Dustin is a Partner in the Up&Up Group South Africa (previously the M&C Saatchi Group South Africa) and Managing Director of its strategic communications agency – Razor PR. Dustin is recognised as one of the top reputation managers and communicators in Africa, having been named South Africa’s best PR Professional in 2021 by the Public Relations Institute of SA (PRISA). He was also named as one of the Top 25 Innovators in public relations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa in both 2019 and 2023 by leading industry publication Provoke. In 2024 he was named one of 10 Best PR Professionals in the World by PROPr. Dustin has served on the jury of the Sabre Awards in 2020 and 2023, and the PRCA Platinum Awards Jury also in 2023.
Dustin chairs the Ethics & Practices Board of the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) in Africa and is also a member of the PRCA’s Executive Board for Africa. He also serves in a global capacity for the PRCA as a member of its Global Nominations Committee. Dustin is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the University of Johannesburg, where he plays an active role in advising the university on the future of its syllabus to create fit-for-purpose future communications graduates. He advises CEOs, C-Suite leaders, government ministers and community organisations on reputation and specialises in strategic reputation as well as issues and crisis management. He has extensive communications experience, having managed various multinational brands and campaigns including developing the reputation management strategy for Brand South Africa, successful engagement and investment positioning campaigns at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and domestic mobilisation eforts for the 2010 FIFA World Cup (where he helped develop the highly successful Football Fridays campaign). Dustin’s experience includes roles as the communications lead on state visits and international trade missions for Brand South Africa, where he managed proactive issues outreach in building South Africa’s profile as an investment destination. Dustin has served as a member of the National Communications Task Team, a body set up to advise the Minister of Communications on South Africa’s country positioning as both a tourism and investment destination locally and internationally.
Under Dustin’s leadership, Razor was named the World’s Best New Agency by the global industry magazine Provoke in 2021, beating out long-established agencies in established global hubs such as New York and London. This is the first time ever that a South African PR agency has been recognised on such a global footing. In its 2022 annual global rankings Provoke named Razor one of the five fastest growing agencies globally, and the overall best performing agency across the Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Razor was named African Agency of the Year at the EMEA SABRE Awards in 2022 and 2024. Under his leadership Razor was awarded with grands prix for best overall campaign in Africa in 2022; and the best overall reputation management work in EMEA in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Globally, Razor is the most awarded agency in Africa, and from Africa and in 2024 was named Agency of the Future by Provoke and Best Global (mid-sized) Agency by the PRCA. Razor was named PR Agency of the Year by AdFocus in both 2021 and 2022 (having been shortlisted every year since 2020). Razor has twice in its first five years been recognised as being of the top five creative PR agencies in the world.