Doreen Morris rose to national prominence when she was appointed by the South African Broadcasting Corporation as the first black television anchor in 1984. Two years later she joined the country’s fledging Pay-TV network as Corporate Affairs Executive, broadcaster, and Acquisitions Executive respectively. During her tenure at the network, she excelled at live broadcasts and held the position as anchor of Carte Blanche Africa (South Africa’s equivalent of 60 Minutes) for a period of 7 years.

During South Africa’s transition to democracy, Doreen was approached to head up the Miss South Africa Pageant where she became custodian in chief of the brand from 1994 to 2000. Under her leadership and under the watchful eye of then-President Nelson Mandela, the title of Miss South Africa was repositioned as “a role model and national symbol of excellence” which was truly accessible to all races.

The pageant developed an unprecedented success, presence and scale as she travelled to and involved every provincial structure and territory to ensure true national representation. Through this experience, she gained first-hand knowledge of the diversity of the nation and many of her mentees have excelled as iconic and influential leaders in the fields of business and philanthropy.

More recently, Doreen has distinguished herself as an award-winning producer of documentaries both of celebrated South Africans as well as relatively unknown heroes and heroines of the country. Her consistent track record and reputation as a storyteller has earned the trust of the South African people. In addition to her work behind the camera, she anchors Vermis, a series profiling cold “missing persons” cases around South Africa.

She holds a qualification in Education, Public Relations, and attained a double Master’s Degree in Business Administration (M.B.A) and International Business (M.I.B) from Bond University in Australia. Cross-cultural management/communication and negotiation were integral to her studies and her semester abroad was completed in China.

To date, Doreen has traveled to 41 countries across the African continent, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Americas.