Carly Simon

Consumer Lead and Account Director

Carly Simon is the consumer lead and account director at WE Communications in South Africa, overseeing some of the agency’s largest clients, driving purposeful consumer storytelling to move people to positive action.

Head-hunted before she graduated from Rhodes University, Carly helped launch the country’s first integrated newsroom The Times, at Times Media (then called Avusa and now Tiso Blackstar). There she recruited and trained a team of multimedia journalists to produce rich media in the forms of podcasts, slideshows and video stories, long before the competition caught on and despite industry doubts on digital storytelling. During her time as a journalist she interviewed various high-profile South Africans, including former president Jacob Zuma, former Premier of the Western Cape Helen Zille and Virgin’s Richard Branson. Carly left the newsroom to exercise her communication skills in the NGO field for a children’s home, from telling stories and educating the public about the plight of some of South Africa’s most vulnerable citizens to executing emotive fundraising campaigns.

Carly joined WE Communications in 2013 as a freelance consumer consultant and never left — largely because of the enviable corporate culture. At WE, Carly oversees her teams’ integrated communications work with Vodacom, Aruba Networks, Nampak, SAS Analytics, F5 and Syspro, to name a few. Besides working tirelessly for her clients, Carly works closely to grow and develop junior team members into strong consultants.

She is married (to a chef) with two very smart Toy French Poodles. Despite her name, she is tone deaf but loves to sing anyway. She also doubles up as the company’s social event officer.