Peter Mann is the founder of Meropa Communications which he led for 34 years to become South Africa's pre-eminent communications consultancy with a turnover exceeding R80m, 100+ employees and offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Gqeberha. (Port Elizabeth)He is the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Public Relations Institute of South Africa (Prisa); winning in 2016 -- the first time the award was ever made. He is also the winner of the SADC Pan African Titans Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018/19. Peter spent 16 years as a journalist and reached senior editorial positions in South Africa and London including Assistant Editor, News Editor and Political Correspondent. He ran the biggest newsroom in South Africa during the States of Emergency which signalled the death of apartheid; served five years in Parliament as a political correspondent; taught journalism for then Argus South African newspapers and worked for the group abroad in its London office.In 1989 he joined legendary South African PR man, Aubrey Sussens, in public relations. In the 34+ years since he has consulted widely to senior leaders of private and public corporations & Government departments in South Africa and the continent and in Europe.Notable clients have included the coup-deposed, exiled President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, from 2010 to the end of his attempted re-election campaign in 2018; to international bodies such as the World Health Organisation and national road agency SANRAL amongst many others -- covering virtually every sector of the economy. Peter is a disciplined, strategic and creative thinker with particular focus on issue management and Board-level strategy.He loves ideas, creatively solving business challenges, teaching journalism and writing and taking a planned, proactive and measurable approach to business and communication challenges.Now retired, he consults from his farm in the Eastern Free State traveling as required. He is a longstanding member of the Press Council of South Africa (PCSA) --serving as a public adjudicator and chair of its Finance & Human Resources Committee and its Communications sub-committee. He was a Trustee of READ, a South African early learning and literacy NGO for 10 years. He is a BA UED graduate of the University of Natal (Durban). Specialties: Creative ideas, Board-level communication strategies, issues management, marketing communications; writing training, speech writing.