Just one month following the much-talked-about acquisition and subsequent merger, digital powerhouse Publicis Machine has added two of the country’s top digital minds to bolster its already formidable team.

Alistair Fairweather takes on the role of Chief Technology Officer, while Johan Steyn joins as Head of Development. Together with existing Head of Digital Andy Gilder, the three make up a digital triumvirate that simply cannot be matched.

Fairweather has worked in the digital realm since 2001, cutting his teeth building and managing web applications for news24.com and mweb.com, as well as working as Social Media Manager for a portfolio of top brands including Huisgenoot, YOU, Fairlady, Men’s Health and Sarie. In 2010 he joined the Mail & Guardian in a role that evolved into Chief Technology Officer, not only driving the successful relaunch of mg.co.za, but also launching Africa’s first Kindle, iPad and Android newspaper editions.

Steyn has created a niche for himself as a specialist in bridging the gap between technology and creative for brands ranging from Robertsons and Radox, to Nederberg, Cape Union Mart, Seeff, PEP, Sanlam, Computicket and Ster Kinekor. Although his main areas of expertise reside in gamification, social CRM, server architecture, application architecture, scalability, user experience, open source technologies and API architecture, he can pretty much transform any business requirement into a sound digital solution!

Gilder completes the trio, having started his career in the financial services space working with the likes of Visa and Sanlam, before joining the founding team of Publicis Machine in 2007. Since then, he has worked tirelessly for brands including Nando’s, Miller Genuine Draft, L’Oreal, adidas and Southern Comfort, earning him the hotly-contested title of Digital Strategist of the Year at the 2013 Bookmark Awards.

“We work in one of the fastest-moving environments in the business world. In order to stay ahead of the game, it is crucial that we develop and evolve faster than the environment in which we work. The only way to do this is to hire the best digital brains in the business, and we believe we have done just that by bringing Alistair and Johan on board to work with Andy and his team,” says Publicis Machine CEO Adrian Hewlett.