Economic and Political Observer, Master of Ceremonies and Facilitator
Bruce is a multi-platform award-winning financial journalist. His work on radio, television and in print gives him unique access to South Africa’s biggest power brokers in business and money.
Bruce has been named Financial Journalist of the Year three times in the past decade by independent judges in the annual Sanlam Awards and has received recognition for his work on the economy, companies and personal finance.
Bruce has developed the ability to tell compelling stories about the political economy in a way that is creative and engaging.
Bruce has worked in the highly competitive London radio market and has worked as a foreign correspondent for various global news organizations. He graduated top of his class with a Bachelor of Journalism degree from Rhodes University and has been practicing as a journalist for over two decades. One day he hopes to turn it into a career.
Bruce presents The Money Show on 702 and CapeTalk, hosts Taking Stock, a weekly TV show on eNCA, and is a columnist and writer for the Sunday Times Business Times.
He is also a sought-after public speaker, MC and conference facilitator.
Thriving on the Edge of Chaos – a brand new talk by Bruce Whitfield
Bruce has spent nearly 20 years interviewing CEO’s and studying the companies they have created. South Africa might seem to be an unlikely breeding ground for globally competitive companies, but it has produced a range of extraordinary success stories. Bruce has distilled through a range of exclusive one-on-one interviews with the founders of great South African companies precisely what it is that has made them formidable international players.
Just four of the top 40 companies listed on the JSE today were on that list the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison. At least half either did not exist or were in early start-up phase and have grown, in most cases, far beyond their founders own expectations.
In the minute it has taken you to read this, and in every other minute of every day, 365 days a year, 900 people across the world are injected by a sterile product from Aspen Pharmacare which runs and operates 25 factories worldwide, one of its most sophisticated is in Port Elizabeth.
Considering South Africa has been through 8 recessions of varying intensity over the past forty years, what would have happened had the founders of great South African companies had sat on their hands and waited for certainty?
They didn’t. They got stuck in.
Thriving on the Edge of Chaos explores issues of strategy, planning, leadership, ego and more than just a little luck.
It’s a compelling 45 minute talk that while South Africa can be a challenging place to do business it has proven to be an incubator of exceptional, globally competitive businesses.