With more than 28 years of experience in tertiary distance education, I am now a Research Fellow at the University of South Africa (UNISA), where I am busy with research on international marketing and trade.

With an MBusSc (Cape Town) in International Marketing, a Diploma in Export Management (Institute of Export), a Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Social Research (UJ) awarded cum laude, a DCom in Business Management (UNISA) (the title of my thesis was “Developing a framework for a National Export Portal in South Africa”, and an MCom in Business Management (UNISA) completed (with distinction) in 2024 (the title of my dissertation was “Exploring the Potential Marketing Value of Trade Performance Indicators in Driving The Internationalisation Efforts of Selected Industries in South Africa”, I believe have the academic background to contribute to research in international marketing and trade in South Africa.

Added to this, I gained 10-years’ of practical experience in export trade promotion while working for the Department of Trade and Industry where I served as a trade representative for South Africa in the Cape Town regional office. Overseas experience was gained in the South African embassy in Vienna and the South African consulate general in Istanbul. While at the DTI, I edited and published DTI’s export promotion magazine at the time, called Global Trade, with a readership of more 30 000.

I have undertaken research for UNCTAD/ITC in the field of e-trade and was invited to participate in an expert-group meeting in Geneva on the subject. I also have numerous research papers on exporting, trade, and e-commerce to my credit. I run ExportHelp, a web portal with over 1 000 pages of content, that aims to assist exporters in South Africa succeed with their international endeavours. I have numerous research papers on exporting, international marketing and international trade to my credit – see my list of articles. I have also written three text books on exporting and international marketing, and contributed to two text books on global business. A fourth book on international trade indicators will be published soon.