Ravi Naidoo (born 12 August 1964) is the founder of Interactive Africa and

Design Indaba Design Indaba is a trademark and brand founded and run by Interactive Africa in 1995 with a focus on design and under the slogan "A better world through creativity". Consisting of an online publication and a series of events and creative projects, ...

, an annual three day design conference hosted in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, as well as a suite of events such as Design Commons and antenna. Naidoo is also a co-founder of the Cape Innovation and Tech Initiative (CiTi) and Rain, Africa's first 5G network.

Career

Ravi Naidoo is the recipient of the 2015 Sir Misha Black Medal for innovation in design education. The founder of Interactive Africa, a Cape Town-based media and project management company responsible for the First African in Space mission with

Mark Shuttleworth Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African and British entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux operating system. In 2002, Shuttleworth became the first African to travel to spa ...

in 2002, and the marketing bid to host the

2010 Fifa World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

. In 2008, Naidoo launched a social impact design project through Design Indaba called the 10x10 Housing Project. The project created 10 low-cost houses in Freedom Park in the

Cape Flats The Cape Flats () is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. The Cape Flats is also the name of an administrative region of the City of Cape Town, which lies within the larger geo ...

. The buildings were made using sustainable materials such as sandbags. Naidoo has a B.Sc. (Hons) degree in Physiology from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

and completed an MBA at the UCT GSB in 1994. Naidoo is a recognised thought leader and speaker in the field of creativity and design. He sits on the jury of the INDEX Design Awards in Copenhagen. In Amsterdam, he sits on the advisory board of THNK, and is the Chairman of the 2017 IXDA Awards In 2017 Ravi commissioned the

Arch for Arch The Arch for Arch is an architectural structure and monument located in Cape Town, South Africa, created to commemorate the life and work of Desmond Tutu. Commissioned by Design Indaba and sponsored by Liberty, its name is a play on Tutu's widely u ...

project, a tribute to

Archbishop Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop o ...

that was constructed in the City of

. Naidoo, in the same year, cofounded Design Commons with World Design Weeks founder Kari Korkman. Design Commons is known as a deconstructed design conference. In 2016, Naidoo co-founded Rain, a South African data network, with Michael Jordaan and Paul Harris. Naidoo was awarded the Design Prize in 2017, a design prize dedicated to design culture. In 2019, Ravi served as the Chair of the annual YPO Edge Conference.

References

External links

* A
interview
with Ravi Naidoo by GOOD Magazine. * Ravi Naidoo interviewed for th
Radio702 podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naidoo, Ravi Living people People from Cape Town 1964 births