Matthew Buckland
| Matthew Buckland | |
|---|---|
Matthew Buckland
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| Born |
Matthew James Buckland 22 August 1974 South Africa |
| Residence | Cape Town, South Africa |
| Education | Rhodes University |
| Occupation | Internet entrepreneur |
| Title | Founder and MD of Creative Spark |
| Term | 2010 – Present |
| Board member of |
Silicon Cape Initiative Creative Commons OPA/DMMA/iAB Cognition |
| Awards | Selected Fast Company Magazine's Most Creative People in Business (2015), Destiny Magazine: Power of 40: 40 entrepreneurs under 40 (2011), Top 100 “South Africa’s most influential media and advertising people” by The Annual (2009) |
| Website |
Company website Memeburn.com/Burn Media Personal weblog |
Matthew Buckland is a South African Internet entrepreneur and businessman who is the founder of Creative Spark - a digital agency and publisher which was acquired in 2015 by UK firm M&C Saatchi PLC (: ), the holding group of M&C Saatchi. Buckland is also the founder of Burn Media, a suite of technology publishing brands which includes Memeburn, Ventureburn.com, Gearburn.com and others.
Buckland previously headed the online division of the Mail & Guardian, thereafter he started 20fourlabs at news24.com, the largest South African online news publisher, owned by Naspers. While at the Mail & Guardian Buckland founded Thought Leader.
In 2015 he was selected as a "Master of Digital", sitting down with actor Idris Elba for a "Q&A Session".
Buckland lives in Cape Town with his wife and two daughters.
Buckland studied journalism at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. He worked in London for the BBC's then-commercial web arm, beeb.com as a developer, and then a web development producer. He then later worked as the Internet editor for prime-time TV show, Carte Blanche, before becoming Managing Director of Mail & Guardian's online division. He is the eldest son of Andrew Buckland and Janet Buckland, a prominent South African acting family.
In 2010 Buckland founded Creative Spark and Burn Media, which he funded himself after being unable to raise venture capital for it. Five years later, in 2015, he sold a majority share in his company to the FTSE-listed agency, M&C Saatchi for a rumoured R50-million. The deal included the sale of both the digital agency and the publishing arm, which owns titles such as Memeburn and Ventureburn.Ventureburn is a site that reports on the startup, entrepreneur and investor ecosystems in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.
He was the Master of Ceremonies at the Silicon Cape Initiative launch event and was elected to its inaugural board. The Silicon Cape Initiative is a South African-based organization which aims to turn the Western Cape into a high-tech startup hub. Buckland credits this organisation for inspiring him to move out of the corporate world into entrepreneurship.
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