He is the founder of the seminal ‘Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands’ initiative widely referenced as the definitive barometer of African brands. He has been to every country in Africa and every continent in the world from Cape to Cairo, and Greenland in the North Pole to Antarctica in the South Pole; trekked the rare silver back gorillas on the Virunga mountains in Rwanda and Uganda; rode the 52 hour historic TAZARA train that links Tanzania and Botswana; trekked the 116km King Moshoeshoe I walk in Lesotho; summitted Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Sinai and jumped the 216m high Bloukrans Bridge bunjee, among his many breath-taking travels and adventures globally. Ikalafeng holds BSc. MBA and LLM (Intellectual Property Law) degrees and is a Chartered Marketer (SA). He has been recognized with Lifetime Achievement awards by Financial Mail AdFocus and the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa. A consummate contemporary pan-African, “Thebe is Africa” as TedxGhana put it.
Described by New African Magazine as the “the foremost branding and reputation authority in Africa” in recognizing him as one of the ‘100 Most Influential Africans’; named one of the ‘100 Most Influential Creative People of African Descent’ by MIPAD on the occasion of the United Nations ‘International Year of the Creative Economy for Sustainable Development,’ and one of the ‘100 Most Reputable Africans’ “who continually improve lives in Africa and around the world” by Reputation Poll International, he has had a profound, sustained and distinguished contribution to branding in Africa and in shaping a positive narrative for the continent in a career that spans over 30 years building brands across Africa working in over 25 countries in Africa.