Advaita Naidoo

Advaita Naidoo

While completing my Masters in Research Psychology, I worked in academia. I was fortunate enough to work with some of the most brilliant social psychology minds in SA and my work was published internationally. But there was a cognitive itch that pure research just couldn’t scratch, which was to see the desk-work translated into commercial outcomes. So, I packed away my journals and dipped my toe into the world of executive search, where finding a great leader can impact the corporate landscape in unexpected ways. (Side bar, I lived in London at the time, so my toes were constantly freezing). From there, I freelanced as a researcher in various industries, from my next two homes in Chicago and Singapore, gathering bits of global knowledge, which I still apply to my work now.

As MD, Africa at Jack Hammer Global, I run the end-to-end business activities that make this boutique search firm the undisputed success it is. Apart from General Operations, the obvious cornerstone of my job, I've become familiar with Marketing, Finance, Legal (thank goodness for my undergrad in Law!), Risk, Strategy Execution and, yes, even IT. So much IT. Which, thanks to Covid-19, included making sure the iPad was fully charged so my two older boys could log on to Zoom for school calls and frantically muting myself when the baby pressed a key he shouldn’t have!