Zibusiso Mkhwanazi is Group CEO of M&N Brands and co-founder of Avatar, South Africa's largest black owned and managed advertising agency. Avatar won Financial Mail's AdFocus medium-sized agency of the year 2016 and were a finalist in 2017. A World Economic ForumYoung Global Leader, Mkhwanazi is now building an African owned agency network through his investment company, M&N Brands. Mkhwanazi is a Trustee of the National Economic and Education Trust, which has provided over 4,200 scholarships to underprivileged ICT students. Born in 1983, he is the founder of David's League, a Christianity-based mentorship program to support young entrepreneurs.
Career
Mkhwanazi started his first business, Csonke, a web design company, at the age of 17. Csonke then merged with Krazyboyz in 2007 and Mkhwanazi served as Executive Chairman until July 2010, developing and overseeing growth, strategy and marketing for both the Cape Town and Johannesburg offices. He then took on the role of CEO from July 2010 – December 2011. In January 2012, Mkhwanazi went into partnership with Veli Ngubane to found Avatar, which has won numerous awards including most digitally integrated agency and also the agency that has done the most to drive transformation in the SA industry. Avatar opened their Cape Town office in 2016 and have won numerous accounts such as H&M and Chevron. He also served as Chairman of ARM advertising and design in 2009, as well as Chairman of The Red quarter Brand Design August 2010 – November 2013. Mkhwanazi is the majority shareholder in M&N Brands, with partner Veli Ngubane, an investment company building an African owned agency network. In 2017 they acquired Mela Events, a gold-Loerie award-winning events company with clients such as Standard Bank and Nando's. In 2017, the 33-year-old Financial Mail ADFocus awards created the industry's first transformation award at Mkhwanazi's urging, which was sponsored by M&N Brands.
Education
"Mkhwanazi’s story from the humble streets of Soweto" is as follows: Bramley primary school, Bedfordview High School, NDip Information Technology and Dip Corporate Law at the University of Johannesburg, Foundations for Leadership in the 21st Century Yale and Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century at Harvard.
