2 South Africans on Young Ones 2025 jury
bizcommunity.com – January 15, 2024 – The Young Ones 2025 jury includes two South Africans, Verusha Maharaj, managing director, Red & Yellow Creative School of Business and Nontokozo Tshabalala, multidisciplinary artist and creative director, Creative Shall Govern.
The 2025 jury is made up of 120+ creatives in more than 25 different countries and regions.
A number of this year’s judges also work with creative students, either as professors or lecturers, and thus know exactly what it takes for students to take that jump from an academic life to a professional one.
Verusha Maharaj
Verusha Mahara has over 16 years of experience in the marketing and advertising industry.
During her career she has held roles across the brand, agency & consulting space.
She has helped start-ups to multinationals and has managed teams across several countries within Africa.
Her current role combines her passion for marketing & advertising with her desire to close the skills & diversity gap within the next generation of creative talent.
Nontokozo Tshabalala
Tshabalala also goes by Future_of_Brown (F.O.B) and is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, poet, Afrofuturist, speaker, lecturer and designer who was based in Malmö Sweden but has recently relocated back to South Africa.
Born and raised in Standerton, she uses her work as an avenue for posing deeper questions about her identity and the Black experience wherever she goes.
Inspired by her nephew, Siyamthanda (Ncufi), she writes and creates from a place of curiosity and instinct often using colour, collage, song and poetry to express her thoughts.
Tshabalala is the co-founder of Mam’Gobozi Design Factory, a design studio celebrating the Afrikan identity through creativity. She is also the founder of a community-building initiative called Creatives Shall Govern.