Media Voice Services Direct CC, trading as Media Voice Communication Services, is 100% black female owned and a certified Level 3 BEE contributor. It was established by Anthea Abraham, former radio news editor and presenter, television news anchor, and marketing and communications expert.
Aside from her media experience, Anthea has extensive management experience in the government and corporate sectors supported by academic qualifications from, among others, Rhodes University and Pretoria University's Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). She is a recipient of the Steve Biko Scholarship for Senior Journalists awarded by the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism. In 2008, she was offered a £10,000 bursary to complete an MBA at CASS Business School in London after suspending her part-time MBA studies at the University of Stellenbosch due to work commitments the previous year.
Before starting the company, Anthea was employed in the Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Department of South Africa's leading cigarette manufacturer and marketer, British American Tobacco South Africa, a member of the BAT group that operates in about 180 countries. She was appointed as the company’s Media Relations Manager at the beginning of 2006 and was later entrusted with the position of External Communications Manager, responsible for media, corporate website, publications, corporate advertising, strategic events and corporate brand. This was followed by a promotion to the position of Stakeholder Engagement Manager. In 2009, the Sustainability Report that she produced for the company was selected as the Best Sustainability Report within South Africa’s non-extractive industries by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Anthea was a News Editor at the Western Cape's (WC) top commercial radio station, Kfm 94.5, and while in this position served as a member of the South African National Editors’ Forum. She presented news on Metro FM (one of the SABC’s national radio stations), the former Capital Radio in Durban, as well as E-TV and co-anchored the SABC’s WC coverage of South Africa’s 2004 General Elections. She has also held positions in Marketing and Communications in the WC Premier’s Office, WC Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, at Computer Science Corporation (CSC - a global IT company), and has consulted to the SABC through Meropa Communications.
Anthea is a member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. She volunteers at the Tertiary School in Business Administration (a free university for previously disadvantaged individuals) where she helps its final year students improve their speech and presentation skills.
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