Well-known and colourful Internet industry personality Justin Spratt has resigned from Dimension Data division Internet Solutions and will join Quirk eMarketing on 1 September.

TechCentral has learnt that Spratt has been appointed as managing partner of the 80-person digital marketing agency, which was founded in 1999 by CEO Rob Stokes.

Spratt, an Australian national and former credit derivatives trader at Morgan Stanley, says he is keen to get involved in the fast-growing digital advertising industry. “This is an industry that is set for a lot of growth and it will be great to be part of that trajectory.”

He describes Quirk’s culture as being similar to Internet Solutions’ in the early days, when founder Ronnie Apteker was actively involved in the business.

Spratt will be based at Quirk’s Johannesburg office, where his mandate is to drive Gauteng business and manage senior relationships.

“Quirk has a lot of stuff going on that’s still very much like a start-up,” Spratt says. “It’s a young business and I’m a greybeard in a way.”

Spratt, 34, has spent six years at Internet Solutions, where he co-founded the ISLabs start-up incubator, and launched a Wi-Fi-based mobile voice business in a direct challenge to the cellular network operators. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral