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Ashley Highfield

Ashley Highfield66 posts

Ashley Highfield is a British media executive. After starting his career as a management consultant he worked in interactive TV before he was hired by the BBC in 2000. While at the BBC he oversaw the launch of the iPlayer, and grew the corporation’s online business. He is currently the CEO of Johnston Press, a regional newspaper publisher.

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1993

Sent to South Africa, works with ANC

Moves Country0 Comments

Highfield is sent to work in South Africa, where his is employed by the ANC shortly after it is pitched into crisis by the arrest of Winnie Mandela in relation to the death of activist Stompie Moeketsi Seipei. Amid allegations of financial irregularities, Highfield is asked to get the books in order. He employs Olive Mungadze, a Zimbabwean, who is the only female black chartered accountant in sub-Saharan Africa. During the project, Mungadze and Highfield go into a remote Afrikaaner diner in Transkei.

I had never known an entire restaurant stop eating and just turn round and stare at me, a suited white businessman, with Olive, a suited black woman. They just stared at us for the whole dinner. An utterly different world. It was only 1993.