#WomensMonth | Building leadership by saying yes first

Jorja Wilkins, GM - Future Media and Sustainability, works at the intersection of technology, innovation and sustainability, driven by a desire to build something new. Her work connects disciplines that have traditionally operated separately, looking for better ways to build accountability into how media and business operate.

Issued by Provantage

18 Aug 2026

Jorja Wilkins

Her career has never moved in a straight line. She has led digital transformation, built strategic partnerships, introduced new technologies and is currently completing a PhD in sustainability. She believes the ability to keep learning, adapt and step outside your comfort zone has become one of the most valuable leadership traits, with some of her biggest opportunities coming from saying yes before she felt ready.

On the progress of women in media, Wilkins draws an important distinction between visibility and trust.

"There's a difference between being represented and being trusted with risk. It's easier to put a woman on a panel or in a visible role than to hand her a transformation project that might fail publicly, with a budget and a deadline attached. That second kind of trust is what builds a track record. The next step isn't more visibility but giving women ownership of projects where genuine commercial risk and accountability sit with them.”

On artificial intelligence, Wilkins sees the efficiency gains as real but believes the greater opportunity lies in better-informed human judgement. The businesses that get this right, she argues, won’t be the ones with the most AI, but the ones that use it to sharpen human accountability. Speed, she warns, can quietly erode scrutiny if you let it.

Her advice to young women entering a rapidly changing industry is practical: stay curious, but don't mistake curiosity for a strategy. Take the bets where the downside is recoverable and the upside is disproportionate. Not all will pay off, but each one leaves you with a skill, a relationship or a lesson. Readiness is not something that arrives before you start. It is something you build by starting.

Provantage is one of the largest and most innovative end-to-end integrated marketing solutions and media businesses in Africa, extended over multiple key consumer touchpoints and covering a range of environments and audience segments. Operating across the MEA region, Provantage offers a comprehensive range of products, services, and integrated solutions, including brand activation, in-store and trade media services, field sales and compliance auditing, transit media, mall media, billboards, street furniture, golf course media and airport advertising. The company is a Black-owned, B-BBEE level 1 contributor, and proud member of the ACI, DPAA, OAAA, WOOHO, OMC and POPAI.