Selassie A. A. Thompson

I work where editorial, design, and operations meet. I write the copy, design the asset, send the email, track the reply, and figure out what to do differently next time. That full-stack approach to communications was forged in small teams where there was no playbook to inherit and no handoff to make.

I just completed my Master’s in English and American Studies in March 2026, alongside the work below.

Before that, I read Publishing Studies at undergraduate level and graduated with First Class Honours in 2017. That’s where the editorial and publishing thread in my work begins.

Judy Legal

Most recently I led product launch communications and editorial at Judy Legal, a legal research platform used by practising lawyers across Africa. I launched The JUDY Monthly newsletter from scratch, wrote and designed campaigns for features like BriefBot and Assisted Research, partnered with content creators on short-form Instagram video, and authored the company’s first employee handbook. I also managed the design team supporting every launch and campaign the company shipped externally.

I also owned the SEO and AEO work. I led the migration from client-side to server-side rendering, which drove a 37% lift in Google clicks and a 70% lift in impressions quarter over quarter (60K to 82K clicks, 2M to 3.45M impressions). On the AEO side I run weekly visibility monitoring across Perplexity, Google AI Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT, tracking where Judy gets cited against competitors in the African case-law space.

MEST Africa

Before Judy, I managed a team of HR associates at MEST Africa, a pan-African entrepreneurial training programme, running recruiting across six countries: Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal. Over a hundred candidates interviewed, translated into cohorts of founders who went on to build companies across the continent.

Konrad Adenauer Stiftung

At Konrad Adenauer Stiftung I coordinated press coverage for international programmes. Work from that period landed on CNN and Deutsche Welle and taught me how to shape a story before journalists ever pick up the phone.

Sedesel Publications

I co-founded Sedesel Publications, an independent publishing house. 15 titles in print so far across memoir, fiction, and narrative non-fiction. I edit the manuscripts with the authors, design the covers, built the website on WordPress, and handle distribution.

Today

I’m based in Großenkneten, Germany, and I work in English. If you’re looking for someone who can build a newsletter from scratch, launch a product without a playbook, or simply make complicated things feel human, let’s talk.

Speaking and appearances

A few of the panels, Twitter Spaces, and public conversations I’ve hosted or joined over the years.

#MESTAfricaSpaces: How I discovered my tech startup at MEST, hosted by Selassie, 30 March 2022
#MESTAfricaSpaces · Host “How I discovered my tech startup at MEST”, with Frank Addae (Co-founder, Shopa). March 2022 · MEST Africa
Eduspots International Literacy Day panel session: Authors as Advocates for Literacy, September 2023
Eduspots International Literacy Day · Guest Author Panel session on “Authors as Advocates for Literacy”, alongside Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, and Portia Dery. September 2023 · Eduspots

Selected work