After graduating from South Africa’s Rhodes University with an Honours degree in Journalism and English, Tony worked for national radio station SAfm (loosely equivalent to the BBC’s Radio 4). He started as manager of their talk programmes and, over the years, took on other roles including marketing manager, programme manager, and presenter of the popular SAfm Weekend on Saturday mornings.

He left the SABC to work for financial services company Old Mutual in Cape Town first as External Communications Manager and then Sponsorship Manager.

Throughout the early part of his career, he remained connected to South Africa’s National Arts Festival in, then, Grahamstown – returning frequently as member of the media, sponsor, producer, venue manager and audience member. In 2007 he moved back more permanently to become the Festival’s CEO.  

In his time at the festival, he oversaw the event’s growth in audience and revenues and expanded the festival’s core offerings to other events and festivals around the country and world, creating new Festivals in Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Bay and in Sharjah in the UAE. He also project managed the South African Pavillion at the Venice Biennale, marking the country’s reintroduction to this iconic arts gathering.  

Passionate about the power of collaboration, he oversaw the creation of two major festival networks, becoming Treasurer of the fledgling AFRIFESTNET, which connected over 100 arts events across Africa, and Founding Chair of the World Fringe Alliance, a network of ten festivals including Edinburgh, Adelaide, Brighton, Prague, Amsterdam, New York and Grahamstown. The Alliance created pathways for dozens of artists to tour their work between festivals.

In 2019, he moved to London to manage Riverside Studios in Hammersmith – an iconic arts centre that includes television studios, theatres, cinemas, and a restaurant. More recently he answered the call to return to festival-world, and, in April 2025, stepped into the role of Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Fringe Society which co-ordinates the biggest arts festival, and the third biggest ticketed event (behind the Olympics and FIFA World Cup) in the world, selling 2.6-million tickets for 3,700 productions annually.