Boredom is scarier than change - Unicorn Karien Holtzkampf

Karien is the Co-CEO of agritech start-up, AgriRevolution. She is also an experienced legal and commercial advisor.

I wanted her on the Legal Unicorns pod because she epitomises what we are looking for across Africa, lawyers who are brave, lawyers who are doing things differently - to inspire the next generation.

After completing B.Comm and LLB degrees at the University of Stellenbosch, Karien moved to London and started her career working for tech start-ups TotallyLegal.com and later EnergyQuote.

She returned to South Africa in 2006 to start her articles at Intellectual Property firm, Kisch in Sandton. After qualifying as a trade mark practitioner, Karien moved to Deneys Reitz (now Norton Rose) before joining FNB as IP Legal Advisor.

She was then drawn to the world of start-ups again and joined Clickatell as a group legal advisor in 2010 where she obtained invaluable global experience in technology, communications and commercial law. 

This experience stood her in good stead when she joined UK start-up, Radiant Law, and later martech consultancy (and another South African start-up success story) Acceleration. 

Acceleration was subsequently acquired by advertising behemoth WPP. Karien spent
more than 7 years at WPP where she was promoted to Assistant General Counsel for the international marketing communications agency, Wunderman Thompson before moving into the WPP Group’s central legal team. 

Karien is passionate about helping start-ups scale and feels privileged to
have played a role in the journey of multiple start-ups, including a few that have successfully navigated their way from “3 guys in a garage” to global enterprise.

For the past 3 years, she has moonlighted as a strategic advisor for AgriRevolution and was appointed Co-CEO in April. She is thrilled that she has the opportunity to use her experience to contribute to the growth and success of AgriRevolution.

https://www.agrirevolution.africa/

Meet the Earthworm - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep43xm-Ox8I 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karienholtzkampf/

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