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Kershnee Hermanus has over 23 years’ experience in advertising, marketing and brand management within the telecommunications and financial services sectors. Her professional experience includes working at renowned advertising agencies in South Africa, namely Young & Rubicam Gitam/Wunderman, The Jupiter Drawing Room, and TBWA/Hunt Lascaris. She had the opportunity to manage some of the most valuable brands in South Africa, such as FNB, MTN, ABSA, and Standard Bank. Hermanus is currently at AECI as Group Head, Digital Marketing and Brand Management, global markets. She previously worked at Absa Corporate Investment Banking, responsible for the African Regional Operations, and International corridors (US, UK, MEA and China).

Her approach to marketing is hands-on, and she has a deep passion for both traditional and digital marketing. She thrives on using both digital and traditional channels to drive new leads and customer acquisitions. Her agile approach allows her to manage and work on a range of projects, including naming conventions, reward programs, product market strategies, rebranding exercises, activations, sponsorships, digital initiatives, and through-the-line initiatives with ease.

CMO COUNCIL: What skills and qualities does a cross-functional marketing leader need today?

HERMANUS: A cross-functional marketing leader must combine strategic clarity with human intelligence. My 15 years of experience within financial services has allowed me to build up the discipline and appetite to become commercially sharp, data literate, and digitally fluent, while also deeply empathetic and credible across multiple disciplines. The role requires the ability to translate strategy into execution, align diverse teams around a common purpose, and influence. Systems thinking, adaptability, and strong stakeholder management are essential, as is the confidence to challenge constructively and lead through complexity.

CMO COUNCIL: What factors have contributed most to your success?

HERMANUS: Three factors have consistently shaped my success: strategic perspective, relational intelligence, and execution discipline. I am able to see both the big picture and the operational detail, which allows me to build strategies that are ambitious yet practical. I invest heavily in relationships and trust, because influence is built through credibility. And I have a strong bias for action and I move ideas into reality, not just into presentations.

CMO COUNCIL: Where do you focus most of your time, attention and brainpower on a day-to-day basis?

HERMANUS: My focus is split across three core areas: strategic direction, people, and value delivery. I spend a significant amount of time ensuring alignment between business priorities and marketing activity, developing and protecting my team, and making sure that what we are doing is commercially meaningful. A large portion of my energy goes into connecting the dots across functions, removing friction, and enabling momentum.

CMO COUNCIL: Marketing is undergoing a progressive digital transformation. How is this fortifying and quantifying marketing value in your organization?

HERMANUS: Part of my role at AECI is encouraging digital transformation and enabling us to move from intuition-led marketing to intelligence-led marketing. Through data, analytics, automation, and integrated platforms, we are now able to track performance, demonstrate ROI, and link marketing activity directly to business outcomes. This has elevated marketing from a support function to a strategic growth driver, with clearer accountability, sharper targeting, and stronger commercial impact.

CMO COUNCIL: What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve been given? Or what career advice would you give to emerging marketing leaders?

HERMANUS: The best advice I have received is to “chase mastery and impact”. To emerging leaders, I would say: build depth before breadth, protect your credibility, and never underestimate the power of emotional intelligence. In an AI-driven world, your human skills - judgment, empathy, ethics, and courage, will be your greatest advantage.