Andrew Douglas is the Managing Director and founder of The Salamander Company.

Originally from a small farming community in the south east of South Australia, Andrew began his career at the Adelaide Convention Centre before going on to work on major event and production projects in New Zealand and the UK. Major highlights during this period included the delivery of the Ladbroke Grove Rail Inquiry, Marchionness/Bowebell Formal Investigation and the London Symphony Orchestra’s preparations for the BBC “Proms”.

Andrew returned to Australia in 2002 to take up the role of Associate Producer with the “Croc Festival®” – a national festival produced in rural and remote areas that engages Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians with the aim of building partnerships and celebrating youth and traditional culture. In 2004 Andrew introduced a sister event, the “Rock Challenge®”, into South Africa – a series of youth dance and drama events (and television specials) staged worldwide as part of the Global Rock Challenge®.

Concentrating on the management of commercial rights within the sports, cultural and lifestyle categories, Andrew has assisted a variety of rights holders to commercially leverage their marketing assets and sponsorship properties, as well as deliver communication strategies to support the execution of a number of major campaigns. Major clients and partners over the last 5 years have included the Australian Football League, Coca Cola, Tiger Brands, Avedia Foods, Xstrata Mining, Media 24, AusAID, UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Andrew is currently working to expand The Salamander Company’s international interests with a particular focus on niche opportunities that deliver innovative solutions to major property developers to increase “foot traffic” and “dwell time” within mixed used development environments. Clients in this field include the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town and Melrose Arch in Johannesburg.

Andrew resides in Cape Town, South Africa, and is the Australian Honorary Consul to the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.

Bryan Healy is the Commercial Director for The Salamander Company and oversees all commercial strategy projects. Bryan is originally from New York where he started his career working for NBC Sports, he has been working in South Africa for three years.

During this time he consulted on commercial strategy development to several major projects, events and corporations, including the City of Cape Town’s new Greenpoint stadium, SA Fashion Week, Thebe Events and Exhibitions, Nike, Metropolitan, NFVF (National Film and Video Foundation) and KZN Philharmonic Orchestra.

Bryan was based in London for three years prior to coming to South Africa where he worked with leading global football clubs and corporations to develop long term integrated business and marketing partnerships. His tenure in Europe included project work with Arsenal FC, Juventus FC, Siemens, Emirates, and the Wembley Development Project.

Bryan currently resides in Cape Town, South Africa.

John is a Director of The Salamander Company and has extensive commercial experience in handling rights and benefits related to international sports events including the Olympics, Rugby World Cup, Commonwealth Games and FIFA World Cup.

Recent highlights of John’s career include management of the marketing and promotions program of the 40 Olympic Test Events for the Sydney 2000 Olympics; venue management for Road Cycling at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games; leading the Qantas Sponsorship account for 5 years (included an extensive sports, arts, ambassadors and charities portfolio under the Sharing the Spirit community program) and extensive consultancy for Accor Hotels on sports marketing and event development through the Asia Pacific region.

John was appointed by Dubai World South Africa, to lead the V&A Waterfront’s FIFA 2010 World Cup Commercial Program in addition to his ongoing leadership role with The Salamander Company at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg.

John has recently opened The Salamander Company’s Sydney office where he oversees the expansion of The Salamander Company’s business interests throughout Australia and the Asia Pacific.

John resides in Sydney, Australia with his wife Dianne.

James Earl is a Director of The Salamander Company and an Australian and UK qualified solicitor. Previously he worked as a corporate tax lawyer with Adelaide firm Kelly & Co. before moving to “UK Top 65” firm Clarke Willmott. 

James works primarily within the UK and international sports and entertainment industry, advising both teams, players/drivers and governing bodies as well as rights holders, sponsors and event organisers in the areas of commercial rights protection/exploitation and corporate governance and (re)structuring.  

His clients have included a recent world No.1 tennis player, a current Formula 1 driver, numerous leading UK professional rugby, football and cricket clubs and the UK's largest racecourse owner.

James has advised The Salamander Company since its incorporation.  He works closely with fellow directors on all aspects of the company's business and in particular enjoys focusing on the expanding commercial relationships and opportunities being generated with the company's new and existing client base.

James resides in Bristol, United Kingdom.

Morag Lark is a Director of The Salamander Company with a decade long career in event management, marketing communications and television content production.

Her extensive event management and production experience includes the conceptualisation, production and marketing of a wide range of large scale outdoor events, conferences, boutique launches and award winning arts, health and lifestyle festivals.  

She has secured and serviced significant sponsorships and commercial investments from government, corporate and non-profit sectors and specialises in creating innovative business partnerships that address corporate social responsibility outcomes.

Morag is experienced in developing media and marketing communication strategies for government, corporate and non-profit sectors in Australia and South Africa and retains an extensive network of stakeholders in these fields.

An important aspect of Morag's career has been in the production of television content where she has produced factual and documentary programs and more recently in live sports broadcasts.  Morag's current focus is on the development of The Salamander Company's international television properties.

Morag resides in Sydney, Australia.

Michelle Davis is the Marketing and Business Development Manager of The Salamander Company. Michelle manages all commercial, marketing and business growth aspects of the Melrose Arch project.  Michelle studied Marketing Management at the University of Cape Town and joined British America Tobacco on a Management Trainee programme straight out of University. Michelle worked on the Peter Stuyvesant brand and also fulfilled the role of Opposition Brand Manager for all BAT brands. Michelle later joined Porsche Centre South Africa as Porsche Marketing Specialist working on a number of key events including the South African leg of the International Porsche World Roadshow.

More recently, Michelle has worked in the Corporate banking sector, heading up an Events team for all bank and client events. During this time, she also managed the Risk and Compliance as well as Marketing Finance portfolios.

Michelle grew up in Cape Town but now resides in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is passionate about the outdoors and enjoys boating, scuba diving and running.

Mari-Louise Esterhuizen is Director of Communications and Public Relations of Melrose Arch – South Africa’s premier lifestyle and shopping precinct and one of The Salamander Company’s flagship projects, situated in Sandton, Johannesburg.
 
Having worked with blue-chip clients such as the Vodacom Group, Anglo Platinum, Discovery and SARS, Mari-Louise is well used to providing strategic recommendation for reputation and relationship management, as well as devising communications solutions strategies for a range of diverse products and services.
 
Spanning over a decade, Mari-Louise’s extensive knowledge of and interest in corporate, consumer and business communications has seen her launch a variety of high-profile national media events including the 2006 IEC municipal elections, the 2002 World Platinum Congress; and introducing Mobile TV, 3G, Blackberry®, Mobile Number Portability and the Apple iPhone® into the local market as South African firsts.
 
When Mari-Louise is not actively pursuing positive media publicity, she can be found investigating new ways to engage with Melrose Arch’s à la mode customers – including ‘stunt’ PR activations, writing entertaining news copy and talking to social networking tribes by means of New Media channels.

Carole has extensive event management and production experience including the conceptualization, production and execution of a wide range of large scale events such as; conferences, international incentives, launches, golf days and exclusive banquets.

Carole directed her own events company for 6 years, specifically securing and servicing sponsorships from Corporates for non-profit sectors within South Africa.

Carole resides in Johannesburg, South Africa and is part of the team committed to the Melrose Arch project.