Experienced business leaders and consultants
Lighthouse Strategic Leadership (LSL) is an entrepreneurial management consulting company, with experienced business leaders and consultants that work side by side with trusted clients.
Our managing director, Trevor Hughes, launched Lighthouse Strategic Leadership in 2013 with the intention of building a professional company based on a mature consulting model, utilising experienced consultants who deliver immediate impact.
The company is intentionally small, with extensions to capacity managed through a network of professional consultants with specific areas of expertise. This approach ensures that our clients’ needs are met by those consultants with the most relevant experience.
LSL has also undertaken pioneering work in 21 countries across Africa and helped clients to successfully implement change, grow revenues and market share, improve their strategic positions, and identify appropriate strategic partners to achieve their goals.
Meet our Team
Trevor Hughes | Managing Director
After 6 years as a civil engineer, Trevor completed an MBA at the Wits Business School and in 1991 joined the Industrial Development Corporation, participating in financing assessments and managing a portfolio of industrial properties.
In 1993 Trevor joined the strategy discipline of Gemini Consulting, participating in business and corporate strategy assignments in South Africa and the UK. In 1997 Trevor joined South African Breweries as the National Trade Marketing Manager, implementing a channel and route to market strategy as well as developing the SAB growth strategy.
In September 2000 Trevor re-joined Gemini South Africa as Director responsible for the Consumer Goods Unit and as Head of the strategy discipline. Trevor was appointed MD of Gemini in 2001.
In 2003, Trevor co-launched Hughes & Munday Consulting, a boutique consulting firm operating for blue chip clients across Africa. In 2013 Trevor launched Lighthouse Strategic Leadership, focusing on leadership and senior management development. Trevor also participates as an action learning coach and lecturer at leading business schools in South Africa.
Anthony Doyle | Senior Management Consultant
Anthony brings expertise as an experienced practitioner in the delivery of consulting projects for leading companies and partners in the telecoms, food, beverages, and health sectors. He has a proven track record holding various executive and senior management positions in sales, marketing, and distribution working for Nielsen, Nestle, and Kodak. He holds a B Com (Honours) degree in Business Economics and is committed to helping management make commercial choices that drive sustainability, success, and people-centered growth.
Key Consulting Focus Areas:
Project Management: Anthony has led and delivered various cross-functional consulting projects in South Africa, Nigeria, and DRC for telecoms, beverage, food, and health sector clients.
Strategy: He has deep experience in strategic development and competitor analysis in collaboration with senior leadership to re-shape and build winning sales and marketing performance management tools. This included business case development, capacity building, and organisational re-design for sign-off and transfer to the business operating teams.
Logistics and Route to Market: Anthony has delivered extensive route-to-market and logistics optimisation projects for clients operating in complex informal and modern trade channels – this has included a recent focus on healthcare supply chains in African countries.
Maria Phillips | Head of Strategic Marketing
After graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand with a BComm degree, Maria started at Cadbury in 1982 as a graduate trainee and was promoted to various roles in brand and marketing management. After 13 years of developing deep marketing skills at Cadbury, Maria joined the South African office of Gemini Consulting as a senior consultant, working across industries including manufacturing, retail, and beverages.
In 1997, Maria joined SAB Ltd, achieving the position of National Trade Marketing Manager, accountable for developing the go-to-market channel and sales strategies, as well as facilitating the implementation of these strategies across South Africa.
In 2002, Maria joined National Brands as the Demand Director and later moved into the role of Category Director for the coffee category, accountable for the well-known brands such as Ellis Brown, Frisco, and Koffiehuis.
In 2006, Maria joined Mind Share, a leading global media agency network, as the CEO of the South African office. After more than 8 successful years leading Mind Share, Maria left to pursue her consulting interests with Lighthouse Strategic Leadership as the head of strategic marketing.
Michael Niland | Strategy Consulting
After a successful academic career in the field of biotechnology and earning a Ph.D. (Biosensor Design), Mike joined Lighthouse Strategic Leadership the strategy discipline as a management consultant. Mike completed strategy assignments in South Africa and the DRC, in the beverage and telecommunications industries.
After more than 3 years with Lighthouse, Mike joined Blue Label Telecoms (BLT) the leading distributor of prepaid airtime and electricity in South Africa. Mike was assigned to BluNova, a startup within BLT, that is focused on big data analytics. Mike’s initial role was primarily in business development, this role then role shifted to a team lead role for the technology and analytics team of BluNova.
Mike has returned to Lighthouse Strategic Leadership after more than 4 years at BLT, and has taken up a role as lead associate in the strategy discipline, accountable for business modelling, scenario building, insights development and strategic decision-making.
Le Beau Taljaard / Route to Market Specialist
Le Beau has over 25 years’ experience delivering growth for clients and his own organizations in the FMCG industry. He gained significant experience and expertise in the Route to Market and Supply Chain with the Smollan Group where he participated in and led new business development, establishing new business units, operational implementation, operational/general management and client interaction. Le Beau has managed units in Sales and Merchandising, Warehousing, Field marketing, Geo-mapping, Van Sales, and Food Services.
In the last decade he has also set up set up businesses and worked in Africa in countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria. He is currently involved in the Public Health arena working and developing Alternative Drug Distribution Points (ADDP) for Aids Control Programmes in East Africa.
Hendrik Labuschagne / Sales and Distribution Specialist
Hendrik has over 25 years FMCG experience managing distributors, agents, and sales forces in South Africa and across Africa within Multinationals including BIC, L’Oréal, Dark & Lovely, and Namaste Labs. The scope of work has included key account management, new business development, distributor management, identifying and sourcing new distributors, agents, and business partners specializing in RTM Optimization and Logistics. Hendrik successfully rolled out and oversaw substantial brand growth for Dark and Lovely, L’Oréal and ORS into countries such as Angola, Botswana, DRC, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Since 2015 Hendrik has been involved in logistics and strategic marketing, aiding companies in finding new business in Africa. In Nigeria, his work has included KAM and Sales training for newly appointed sales and field marketing teams. He has also been involved for 3 years in a consumer goods business startup in Nigeria, identifying RTM channel segmentation and appointing strategic business partners.
Patrick Hughes | Senior Consultant
After completing his BCom Honours in Strategy and Innovation at the University of Stellenbosch, Patrick joined Lighthouse in January 2018. In his time at Lighthouse he has completed multiple successful assignments in a diverse range of industries, from telecommunications, non-profit, government, alcoholic beverages to fast moving consumer goods.
These projects include studies into global and local industries, route-to-market strategy optimisation projects through cross-business unit collaboration initiatives, data mining strategy development, development of comprehensive, regionalised go-to-market strategies for FMCG organisations as well as a value-chain optimisation project. Patrick was also part of an initiative to refresh the Group Sales and Distribution strategy for one of the major telecommunications companies in Africa. He has also assisted in the facilitation of several conferences, sales bootcamps and alignment workshops in the telecommunications industry.
One of Patrick’s key functions is the development of investment cases to support business decisions. He has developed investment cases for organisation’s in the premium liquor industry, the FMCG industry and for non-government organisations. In 2020, he worked alongside the Government of Uganda and other implementing partners to develop an investment cases for differentiated service delivery models for the distribution of anti-retroviral treatment for people living with HIV in Uganda.
Jade Giese | Business Analyst
Jade studied a Bachelor of Science in Physiology and Psychology at the University of South Africa during which she had two years of experience as a business planner and advisor for an optometry practice.
Jade joined Lighthouse Strategic Leadership in August 2019 as a business analyst. Project roles have included market analysis, research, and insights development for leading FMCG companies in both the liquor industry and the condiments category.
Jade has also had experience in route-to-market projects that involved the identification of growth opportunities and the conducting of gap assessments.
More recently Jade has been involved as a business analyst and project manager on a project developing the sales and distribution strategy framework for an international telecommunications company.
Jade has an ongoing role as the communications consultant for a company that acts as an independent advisor to Ministries of Health in Africa, working on projects that are focused on improving the distribution of ARV’s to people living with HIV. Jade aspires to achieve meaningful contributions and create a positive impact in personal and work environments.
Nicola Doyle | Research Analyst
Nicola is a research analyst with demonstrated experience working across a variety of sectors and countries in Africa. She is passionate about solving pressing issues of development and impacting social change on the continent.
During her education in Cape Town, Nicola held part-time research positions at the Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA) and the Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG). In 2017, Nicola joined the research department at Amnesty International, the global human rights organisation, in their Southern Africa Regional Office in Johannesburg.
Thereafter, Nicola went on to complete the Machel-Mandela Fellowship – a competitive leadership programme for recent graduates – at the Brenthurst Foundation, a Johannesburg-based think tank that aims to foster economic development across Africa.
In 2018, Nicola held the position of Researcher at the Foundation during which she worked extensively with public and private sector stakeholders in Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, and in cases of international best practice like Singapore.
Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.
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