Barrie Swart
Cape Town
Summary
Seasoned, people-focused, business and operations leader with a proven track record, spanning 20+ years, of building and scaling businesses from a low or zero base. I've successfully assembled and managed large and small teams, as well as foreign, domestic and hybrid teams and set up lasting value for investors in both South Africa and China. Currently based in Cape Town but globally mobile.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Director / General Manager
SuperSportBet (Pty) Ltd
Cape Town
03.2023 - Current
- Headhunted as employee #1 to launch and operate SuperSportBet.com - a new online sports and casino betting service in South Africa - while building out a team of over 120.
- Steered the building and testing of the platform to ensure market readiness across desktop, mobile web, Android and iOS app.
- Lead the brand conceptualisation and development and headed all the above-the-line and below-the-line marketing activities to successfully launch a new brand and service in South Africa.
- Secured all the required regulatory approvals from the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board.
- Finalised partnership agreements with the two biggest football clubs in South Africa - Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs.
- Over delivered on acquisition targets, with player registrations already running deep into 6 figures, since the televised January 2024 launch.
- Stakeholder management at board level with the the UK-based holding company, KingMakers, as well as partners Multichoice and SuperSport.
Head of Operations
Gumtree South Africa (eBay Company)
Cape Town
09.2018 - 02.2023
- Aligning all departments to deliver on strategy and acted as a second to the country manager.
- Remained on as Head of Property/Goods/Jobs verticals.
- Overarching responsibility for all revenue streams (save for Autos).
- Consistent over delivery on ~$3m annual budget.
- Took the Auto-Parts subcategory from concept to live in 4 weeks and converted to a ~$300k (and growing) recurring annual revenue stream, with zero incremental headcount.
- Headed the payments and shipping project that saw Gumtree transition from pure classifieds to a transaction enabled ecommerce platform within 2023.
- Improved features revenue 5x in some subcategories through ongoing pricing optimisation and data analytics.
Country Head: Property/Goods/Jobs
Gumtree South Africa (eBay Company)
Cape Town
02.2016 - 08.2018
- Built the B2C business into a $1m plus recurring revenue business from scratch.
- Increased on-site property listings from 38k to 210k (4.5x growth) enabling Gumtree to compete with dedicated property portals.
- Led initiatives to drive B2C listing volumes which resulted in Gumtree having the highest live listing tally in its 20+ year history - consistently over 1,1m.
- Brokered numerous retail advertising deals valued in excess of $300k.
- Grew and managed the B2C support team responsible for onboarding, vetting, tech support and accounts receivable.
Chief Operating Officer
Lumico
Cape Town
05.2015 - 12.2015
- Along with 2 founders on the exco, grew staff at the digital start-up to over 40 personnel.
- Sourced clients to build a book of over 60 in sectors ranging from events, agriculture, retail, financial services, motoring, legal and more.
- Served less than a year here due to being head hunted to become only the 3rd eBay employee on the African continent.
Deputy General Manager
Xin'an Media Corporation (Naspers Company)
Hefei
09.2009 - 03.2015
- Led a 72-strong team and grew the company from a single newspaper to 2 daily newspapers, 4 trade magazines and a sustainable digital and outdoor advertising business.
- Grew revenue from international brands by 1200% including clients the likes of adidas, Gucci and Louis Vuitton.
- Arranged close to a dozen bi-lateral government delegation visits to both South Africa and China.
- Facilitated numerous exclusive interview opportunities for travelling Chinese journalists during the 2010 FIFA World Cup - giving our joint venture partner unparalleled coverage in the region.
- Represented the joint venture in dozens of regional and national, press, radio and television interviews and hundreds of public speaking engagements.
Various Media and Marketing Roles
Media24 (Naspers Company)
Cape Town
01.2002 - 08.2009
- Head of Marketing - Media24 Magazines
- Multimedia Manager - DieBurger.com
- Head of Publicity and Business Development - Media24 Print
- Marketing Executive - Media24 Newspapers
- Media Planning Assistant - TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris
Education
MBA - Marketing And Business (cum laude)
University of Cape Town - Graduate School of Business
Cape Town 01-2007
BACHELORS DEGREE - Marketing (cum laude)
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Cape Town 01-2003
Skills
- General Management
- Online Betting
- Operations Management
- Strategy Execution
- Launching and Scaling Online Businesses
- Business Development
- Digital Media
- Publishing
- Event Management
Websites
Certification
- STRATEGY EXECUTION, Harvard Business School, Online
- DIGITAL MARKETING, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER, Western Cape Bookmakers Association
Language Certificates
CHINESE LANGUAGE, HSK LEVEL II, Hanban Confucius Institute, Beijing, China
Active Pursuits
- Travel and Exploring New Cultures - 46 Countries and Counting
- Advanced Open Water Diver
- Provincial Masters Hockey Player
- Avid Off-road Motorcyclist
- Trail/Road Runner
- Triathlon and Extreme Fitness Pursuits
Languages
- English, Native
- Afrikaans, Native
Awards
- Old Mutual Gold Medal Scholar - Top 3, MBA class
- GSB Gold Medal - Top Marketing Student in MBA class
- eBay Luminary - company award for excellence - one of 60 recipients out of 11k employees
- Media24 Marketer of the Year
- South African Marketing Student of the Year
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Director / General Manager
SuperSportBet (Pty) Ltd
03.2023 - Current
Head of Operations
Gumtree South Africa (eBay Company)
09.2018 - 02.2023
Country Head: Property/Goods/Jobs
Gumtree South Africa (eBay Company)
02.2016 - 08.2018
Chief Operating Officer
Lumico
05.2015 - 12.2015
Deputy General Manager
Xin'an Media Corporation (Naspers Company)
09.2009 - 03.2015
Various Media and Marketing Roles
Media24 (Naspers Company)
01.2002 - 08.2009
MBA - Marketing And Business (cum laude)
University of Cape Town - Graduate School of Business
BACHELORS DEGREE - Marketing (cum laude)
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
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