing an 11-market network, building local talent and launching privacy-led marketing technology. The Nedbank IMC has announced Dawn Rowlands, CEO of dentsu Africa, as a speaker for its 2026 conference, taking place on Thursday, 17 September 2026 at Mosaïek Teatro in Johannesburg or online.
Under the 2026 theme Shift Happens™, Rowlands will present Africa is the Shift, a session on how businesses, talent and technology built on the continent are influencing marketing beyond it.
For more than 30 years, Rowlands has built and scaled businesses across Africa. As CEO of dentsu Africa, she oversees 11 markets and has helped grow the network from 40 people to more than 1,500 professionals, largely through home-grown talent.
At dentsu Africa, Rowlands has helped build local teams, routes from internships into permanent roles and technology designed for the region.
Initiatives launched under her leadership include Merkury, a privacy-compliant identity platform introduced in South Africa with Telkom, and programmes that redirected major media investment into black-owned enterprises.
Rowlands argues that growth models cannot simply be imported. They must be commercially strong, built around local talent and responsive to the markets and communities they serve.
At the Nedbank IMC, her session will examine four practical questions: how to scale across diverse markets, build talent locally, use data responsibly and direct investment in ways that strengthen local businesses.
‘Dawn has spent more than 30 years building businesses across Africa,’ said Dale Hefer, CEO of the Nedbank IMC. ‘She brings a practical, commercially grounded view of why the continent matters now.’
The Nedbank IMC 2026 will feature a curated, not crowdsourced, speaker line-up, combining global insight with African context.
Tickets are available here.
Nedbank IMC
www.imcconference.com
