Matthew Buckland

Matthew James Buckland

Born 22-08-1974

Named as one of SA's top 100 most influential media and advertising people (The Annual), Matthew is an internet professional who has worked on the web literally from its inception.

He is the MD and founder of Cape Town-based digital agency Creative Spark and publisher of award-winning social media and emerging technology analysis site, Memeburn.com -- companies he started in 2010.

Matthew previously worked for the BBC Online (beeb.com division) in London, and South Africa's largest online operation 24.com, first as the GM of Publishing, and then going on to found and head up the award-winning 20FourLabs (Nokia mobile app innovation challenge).

Prior to this he headed up online news publisher Mail & Guardian Online for seven years (co-owned by Guardian Newspapers Limited), turning the online division into a profitable entity for the first time in its history and founding the Webby Honoree-award winning Thought Leader. He's also had stints at Avusa, Carte Blanche and iafrica.com.

He has spoken and guest-lectured on online media issues around the world, including New York, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Ireland and Kenya.

He was also proud to share the stage with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in a talk on Future Web Trends in 2007, and Craigslist creator Craig Newmark at the IIE Goldman Sachs Global Leaders in New York in 2008.