Mandie van der Merwe didn’t always intend on joining the advertising industry but was immediately hooked when she landed her first role as an intern. The South-African born creative began her career at Ogilvy in 1999. Since then, she has climbed to the top of creative departments, acted as a mentor, and was recently named AdNews Emerging Leader.
Van der Merwe’s career spans three countries, working in her home country of South Africa, as well as Bahrain and now Australia. She spent the beginning of her childhood in Durban, a creative hub in South Africa.
“Then my family moved to Pretoria, now Tshwane, which was a real culture shock - Afrikaans-speakers, conservatives… and a handful of racists,” van der Merwe says.
“I went to so many schools but I found my people at Pro Arte. It’s a specialisation school for the arts that has produced so many incredibly talented artists, musicians, dancers and
