He was chair of the Self-Regulatory and Consumer Protection working party of the Global Dialogue on Ecommerce from 1998-2002, and a member of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Marketing and Telecoms commissions for 30 years. He was elected to the Universal Postal Union’s Consultative Committee in 2004 & sat on the UPU’s Direct Marketing Advisory Board.
In 2011 he moved to South Africa as President of the Institute of Interactive and Direct Marketing, and became the COO of the Direct Marketing Association of Southern Africa in 2012. He retired full-time from the DMASA at the end of 2014 to concentrate on consultancy.
In December 2014 he was appointed Regional Director Africa for the International Omni Retail Markets Association (IORMA), and sits on the IORMA Executive, & Advisory Board.
In July 2015 he was appointed Acting Director of the Ecommerce Forum of Africa. He consults on privacy issues & marketing education.
Alastair has written & spoken extensively on marketing issues. He has given expert evidence at the European Commission, the European Parliament, Council of Europe, OECD, US Federal Trade Commission, and to many national governments on privacy issues, ecommerce, alternative dispute resolution, trustmarks, self-regulatory codes, postal services & the economics of marketing. He gave evidence to the South African Parliament’s Portfolio Committee during the preparation of the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act.
He has a BA (hons) from the University of York, UK, and a Masters from the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium. He also studied for a doctorate on the economics of marketing at the University of Ghent, Belgium, which lead to a book “Tendencias Actuales de la Publicidad en Europa” published by the Spanish government in 1991.
He is married to a South African & lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.