BIO
Alexander Leibner is a seasoned communciator, with close on 20-years experience working for some of Africa’s leading media organizations, both in the spotlight and behind the scenes, including Talk Radio 702, M-Net, Caxton Newspapers, CNBC Africa, Forbes Africa and the SABC.
During this time, he has written for publications too numerous to mention, including Forbes Africa and Forbes Woman Africa, where his monthly column focused particularly on technology and the future, presented and produced flagship television shows, broken news on radio and made numerous appearances as a Moderator and Master of Ceremonies - it’s no surprise he’s received a mention in two books to-date.
Speaking of which, he recently had the rare privilege of being mentioned in Chairman of CNBC Africa, Zafar Siddiqi’s latest book TV News 3.0 - An Insider’s Guide To Launching And Running News Channels In The Digital Age.
Having then looked after Africa Business News’ [ABN] marketing division as Head of Group Marketing, Alexander successfully lead the group's event management company, ABN Event Productions, entrusted to execute all of Forbes Africa and CNBC Africa’s events both regionally and across the globe.
This included shaping and producing such marvelous gatherings like high-level awards, launches, bespoke events and networking functions including: The All Africa Business Leaders Awards in Partnership with CNBC Africa [7-Years], The Forbes Woman Africa Leading Women Summit [4-Years], The Forbes Africa Future of Health Summit [4-Years], The Forbes Africa Person of the Year [2-Years], The Forbes Africa Under 30 Meet-Up [2-Years] and a range of top-tier client events in Africa, Asia and Europe, like private stakeholder breakfasts around the World Economic Forum and AfDB AGM.
Some of the clients he has been entrusted to work with include: Standard Chartered [Africa & Middle East], African Development Bank, Philips Africa, Brand South Africa, Development Bank of South Africa, AFREXIMBANK, Siemens, Mastercard, Diageo, BMW, UNICEF and Jaguar Land Rover to name a few.
When it comes to engineering conversations, there are few with enough gravitas to forge ahead. With two decades of media experience, Alexander is no stranger to LIVE, real-time conversations with C-Suite Executives, Government Officials and Thought Leaders. His niche lies in cutting-edge trends, technology, consumer marketing, futurism and Africa.
As a scholar of the 4th Industrial Revolution and beyond, Alexander brings his insights from tomorrow into his global conversations. He is the choice of forward-looking international and African organizations, be it leading listed and unlisted multi-national companies or major global institutions.
As a recipient of the President’s Award from late President Nelson Mandela and Prince Edward (Earl of Wessex), Alexander is no stranger to engaging with top-tier business and government leaders, international organization heads, sporting superstars and luminaries. Having consulted to Middle Eastern Royalty, Alexander has also had the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with everyone from Richard Branson to Will Smith, Robert Kiyosaki and President’s Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to name but a few.
Some of his career highlights include attending the Annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and in Africa, organizing events for international celebrities Priyanka Chopra, Jordan ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ Belfort and Naomi Campbell, and moderating conferences for Forbes Africa and CNBC Africa across the continent. His work and wanderlust has taken him to over 35 major cities in 22 countries, some more than once.
He has been interviewed on numerous television and radio stations internationally as a spokesperson for the organization’s he’s served.
Alexander has participated on the Adweek Africa Advisory Committee, the Chief Marketing Officer Council African Advisory Board and has chaired the Advertising Benevolent Fund as its President. He completed his schooling at St Andrew’s College in Grahamstown before concluding a Bachelor of Communications degree, majoring in Marketing and Advertising from Bond University Australia and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from the Gordon Institute of Business Science. In 2020, he is looking to pursue is Master of Business Administration (MBA).
He was also partaken in 2 expeditions to summit Mt Kilimanjaro, one of which was successful in March 2013, doing so as a complete team. Alexander is highly energetic and passionate about marketing, communications, conceptualizing and perpetual self-education, which compliments his engaging, positive, confident and approachable persona.
In 2020, Alexander aligned with a global consultancy, based out of New York, as a futurist and trend specialist, interfacing with leading future focused companies and organisations, in Africa, and also further afield into the Middle East, Europe and Asia. As an African-based futurist, he is in the unique position of observing some of the leap-frog innovation and technology coming out of the continent, and sharing this knowledge and insight with the rest of the world, whilst also being able to feed some of the world’s most important insights and methodologies back into Africa’s organisations that are shaping the continent of tomorrow.
“I remember sitting at home on a Sunday afternoon growing up (when we still had linear, analogue television), watching an Australian show called ‘Beyond 2000’. Every week this TV show would explore the wild and wonderful world of the future, featuring cars with airbags, computers that would allow you to bank from home, wearable technology and innovations that just seemed so outside of the time we were living in.”
- Interview with RetailingAfrica.com
Alexander is a member of the World Future Society and an associate with The Futurist Institute. He is fluent in German, Afrikaans and English and is based out of Johannesburg, South Africa.
