Welcome to the WBS Distinguished Lecture Series. The series brings South Africa’s high profile leaders to one of the world’s leading business schools to share their insights into current business issues and strategies. Further, the programme builds and strengthens the relationship between WBS and leading corporations, media and government agencies. 

We are proud to welcome
Stafford Masie
Chief Executive Officer of Google SA

Stafford will talk about the “Evolution of digital media and the online World”

Stafford will discuss disruptive tsunamis of technology and the opportunities they present to truly and affectively reach and engage the consumer. Additionally he will explore Google's business model, the underpinnings of its' success and the personification of what connectivity truly can do for mankind (specifically Africa).

Stafford Masie has been in the IT industry for more than 15 years and has assumed numerous roles throughout his career. After completing his tertiary computer science studies in Israel in the early 90's, he returned to South Africa. On his immediate return he worked for numerous companies, namely; Telkom, and Dimension Data.

Thereafter Stafford started his own consulting and engineering services company which was later acquired. Looking for further challenges he then joined a multinational enterprise software company called Novell and after 9 months in South Africa he moved to the USA where he spent several years at their corporate head office in Utah. Stafford was responsible for global partnerships and corporate technology strategy and had responsibility for numerous international territories – namely; Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Venezuala), Middle East, Sub Saharan Africa and Southern Europe. Stafford played a significant role in the open source software arena in the USA and returned to South Africa in December 2003 to assume the role of country manager for Novell South Africa. Stafford has since joined Google and is currently the country manager for Google South Africa.