About me
Born and educated in the United Kingdom, Johanna McDowell graduated a Business and Marketing qualification in the early 1970's.
Johanna has spent her subsequent career of more than 45 years, dividing her time between marketing and advertising, as well as communications and consulting. She has built a career in both the UK and in South Africa.
Having worked for listed companies in both countries as well as leading ad agencies at director level in UK and South Africa, Johanna started her first company in integrated communications company in 1992 and built it to a sizeable, (20 staff) independently owned company over 13 years before founding the IAS in 2006.
The IAS is Johanna's dream job, she says, and the culmination of a long career in marketing and advertising. Every day brings a new opportunity and a welcome surprise. The business has doubled in size each year from the start up of 2007 and for the last four years has been voted the Number One pitch consultancy in South Africa by the advertising and marketing community.
The IAS has a team of four full time consultants and contracts out its marketing, technology and financial support functions.
Apart from the IAS, Johanna is very proud of her partnership with fellow consultants, SCOPEN, and she has led SCOPEN Africa as a shareholder and director since 2016. In the past six years, AGENCY SCOPE the main research programme from SCOPEN has become a highly successful fixture within the advertising and marketing industry in South Africa.
Johanna has been in a number of Non-Executive Director roles for more than 30 years and currently sits on two boards within the BeTheBusiness network in the UK.
