Sharon Davis (Shaz)

Passionate about personal development - in her life, and in her craft - SHARON DAVIS is an established freelance writer, editor and photojournalist focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, primarily in the fields of Business & Finance, and Science & Health.

Since 2007 she has worked as sub-Saharan African business and financial analyst for Internet Securities and heads a team of two other writers producing daily financial news summaries for the region, as well as weekly and monthly sector reviews for telecoms, banking, mining and M&A.

She writes regularly for a number of South African business-focused magazines, contributes to a banking e-zine and assists with internal communications and B2B publications for a number of companies.

Sharon writes on science and health issues (mostly in sub-Saharan Africa) for a UK-based online science site, Science and Development Network. Sharon won the regional (KwaZulu-Natal) Online section of the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award in 2008 and 2009 (Sept 1) for articles published online by SciDev.Net and is the KZN Chairman of the South African Science Journalist's Association.

She also writes travel and adventure travel articles for local and international publications and has travelled to Nigeria, Uganda, Seychelles, Malawi, Zambia, the UK, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, New Zealand and Japan.

Work

Sharon is available to undertake writing and editing assignments locally and internationally and offers editing and printing production management services as required. She has recently finished guest editing the business-focused edition of Agenda, a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on development and gender issues, and serves on the editorial board of the quarterly magazine Productivity SA.

Qualifications

Sharon has a Bachelor of Commerce degree with majors in Legal Studies, Economics and Business Administration, and spent 2006 studying part time towards a postgraduate diploma in Commercial Forensic Investigation.

Awards

Sharon won the regional (KwaZulu-Natal) Online section of the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award in 2008 and 2009.

Experience

Sharon's first article was published in 1988 and since then she has made her living both as a freelance writer (article writing and editing) and as a journalist for Caxton Community Newspapers; as Assistant Editor at Contact Publications (producing two monthly titles: one for the security industry and one for the travel and incentives market); and as Editor and Publications Manager for the South African Sugar Association (producing the association's Annual Report, Industry Directory, monthly South African Sugar Journal, quarterly staff newsletter and annual Buyers' Guide).

Recent photographs have appeared in:

South African business magazines: Black Business Quarterly, Leadership (including cover for June 2009), and Enterprise.
South African travel magazines: SA Country Life, Sailing for Southern Africa, Wild magazine, By The Way (including DPS), @Leisure and Sawubona.
Other South African publications: Agenda (incuding cover).
US Publications: Desert Leaf and LiveLife Travel.

Click here for links to recent on-line articles...

Click here for personal references...

Copy writing and editing:

Recent editing work for EFT Research in the UK and copy writing for uShaka Marine World and Eskom in South Africa.

Sharon was also the Managing Country Editor (Africa) for Fisher's Travel SOS (based in the UK) for a period of two years (2006 - 2008) and managed a team of seven research agents and editors based in South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ivory Coast and Seychelles.

Other interests

When not typing furiously on her laptop Sharon can be found teaching T'ai Chi, Qigong and other internal healing arts or pursuing a variety of outdoor interests including mountain climbing, horse riding, bird watching, hiking ...