Alec Hogg (53) is a South African financial journalist and media entrepreneur..His career kicked off in 1980 when he was employed as a trainee financial journalist at The Citizen newspaper. After progressing through senior positions at national newspapers and magazines, Hogg started his first business, a financial news agency, in 1988..After an unsuccessfully publishing a horseracing newspaper he went into broadcasting in 1992 as Economics Editor and subsequently head of News Input at SABC Television News. A two and a half year spell in executive management at ABSA Bank was followed by the launch of his second business, the Internet publishing company Moneyweb Holdings. Started as a one-man show above his garage at home, Moneyweb developed rapidly and its shares were listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in July 1999 at the height of the Internet boom..Hogg ran the business for most of the next decade and a half, building it into his country's leading independent online publisher with a global presence through Mineweb.com. The sustainability of Moneyweb was achieved through Hogg's introduction of business radio to South Africa; a field Moneyweb has dominated since 1997 and which delivered a revenue stream that funded the development of its online operations..He took a semi-sabbatical in 2010 and 2011 to follow his family tradition of farming, returning as Moneyweb's CEO in April 2012. Hogg resigned seven months later following a misalignment of values with the controlling shareholder, Caxton. When he left the business, Moneyweb was the only survivor of more than a dozen initial Internet listings, was debt free and had R25m in cash resources..A one-year restraint of trade on Hogg's re-entry into financial journalism was terminated by mutual agreement in July 2013. CNBC Africa immediately recruited him back into television to co-host its Power Lunch programme. He launched Biznews.com in August 2013 and writes weekly columns for Business Day and Financial Mail. He is also a professional business keynote speaker with his most popular talk entitled Tap Dancing in a Warp Speed World which helps audiences understand global economic megatrends and how to position themselves to benefit from them..In July 2013, Alec Hogg's contribution to his industry was honoured by the Sanlam Financial Journalism competition presenting him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. This came 30 years after then 23 year old Hogg became the youngest overall winner of the Financial Journalist of the Year Award, a record that still stands..Hogg serves his community through Scouting. He is a board member of South African Scouting, the governing body for the country's hundreds of thousands of boy and girl scouts and part of a global movement of 32 million. As a schoolboy, he was a devoted Scout, representing his country at the World Scout Jamboree in Norway in 1975..A South African citizen, Hogg travels widely including annual trips to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway AGM in Omaha, USA. He is married to Jeanette, a life coach and well-known sculptor. They met at school in Newcastle. He has two daughters, Caitlin and Kendyll, who are studying in Ireland.
