Acclaimed media strategist Gordon Patterson has been shot dead in a botched robbery on his Johannesburg home, according to his colleagues’ reports on Twitter.

Patterson, who was a 2008 jury member at Cannes Lions, had worked in media and marketing for more than 25 years.

According to LinkedIn, he previously founded SMV Group in South Africa in 2000, growing turnover from 60m ZAR ($4.3m) to 1.8bn ZAR ($126.2m).

Twitter user @AnnNurock described Patterson as “an icon and a friend” while @ricVSA quoted him as saying “knowledge has an expiry date, it makes no sense to keep it to oneself”.