NEWS STATEMENT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The London Speaker Bureau (LSB) - which has the most extensive speaker and advisory network of its kind in the world - launched the South African branch of its global operations in Johannesburg this week. Carte Blanche presenter Bongani Bingwa hosted the distinguished event held at Johannesburg’s exclusive Saxon Hotel. This new branch represents the 17th country from where the organization now represents its speakers and sources clients.

Mixael de Kock, (HS CEGRM), (DCDC) APR, F PRISA, Executive Chairman of The MAVERICK Group, delivered the keynote address at this gathering of eminent representatives from South African commerce, industry and academe. In his short but powerful address, Mixael said that in an ever-more connected and changing environment, “there is an increased need for external resources from which may be gained experience, knowledge, advantage, insight and wisdom”.

Mixael was one the first South Africans to be represented internationally by the LSB. Speaking from his own experience of having had become visually disabled some years ago, Mixael proposed to the audience that the world we inhabit today, sadly, also has become disabled since the dawning of the new millennium.

“Despite the stated commitment from the most powerful governments on earth - to eradicate poverty by 2014 - we are now confronted by the prospect of poverty for all but a handful of the most privileged in an economic disaster that may very well become the most severe depression in the history of humankind.

We are talking of times in which raiders and looters sail the seas of our destiny and, wherever the banks go, the tanks go. It is a war of greed and the public simply has become dumbed-down and compliant onlookers.”

Short-term profit taking, the ill-considered ditching of people and skills, the invention of dishonest financial products and the way in which rogue traders have lost trillions for the banking sector, are just some of the reasons why the majority of people now live under the shadow of financial fear.

Mixael pointed out that the world is drowning in information while starving for wisdom: “Raw data in itself is not very useful in our attempts to solve the seemingly insurmountable problems that surround us.

There is a critical need for individuals who have the ability to identify appropriate relationships between relevant data and true knowledge and who, at the same time, possess the ability to identify the differences and similarities of patterns within the context of those relationships.”

It is Mixael’s belief that once their origins and consequent implications are understood, such patterns may then translate into valuable knowledge. “Knowledge is the only departure point from where we can make predictions about our world. Information by itself does not allow for making such forecasts and, thus in itself, is quite useless. Wisdom arises when knowledge is transformed into insight and principles and, once the source of such patterns becomes implicit, evidence of truths may then emerge that can be applied universally and eternally.”

Mixael is of the view that solutions to the current state of international political and economic instability cannot be expected to be found in the leadership of statesman only. Instead, he reasoned that “a confluence of wisdom from many different fields of inquiry and, an ability to debate differing perspectives in non-aggressive intellectual environments, remain the only rational and sequential means by which global crises may be resolved”.

The LSB is a repository of wisdom where many of the world’s greatest minds have been brought together. The names on the LSB’s listing include numerous Nobel Laureates and range through the world’s top scientists, economists, anthropologists, businessmen, clerics, philosophers, sports personalities and many more diverse professions.”

Mixael de Kock concluded: “The LSB is representative of great names and great ideas and to that list now is added the names of distinguished South Africans who bring with them a very particular brand of understanding and a unique experience of a shared world and the concomitant challenges which have become commonplace to all humankind.”

Johannesburg, Monday 3 October 2011


NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. Full Text of Keynote Address by Mixael de Kock may be read at: http://themaverickgroup.blogspot.com/2011/09/speech-by-mixael-de-kock-at-launch-of.html

2. Mixael de Kock is Executive Chairman of The MAVERICK Group (TMG), an alliance of South African communication-related companies which he founded in 2002. TMG is a recipient of a Gold World Award for Excellence in Public Relations.

Mixael served as President and Board Member of many institutions among others the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA), Global Alliance and Chairman of The Johannesburg Press Club. Mixael is also the co-founder of the South African Consumer Psychology Association.

Mixael has worked for the Japanese Government (JETRO) and, for 17 years headed group communication at the mining giant, Gold Fields (GFSA). As part of his portfolio he managed the Group’s social responsibility programme and, pioneered the concept of environmental education and established 37 environmental education centres across Southern Africa. For this work he received international recognition when he became one of 25 international awardees as part of the WWF’s 25th Anniversary Celebrations.

Mixael is in great demand as a speaker and speaks and writes on numerous cutting-edge subjects discussing human behaviour and the role of communication in the survival of our species and the planet. In 2006 Mixael was critically injured in a robbery and left visually disabled. Despite this setback he lives a fuller life than ever before.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
1. Wendy Morris
The London Speaker Bureau
London Dublin Paris Frankfurt Stockholm Istanbul Cape Town Delhi Hong Kong Kuala Lumpur Rio de Janeiro
Your global resource for keynote speakers, business leaders, facilitators, in-house masterclasses
Tel: +44 (0) 208 748 9595
Mob: +44 (0) 7960 611728
www.londonspeakerbureau.co.uk

2. Mixael de Kock
The MAVERICK Group

Tel: +27 (0)11 646 8501
Mob: +27 (0)83 651 4424