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Co-Chief Executive: Corporate and Investment Banking, Barclays Africa Group
As Co-Chief Executive: Corporate and Investment Banking at Barclays Africa Group, Temi is responsible for delivering our pan-Africa Corporate and Investment Banking proposition for global, regional, and local clients across our businesses in South Africa and Rest of Africa. In addition, he is charged with developing and implementing an integrated digital strategy across CIB Africa, focusing on the build-out of digital channels that deliver a differentiated transactional banking value proposition for our clients on a pan-African basis.
Before his current position, Temi was head of Corporate Banking for Barclays Africa Group responsible for the design and implementation of the Corporate Banking strategy across Coverage and Product. He is a member of the Barclays Africa CIB Executive Committee and Barclays Corporate Executive Committee. He has held a number of senior positions at Absa, including heading up Corporate and Institutional Coverage, Foreign Exchange and Commodity Sales and Structuring, Equity Derivative Sales and Structuring and Sales in Absa’s Financial Institutions Group.
Prior to joining Barclays, he was the Managing Director of Peregrine Financial Solutions in Johannesburg. His appointment to Peregrine followed nearly three years as Head of Structured Products at Corpcapital Bank, also in Johannesburg. In addition, Temi worked at Credit Suisse Financial Products, London, as the FFice president and Head of Credit for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and then FFice President of Derivative Sales for Africa Credit Suisse.
Political & Social Activist
Jay Naidoo has served in an advisory capacity for a number of international organisations including the Broadband Commission of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the Lead Committee of the UNSG on Nutrition. He is a trustee of the Earthrise Trust, which is working on models of rural development and innovation in the eastern Free State of South Africa, and also sits on the Board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, established to promote African development through a focus on promoting good governance.
From 1994 to 1999, Jay was the Minister responsible for South Africa’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) in the Office of the President before becoming the Communications Minister in Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet. He was the founding General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) where he served three terms (1985 to 1993). He was at the forefront of the struggle against apartheid, leading the largest trade union federation in South Africa. From 2001-2010, he was Chairperson of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the premier development finance institution driving infrastructure in the SADC region. From 2003 -2010, he serves as deputy chair and trustee of ‘Lovelife’, a nongovernmental organization leading the fight to prevent HIV/AID through education and mobilization.
Jay was the recipient of, among other awards, the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honor), one of France’s highest decorations, and received the ‘Drivers for Change Award’ from the Southern African Trust and Mail & Guardian newspaper in October 2010. His most recent awards include The Ellen Kuzwayo Award from the University of Johannesburg, awarded in November 2012 as well as an Honorary Doctorate Technology Degree in Engineering and the Built Environment from the Durban University of Technology, awarded September 2013. He is the author of CHANGE! Organising Tomorrow, Today.
Lizeka Dlepu is the of Head of Sustainability at Enel Green Power RSA. Enel Green Power is a global leader in the renewables energy sector and leading Independent Power Producer in South Africa.
She previously worked as a BEE specialist and Transformation Manager responsible for promoting and driving transformation as a strategic business imperative through a clear B-BBEE programme. Her responsibility included establishing and leading appropriate governance structures to ensure compliance with the B-BBEE Act and related regulations, developing and implementing strategies to address gaps in practices impacting the B-BBEE performance.
She started her career in Human Resources where she owned an HR consulting company and later joined the Civil Service as an HR Director. She is an Independent Non-Executive Director of South African Civil Aviation Authority.
Journalist, Presenter & Producer, CNBC Africa
Fifi Peters is an anchor on CNBC Africa’s flagship markets shows, Power Lunch and Closing Bell. Her journalism career began in 2011 after graduating from Rhodes University with a degree in Economics and Journalism.
She holds a Registered Persons Examination (RPE) from the SA Institute of Financial Markets and a certificate in Law and Politics from the London School of Economics. She is also an alumnus of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa Financial Journalism training programme that is run in conjunction with the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). Fifi has also worked as a writer for the Business Day and Financial Mail (BDFM) where she reported on the markets, economy and several sectors including manufacturing, construction, financial services, retail and banking.
She is also an MC and moderator having done work for Vodacom, MTN and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). In her spare time she is a commentator on Classic FM’s business show.
Director, Trialogue
Cathy is a director at Trialogue, one of only a few consultancies in South Africa that focuses exclusively on corporate responsibility. She joined Trialogue in 2008 and has subsequently worked with many large corporates on their shared value, sustainability and CSI strategies, as well as strategy implementation and project reviews.
Prior to Trialogue, Cathy worked as research and development manager for Tshikululu Social Investments and before that she managed a team of research analysts at New Philanthropy Capital in the UK. She started her career with five years of strategy consulting. She has a Business Science degree from UCT, an M.Phil in Management from Cambridge University and an MBA from INSEAD.
Head of Agribusiness Research, Agricultural Business Chamber
Wandile Sihlobo is an agricultural economist and head of agribusiness research at the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz). He is a columnist for Business Day and Farmers Weekly magazine. Sihlobo has previously served as an economist at Grain South Africa. He holds a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University.
Economic Advisor, UNDP for South Africa and Lesotho
Fatou Leigh, Economic Advisor at UNDP for South Africa and Lesotho has held similar position for Kenya and Swaziland. In addition to public sector reform, policy formulation and strategic planning, she has extensive experience in development effectiveness and is supporting Governments in the localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs 2030).
As Project Director of the World Bank funded Capacity Building for Economic Management Project, she played a pivotal role in statistical reforms and implementation of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) in The Gambia, thus promoting use of reliable data for decision making and accountability in the use of public resources.
CIO, Awethu Project
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Rob LeBlanc is Chief Investment Officer at Awethu Project, a pioneering entrepreneurship development company, which uses a globally unique model of hands-on entrepreneurship to mass-produce successful SMEs. His areas of expertise include: talent identification; entrepreneurship; SMME enterprise development; early-stage valuation and venture capital; impact investing and social enterprise.
Prior to joining Awethu, Rob worked for private equity firm C.A. Bancorp in Toronto, Canada, focused on midmarket growth capital transactions. He also worked for global management consultancy Oliver Wyman on market entry and growth strategies for clients in North America, South America, Europe and the Middle East.
Rob received his MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated with High Distinction and was named a Baker Scholar. He also received his BCom with Great Distinction from McGill University.
Manager, Nando’s Farming Initiative
Affectionately known as “Farmer Sam”, Sam has dedicated his energy in recent years to aligning Nando’s key functions and respective business units with the company’s overarching purpose. Sam has looked to achieve this by leveraging the scale of the business’ supply chain to create sustainable commercial applications of shared value through the PERi-Farms initiative. This involves integrating smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa to Nando’s global business.
His core responsibilities entail aligning Nando’s internal stakeholders across 30 restaurant and retail markets, liaising with external suppliers and manufacturers to establish a robust supply chain with strong ethical credentials and world class quality standards to ensure consistency of product from farm to fork.
Executive Director, Dalberg Group
James Mwangi is Executive Director of the Dalberg Group, a collection of impact-driven businesses that seek to champion inclusive and sustainable growth around the world, and a Partner with Dalberg Advisors.
James founded and built up Dalberg’s presence in Africa, beginning with the Johannesburg office in 2007, Nairobi in 2008, and Dakar in 2009, and he served as Global Managing Partner from 2010 to 2014.
As a consultant, James’ clients have ranged from heads of state to senior leaders of multilateral organizations and foundations. He has also advised chief executives and investors on the intersection of commercially attractive and socially impactful business in frontier markets, particularly in Africa.
Prior to Dalberg, James worked at McKinsey & Company. He is a 2009 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow of the African Leadership Institute and serves on the Institute’s board. He is also a 2013 Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and currently serves on the Program Advisory Committee of the Clinton Global Initiative. James holds a BA in economics from Harvard University.
Co-Founder and MD, FSG
Mark is co-founder and Managing Director of FSG and the author of influential publications on shared value, catalytic philanthropy, collective impact, strategic evaluation, and impact investing.
He oversees FSG’s consulting practice and helps drive the vision and growth of the firm. He has led consulting engagements across all of FSG’s impact areas, with particular emphasis on philanthropic strategy for private foundations, shared value initiatives, strategic evaluation, and impact investing. Mark also leads the research on many of FSG’s publications and publishes regularly in Harvard Business Review and Stanford Social Innovation Review. He is a frequent speaker around the world on topics in catalytic philanthropy, collective impact, creating shared value for corporations, new approaches to evaluation, impact investing, and social entrepreneurship.
Mark served for twelve years as President of Kramer Capital Management, a venture capital firm, and before that as an Associate at the law firm of Ropes & Gray in Boston, and Law Clerk to Judge Alvin B. Rubin, Fifth Circuit, US Court of Appeals.
Head, Agri Joint Ventures (ABSA)
Brienne van der Walt heads up Agricultural Partnerships for Absa. In his previous roles he headed up Business Banking Customer Segments for Absa, and prior to that he was Head of Agriculture for Barclays Africa. He is passionate about identifying and addressing ecosystem-level issues in the food chain and believes that the solution to many of South Africa’s societal problems is linked to food.
Advisor to the CEO on Partnerships, NEPAD
A Zimbabwean national, Jennifer Chiriga has over 30 years of accumulated work experience spread across government and the development arena where she worked extensively on programmes focused on civil society capacity-building. Currently she is Advisor on Partnerships to the CEO of NEPAD Agency in Midrand, where she came on board a year ago after spending 8 years at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa.
Starting out as a Program Expert in the Strategic Planning Department, she was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff in the Bureau of the Chairperson, later becoming Chief of Staff of the African Union Commission until March 2017. This was a leadership role focused on facilitating inter-departmental and inter-agency relationships, and coordinating interaction of the African Union Commission with AU Member States as well as the international community.
CEO, Faven Africa & Boipelo AgriTech
Tsholofelo holds a BA Media Studies and International Relations from the Witwatersrand University. She uses the knowledge and skills gained from both these fields of study to develop her community, taking to heart discriminations brought forth against youth and women thus she actively lobbies for better legislation and a heightened awareness about their conditions, whilst actively working on pragmatically bringing about changes in people’s lives. This is how Faven Africa and Boipelo Agri Tech, organisations that tackle household food security on the continent, were born.
She is an exceptional speaker who uses her voice to speak to and for her generation. Her passion for community development was nurtured from when she was Soul City Organisation ambassador. The Soul City Organisation provided a platform for her not only to serve as a youth ambassador, but also as a speaker for UNICEF and various governmental departments in South Africa. She has been invited to speak and/or facilitate discussions with the World Food Programme, African Leadership Academy, Future Nations Schools Young African Leaders Initiative (Southern Africa), Consulate of the United States of America (Johannesburg, South Africa), Embassy of the United States of America (Cotonou, Benin), in a diverse range of issues pertaining to: education and literacy, trade, women in entrepreneurship, agriculture, and civic leadership.
A World Economic Forum Global Shaper (Soweto Hub) and a Mandela Institute of Development Studies (MINDS) fellowship alumni, she is passionate about education and literacy thus her current work with The MI Project where she tutors and mentors high school and tertiary level scholars. A published author herself, she also works as a publisher for children’s books written by children. She is constantly trying to find new ways of using the media as a tool for transformation, and narrating the African story. She is a multitasker who continues to make her mark in the industry as a media practitioner, storyteller, speaker, policy advocate, farmer and global change agent.
Director, KGEE’S Farming
Kamogelo Mogadima is the Director of KGEE’S Farming and Tubatse African Pride and Tours (Pty) Ltd. Growing up on a farm, she learned the importance of preparation, hard work and respect. She studied Media and Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand, and after graduation she worked for cooperate companies and financial institutions (Absa) as a sales consultant.
In 2014, she bought her first cattle and, following her love for travel, she founded Tubatse African Pride and Tours while working part-time at Segweka Trading Enterprise. As her herd grew, KGEE’S Farming was born (focusing on both crop and cattle farming). In January 2018, she was elected Youth President of South African Women in Farming (SAWIF), which empowers women in farming through entrepreneurial skills development for sustainable farming enterprises, especially in rural areas.
Regional Director: Southern Africa, Amnesty International
Deprose Muchena is a development and human rights advocate currently directing the work of Amnesty International as Southern Africa Regional Director. His main areas of focus are political economy of inequality, socio-economic rights and development. He is deeply involved in building rights based approaches to addressing the triple burden of unemployment, poverty and inequality. He is co-editor of Tearing Us Apart: Inequalities in Southern Africa. In addition to being guest speaker and guest lecturer on these areas, he has published journal articles, chapters and op-ed pieces for both developmental and academic purposes. He is currently reading for his second Masters, an MPhil in Development Policy and Practice at UCT in South Africa.
Managing Director, Xesibe Holdings
Ayabonga is a Johannesburg-based development economist, columnist, radio presenter, photographer and activist. He is Managing Director of Xesibe Holdings (Pty) Ltd, a platform involved in advisory, facilitation and content development across a wide range of fields. He hosts #PowerBusiness on PowerFM and writes a regular column for the Daily Maverick and the Business Day. Prior to this, he was Economic Justice Manager at Oxfam South Africa (OZA) working on policy advocacy and research. He has also worked as an Associate Consultant at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a global development strategy consulting and policy advisory firm.
He has experience in economic research, policy and supply chain analysis, advocacy, development program design and M&E. He is also a co-founder of Rethink Africa NPC, a youth-led policy research, advocacy and advisory organisation. He has taken part in a wide range of research, advisory and policy engagements on development issues in agriculture, rail, urban design and labour market policy. His international experience on issues of sustainability and business includes conducting primary research with farmer organizations in Indonesia, for a multilateral client.
He has also conducted primary research in Nigeria, for a market entry strategy on behalf of a global pharmaceuticals manufacturer. Ayabonga recently sat on the National Minimum Wage Advisory Panel appointed by the Deputy President and Nedlac, which advised on the R20/hour proposal. Ayabonga was a finalist in the category, ‘Best Business and Finance Show’ at the 2018 Liberty Radio Awards. He holds an M. Com (cum laude) in Development Theory and Policy from Wits.
Co-Director, Art Planet Academy
Ignatius and his co-founder created an organisation that is expanding agricultural education to increase farming skills and food security in rural communities. Having watched many siblings graduate without gainful employment, Ignatius questioned the value of the schooling taught in his community. Art Planet Academy rejects theoretical curriculums, bringing tangible skills directly to those that need them most.
Art Planet has a vast reach, working with 27 primary schools, 24 secondary schools, 2 universities and 6 institutions. The delivery model entails 4 weekly training sessions for 3 months at each school. these trainings engage children and students in establishment of school micro-Agricultural enterprises. The children are then empowered to replicate these lessons in their homes with additional trainer support resulting into establishment of agricultural enterprises within homes of the children and students.
Ignatius is confident that their educational mission can be expanded further – seeking to create further online and printed materials to diffuse the agricultural skills. He is acquiring additional land to expand his capacity for demonstrations on more climate smart farming innovations for crops and livestock. Eventually, he would like to see Art Planet Academy officially registered as an accredited vocational institution.
Founder & CEO, Dar Teknohama Business Incubator (DTBi)
Dr. George Mulamula is the founder and CEO of Dar Teknohama Business Incubator (DTBi), the largest tech incubator in Tanzania and a Senior Government Advisor on ICT Entrepreneurship & Innovation. He is a mentor and coach, helping tech start-ups scale up, propelling job creation for youth (particularly women) and driving financial inclusion for the bottom of the pyramid. He is a member of advisory boards including XPrize Global Learning, Financial Sector Deepening Trust and working with the World Food Programme on disruptive innovations.
Prior to that he was the first Principal Deputy CEO of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and Senior Advisor in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Ministry of Infrastructure & ICT in Rwanda. For over 8 years, Mulamula was the first African Technical Expert in Intellectual Property Automation with WIPO based in Geneva, Switzerland, working with Sub-Saharan African Governments on the utility of ICT in IP innovation.
As a mentor/coach for entrepreneurs, he has conducted pitching sessions in- and outside of the country, including at Global Entrepreneurship Summits, GIST boot camps in Tanzania & South Africa, Unreasonable East Africa and Demo Africa in Uganda and Kenya. He is the Chair of the Tanzania Airtel Fursa judging team for the national youth entrepreneurship growth, on the Advisory Board of the Global Learning XPRIZE in California (USA) and a member of the Tanzania National Financial Sector Deepening Trust.
Founder & MD, Oxygen Africa
At 33 years old, Simbarashe is the Founder and Managing Director of Oxygen Africa, a Zimbabwean renewable energy development company focused on commercial and industrial rooftop solar photovoltaic projects. Oxygen is currently developing a 50MW rooftop solar project with Old Mutual Property Zimbabwe, the largest property investment managers in Zimbabwe, as well as a second with Minerva Risk Advisors, a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage and employee benefits consulting in Zimbabwe.
In 2016 and 2018, Simba was named one of Africa’s 30 most promising young entrepreneurs by Forbes Magazine. Simba has also been recognised by the Africa Youth Awards as one of 100 most Influential Young Africans of the year. Afk Insider magazine named him among 12 Most Promising African Entrepreneurs of 2016 and in 2017 Africa.com named him among 40 Africans Under 40 – Making It in Africa.
Most Influential People of African Descent under 40 (MIPAD 100), a global civil society initiative whose efforts are in recognition of the UN-backed International Decade for People of African Descent, named Simba among its 2017 honourees for business and entrepreneurship inside Africa. Medium listed Simba among 100 inspiring game changers hacking entrepreneurship and growth in its 100 Must-Follow Black Entrepreneurs, Influencers & Speakers list of 2017.
Oxygen has received support from the Ministry of Energy & Power Development, National Project Status from The Ministry of Finance & Economic Development and a Climate Action Endorsement from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate for driving and championing the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Climate Action (13), Affordable & Clean Energy (7), Decent Work & Economic Growth, Sustainable Cities & Communities (11) and Responsible Consumption & Production (12).
Representative, UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office
Anne Githuku-Shongwe is the Representative for UN Women’s South Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO), which is responsible for women’s empowerment and gender equality in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia as well as South Africa, where the office is based. She brings to her role 20 years of experience as a senior international development professional including with the United Nations Development Programme across Africa and managing US Scholarships for African Graduate Scholars.
Previously, Anne was an award-winning social entrepreneur and founder of Afroes, a digital & gamification learning enterprise and a thought leader on the future of learning. Anne and Afroes received multiple awards including the prestigious Schwab Foundation/World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award and a National Award – the Order of the Grand Warrior from the President of Kenya. Other awards include the PeaceAPP award of the UN, MEFFYs Award, London UK and Netexplo Award, Paris to name a few.
Anne is a Board Member and Grand Juror of the World Summit Awards for the UN Information Society and a Global Ambassador of the Vital Voices Leadership Program. She has a Masters’ degree in International Development from The American University; a certificate in Social Innovation from the University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business, a certificate in The Art of Large Scale Systems Change for Social Entrepreneurship from Harvard University and a Management Certificate from Jones International University.
Founder & CEO, Zenzele Fitness Group
Itumeleng (Tumi) Phake is a South African entrepreneur, business speaker and mentor. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Zenzele Fitness Group, a fitness and wellness company that operates 13 gym facilities across South Africa. He was named 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year. A former banker with seven years’ experience in investment and banking, Phake spent a lot of time learning and leveraging off industry experts. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Financial Management from the University of South Africa (UNISA).
Inspired by his passion for health, fitness and business, in 2014 Tumi founded Zenzele fitness Group. Zenzele delivers turnkey fitness and wellness solutions for corporate and government clients who seek to promote employee wellness. Furthermore, Zenzele designs, furnishes, outfits, operates and manages fitness facilities, extending beyond the idea of a simple gym. Top-of-the-line technology and equipment allows for the tracking of all activities and facilities while working closely with medical experts across the country to deliver excellent service to users.
Currently Zenzele has 13 established gyms in some of South Africa’s most successful companies including one at an internationally recognised institution of higher learning which launched in January 2017. Since the inception of the company, Phake has managed to raise R20 million in capital funding and employs over 70 full time staff. In future, he plans to expand not only in South Africa, but to the rest of the African continent as a publicly listed company, dominating the industry as the first black player.
Phake previously served as a junior board member for FNB Wealth. In 2015, he was recognised by the Mail&Guardian’s Top 200 Young South African’s list, an initiative that recognises South Africans under the age of 35 who are ground breakers in various industries. In 2016, Phake was selected as a South African ambassador for the prestigious Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) in the United States of America, a leadership programme established by former president Barack Obama for young African Leaders. During the programme he studied Business and Entrepreneurship at Virginia Commonwealth University and had the great honour of meeting former president of the USA, Barack Obama. He is now contributing to the entrepreneurial development journey of others as a business mentor at the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation.
VP & Director of Strategic Relations, African Leadership Academy
Dr. Frank Aswani is the Vice-President and Director of Strategic Relations at the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in Johannesburg, South Africa. He leads ALA’s fundraising, corporate partnerships, network development and global partnerships.
Frank joined ALA in April 2012. Prior to ALA, his previous roles included three years with ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) as the Regional Director for Africa and 14 years with Eli Lilly where he worked in Kenya, England, Switzerland and South Africa. His last role at Lilly was the Sales Director for South Africa and Regional Director for Sub Sahara Africa where he managed the business in Anglophone and Lusophone sub-Saharan Africa, covering over 20 countries in the region.
Frank graduated as a Veterinary Doctor from the University of Nairobi and also has an MBA from the GIBS (Gordon Institute of Business Studies), University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Founder & Managing Director, Kina Advisory
Rosalind Kainyah, MBE, is a trusted advisor to global companies on responsible business investment and partnerships in Africa. She ensures that her clients’ operations have positive socioeconomic impacts on the countries in which they operate, while realising optimal financial value.
As an environmental lawyer for almost a decade from the early 1990s, Rosalind advised international organisations and governments on environmental policy and legislation. She went on to be a corporate lawyer at the international law firm, Linklaters; and then a corporate and commercial lawyer at the De Beers Group Diamond Trading Company.
Later she was appointed an Executive Director of the Diamond Trading Company and went on to set up De Beers Inc., the representative office of De Beers Group in the USA.
Before starting Kina Advisory in 2014, she was Vice President, External Affairs and CSR at Tullow Oil plc where she was responsible for identifying and managing political and social risks; and ensuring that the company’s operations had positive socioeconomic impacts.
Rosalind is a member of the Bar of England and Wales and of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She was awarded an MBE for services to CSR for the benefit of youth in Africa in 2014. In 2016 she was named by Forbes Afrique Magazine as one of the 100 influential women on the continent in 2016, and by Arise Magazine in 2012 as one of the top 100 dynamic women. She was nominated as one of Britain’s most influential people of African and African Caribbean heritage by The Power List in 2008.
Chairman, Barclays Africa Group
Wendy is Chairman of Barclays Africa Group Limited, one of the largest financial services groups in Africa. She previously served as an Executive Director of Rand Merchant Bank and Chief Executive of FirstRand Limited’s retail businesses. Wendy has held positions on the boards of Barclays PLC, Telkom SA, Alexander Forbes Ltd, Dimension Data PLC and Anglo American Platinum Ltd, as well as senior board positions at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the South African Financial Markets Advisory Board, Eskom, Aveng Ltd and Nedbank Group Limited.
Wendy served on the President’s Advisory Council on Black Economic Empowerment for the period 2011 – 2014. Her previous board positions include, amongst others, Alexander Forbes Ltd, Anglo American Platinum Limited, Aveng Ltd (deputy chairman), Development Bank of Southern Africa, Dimension Data Plc, Eskom Holdings, Lafarge Mining & Industries South Africa (chairman), Nedbank Group, South African Financial Markets Advisory Board and Telkom SA. She has received many awards, including Businesswoman of the Year, Rotary – Paul Harris Award for Service in the Community, Rotary – Paul Harris Sapphire Award for Service in the Community, Top Women in Business award and PMR/GEDA award for Individual Contribution to the Economy of Gauteng.
Head of Corporate Affairs, mPedigree
Eugene Boadu is an activist, avid collector of the classics of pan-African philosophy, youth educator, social organizer, keen marketer, and a passionate champion of the African promise.
Eugene currently works at mPedigree, a social enterprise devoted to harnessing innovative technologies for human security and industrial growth, with an emphasis on anti-counterfeiting, supply chain visibility, and brand management. He is responsible for designing policies for the organisation’s multi-award winning Goldkeys platform in respect of direct marketing, business development, strategic research, public relations and corporate affairs, and has been instrumental in driving several projects and lifting ideas from the strategy board to the ground where impact on the lives of millions of consumers is made and felt.
Trained in Economics and Political Science at the University of Ghana in Legon, Boadu has written, spoken and led seminars prolifically on how African societies can leverage technology to improve current social conditions and quality of life. He has devoted substantial time and energy to thinking, mobilizing, and organizing for a better future for the continent of his birth on university campuses, in the national media, and at international forums.
He has spoken at several entrepreneurial summits, conferences and workshops around the world. He spoke at The Road To The 2016 Global Entrepreneurship under the auspices of President Barack Obama and The 2016 Ashoka Changemaker Summit. He was a representative of African technology start-ups at the 2017 Facebook F8 Conference. Also in 2017, Boadu led a delegation to engage the Ivorian government on the adoption of technology to mitigate Africa’s growing counterfeit problem in Abidjan and spoke at the Pan African Chamber of Commerce’s forum on medicinal counterfeiting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In Addis Ababa, he was also invited by the Africa Union’s Trade Commission to advise the Commission on policy options to boost the continent’s regulatory instruments for the safety of all Africans.
Before joining mPedigree, he worked at the University of Ghana, where he had direct responsibility for managing and transforming the impact of the leading alumni networks. He has also worked in the financial services industry, specializing in credit quality analysis, insurance brokerage modelling, and Customer Risk Management.
Hygiene & Nutrition Social Mission Director, Unilever Africa
Dr Myriam Sidibe is one of the world’s leading experts of brands that drive health outcomes through behavioural change. From within Unilever, she has created a movement to change the handwashing behaviours of one billion people, the single biggest hygiene behavior change programme in the world, and conceived and established the UN recognized Global Handwashing Day – now celebrated in over 100 countries.
Myriam’s approach to pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo has been pivotal to leading a paradigm shift in the way public private partnerships for health are managed and funded. Her foresight in establishing Lifebuoy soaps co-branded school and neonatal handwashing have proven so effective they have received over €20 million in blended financing grants. The handwashing programs have now reached 426 million people in over 30 countries. They have also been replicated across Unilever as best practice examples for other brands looking to positively impact the world while driving market share.
As one of the world’s leading academic in the field of marketing for public health and behaviour change, Myriam represents Unilever with organizations such as Columbia University – Millennium Villages, the World Bank, PSI, WSUP, MCHIP and USAID to promote the importance of handwashing with soap, and create programmes that can help form healthy handwashing habits for life and over the past 3 years that drive scaling up nutrition programs in Africa.
For the last 18 years, she has worked in more than 20 countries for the public sector (including the International Rescue Committee, Consulting with Unicef, the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Programme) and the private sector arguing for a more transparent relationship between the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, advocating the need for businesses to gain growth and profits from engagement in social and health issues in order to build more sustainable, effective interventions, and is a regular commentator in the media on this. In addition, she is an honorary Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a trustee of WaterAid and a Lancet Commissioner.
CEO, JCDecaux sub-Saharan Africa
Mark Cooper is the CEO of JCDecaux Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to being appointed as the CEO, Mark served as the Chief Operating Officer of JCDecaux in Sub-Sahara Africa, effective July 2015. He oversaw operations, human resources management and health & safety policy in all Sub-Sahara Africa’s countries. He brought his expertise in the deployment of digital solutions to optimize the existing advertising ecosystem and to structure the delivery of new pertinent offers on this continent.
Mark Cooper joined JCDecaux UK in 1998 as UK Operations Manager and became Group Operations Director in 1999. Mark’s passion has been to champion shared value projects giving value to cities through offerings such the exclusive Toilet Network across London for Transport for London bus drivers, and the City Information Networks across the UK, providing design, printing and flighting of bespoke city maps, city posters covering health, education, security, elections and events communications, among others.
This JCDecaux practice of finding viable business opportunities to assist cities to be safer and more efficient will also be rolled out into Africa, with Nigeria to receiving the first innovative self-cleaning toilets, as well as Traffic Information boards to assist commuters in the congested city of Lagos. He began his career in 1995 with Cable London Plc (Virgin Media) as Business Connection Manager, managing the delivery of telecom solutions across copper & fibre networks. He holds a degree in Management Studies from the Middlesex University Business School.
Managing Partner, GreenHouse Capital
Nichole is a Managing Partner at GreenHouse Capital (GHC), the investment arm of Venture Garden. At VGG, she is responsible for the financial strategy of the 7 innovative and data-driven fintech companies under its umbrella, serving public and private clients across the aviation, power, education, and financial services industries. She also manages the group’s investment strategy since its $20M raise from Convergence Partners in 2015.
At GreenHouse Capital, she fosters the growth of companies at the forefront of using technology to solve real African problems and has board responsibilities in a number of these companies. She brings experience from working in private and Fortune 500 companies to guide these portfolio companies through seed and series stages. The portfolio companies’ products have connected over 3000 students to tutors, completed one of the largest and most successful ICOs out of Africa, and increased banking services for Nigeria’s nearly 84.6 million unbanked population. Each of the companies has seen between 2X and 20X valuation growth since GHC’s investment.
Nichole serves with Big Brothers/Big Sisters and was the Program Director for College MAP, a multi-year program providing underrepresented youth with tools to access university. She currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Cortex Hub, a South African incubator and is the cofounder and executive sponsor for the Garden Women’s Network (GWN) which was created to foster the recruitment, development, and retention of women in technology. In 2017, Forbes Africa listed Nichole as one of its 30 most promising young entrepreneurs in Africa.
She is an alumna of the Kenan Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, a graduate from the Masters in Accounting Programme at Wake Forest University, and a licensed CPA.
Head of Responsible Investment, Old Mutual Group
Jon Duncan is a Senior Associate of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and leads the Responsible Investment Programme at Old Mutual. The Programme is focused on driving the systematic integration of material environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues across the Group’s c£380 billion of funds under management. Jon also heads up the Sustainability Research and Engagement function at the Group’s South Africa-based asset manager, Old Mutual Investment Group, where he is involved in industry ESG research, the analysis of green growth opportunities, and engagement on regulatory issues and local industry initiatives, such as the Code for Responsible Investing South Africa (CRISA).
Jon was involved in the drafting of CRISA and currently sits on the CRISA committee that drives the application of the Code in South Africa. In 2015, Jon was appointed as Senior Associate of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, which brings together business, government and academia to find solutions to critical sustainability challenges.
An engineer by training, with a Master’s degree in Environmental Science, he has over 20 years of professional experience in the field of sustainability research and engagement. He has worked extensively in Africa across a range of sectors supporting organisations with strategic social, environmental and sustainability related issues.
Prior to joining Old Mutual Investment Group, Jon worked at Environmental Resource Management as a partner for four years. Before that, he worked at Trialogue as a senior sustainability researcher and consultant. The rest of his working experience comprises similar positions in addition to two directorships.
CEO, Discovery Health
Dr. Jonathan Broomberg is CEO of Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurer. He is a medical doctor and health economist. He studied medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and then read PPE at Balliol College as a Rhodes Scholar. He subsequently completed MSc and Ph.D. degrees in Health Economics at the University of London.
Jonathan’s career in healthcare includes a period serving as Special Advisor to the Minister of Health of South Africa in the first post-apartheid administration. Prior to joining Discovery Health 10 years ago, Jonathan was a founding director of a private equity and venture capital business investing in healthcare and education. Alongside his private sector interests, Jonathan maintains a strong engagement with South African and global health policy affairs and served for 5 years on the Technical Review Panel of the Global Fund against AIDS, TB, and Malaria, including 2 years as Chair of the Panel.
Director: Private Sector Partnerships, United Nations World Food Programme
Prerana is currently the Director of Private Sector Partnerships at the World Food Programme (WFP), the leading humanitarian organization fighting hunger worldwide. At the helm of WFP’s private sector partnership function, she focuses on three areas for transformational partnerships (Nutrition and Food Security, Supply Chain and Retail, and Technology and Digital Solutions), allowing WFP to amplify its impact towards achieving Zero Hunger. WFP has a long track record of ground-breaking, innovative global partnerships, setting a high standard for meaningful private sector relationships that combine financial contributions with technical assistance, knowledge transfer and visibility campaigns to solve global problems and bring us closer to a Zero Hunger world.
Prior to joining WFP four years ago as the Director of Human Resources, Prerana worked with Unilever Plc for 15 years, in increasingly senior roles across multiple geographies (India, regional across Europe and several global roles based in London) and partnering multiple businesses (operating companies, global categories, functions including sales, marketing, R&D, supply chain).
From 2013 through 2016, Prerana shaped and led an organization-wide transformation at WFP across people, performance, regulatory framework, and culture. She built support amongst the Executive Board for the new Human Capital strategy and resulting changes at WFP and has been successful in fund raising for implementing the changes.
Prerana leads from a strong understanding of the levers of the business and operations and her truly global outlook formed from living and working in 5 countries across 3 continents. Her work at the World Food Programme has been focused on creating solutions for beneficiaries by increasing the capacity, capability, flexibility and speed in the people aspects of the organisation, and now in her work with private sector partners.
Prerana has driven a fast, high quality and scaled transformation in a complex environment including changing more than 20 UN policies in the last four years, which is 15 more than the previous two decades,
Director: Programs Implementation & Partnerships Management, The Coca-Cola Company
As the Director, Programs Implementation and Partnerships for Coca-Cola’s sustainability initiatives in Africa, Dorcas Onyango leads civil society, government and private sector partners to design, implement and measure Pan-African initiatives such as RAIN, which improved access to water for 2 million people in Africa by 2015, as well as Health, Youth Empowerment, and Coca-Cola’s Women Economic Empowerment program, 5by20. Dorcas is based in South Africa, where she joined Coca-Cola seven years ago as the Marketing and Communications Manager for The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation. She is actively involved in uplifting the communities where she lives and belongs.
Deputy CEO, Barclays Africa Group
Peter joined the Board as an independent director in 2011. In August 2016, he was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer responsible for the Rest of Africa businesses and he remains on the Board as an executive director. He is a member of the Information Technology Committee and Separation Oversight Committee.
Peter began his career with the Urban Foundation and Citibank and gained international experience, particularly in Europe. Peter is the previous chief executive officer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), chief strategy and business development officer of Vodacom SA Proprietary Limited and executive director of commercial at Vodacom SA Proprietary Limited. Most recently, Peter was the chief executive officer of Tiger Brands Limited.
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Sazini Mojapelo is a passionate leader and Harvard Business School graduate, her expertise lies in the development and execution of strategic plans linked to corporate social investment, social entrepreneurship, and youth and women empowerment. She is responsible for the conceptualisation, development and driving the implementation of the Shared Growth strategy; a strategy aimed at skills development, enterprise development and financial inclusion across the continent.
Sazini is a strategist and development specialist by training, holding a double major degree in Sociology and Industrial Psychology as well as having obtained a Master’s Degree in Development Studies from the University of Cape Town.
Prior to joining Barclays Africa, she was the CEO and founder of Hand in Hand Southern Africa, an NGO with the focus on micro and small business development in peri urban and rural areas. She has over 14 years’ experience, working in government, civil society including corporate and private sectors.
Sazini is passionate about making an impact in people’s lives through her work, especially the youth. Her ultimate goal is to give young people an opportunity to unlock their potential, to either better develop their employability prospects or to become self-employed through starting their own business.
Africa Program Director, Intel
Suraj Shah is the Africa Program Director for Intel. He is in charge of the Intel® She Will Connect Program in Africa which is a Girls & Women empowerment programme seeking to connect 5 million women online.
Suraj has vast experience working in the East African Community. He has worked as a consultant to a number of companies and NGOs, including the Grameen Foundation. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an honors degree in Computer Science.
His passion and drive for human capacity building emerged early in his career. In his first job as a management consultant at Deloitte & Touche, Suraj discovered that the successful management of any change starts with managing personnel – empowering them with the relevant skills to accept and implement the change.
In his current role, Suraj is deploying an innovative mix of technology training, gender relevant content and peer networking to demonstrate the importance of the internet for self-empowerment and enable thousands of girls and women in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa to go online. Running the program with Intel managers in-country and a host of local partners, the program has also collaborated with global Partners like UN Women, the Rockefeller Foundation, USAID, Internet.Org, Smart Woman and World Pulse.
Previously, Suraj was the Corporate Affairs Manager for Intel Corporation, covering Kenya and East Africa. His primary role was to develop relationships with governments and strategic partners as a trusted advisor. Suraj was also mandated to build the capacity of citizens through Digital Literacy and Entrepreneurship, resulting in nearly 5000 adults trained through community centres and partner organisations and bringing about positive impact to citizens who were previously unexposed to ICT and basic Entrepreneurship skills. He has also deployed the Intel Teach program that has trained 20,000 teachers in Kenya to integrate ICT into Education and develop 21st Century skills.
Suraj has worked extensively with start-up companies and tech entrepreneurs to train them on advanced entrepreneurship skills and provide them with opportunities to showcase their products to global investors and angel funds.
Managing Director and CEO, LADOL
Dr Amy Jadesimi is the Managing Director and CEO of LADOL, a maritime and multi-logistics services based in Nigeria. Beyond LADOL, she is on the Prince’s Trust International global advisory board, a founding commissioner of the Business and Sustainable Development Commission and a Forbes contributor.
She cut her teeth at Goldman Sachs and Brait Private Equity in London, before returning to Nigeria to join LADOL’s management team. Amy has a number of accolades under her belt: in 2012, she was named an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow; in 2013, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum; also in 2013, a Rising Talent by the Women’s Forum for Economy and Society; in 2014, Forbes included her in the 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa; and in July 2015, the Financial Times named her one of top 25 Africans To Watch.
Amy holds a MBA from Stanford University, as well as a BA and BMBCh from the University of Oxford.
Specialities:
· Impact investing and sustainable development: utilising the framework of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to build scalable businesses that provide vital capacity (infrastructure, services, jobs etc) to support socio-economic growth in frontier markets. Championing the legitimate private sector within low-income high-growth countries in Africa and beyond will bring the world closer to achieving the SDGs. There is a $12 trillion market opportunity for adopting socially conscious business practices to create healthier, more profitable organisations.
· Human capital development: investment and partnership with local private sector operators in frontier markets to develop local talent and establish attractive career paths that equal or outweigh the opportunities abroad.
· Energy industry (particularly oil and gas): the changing dynamics of the global energy industry, particularly the impact of the oil price slump on frontier markets like Nigeria and the business environment of these places as a result.
Head of Disabled and Elderly Specific Needs Strategy, Vodacom
Karen leads the Disabled and Elderly Specific Needs Strategy for Vodacom South Africa, having set up this division ten years ago. She is passionate about digital inclusion and, as a Centre of Excellence within the Vodafone Group, her division plays a leading role in providing accessible mobile products and services for the disabled and elderly consumer segments. In 2015, Vodacom Specific Needs won the Award for Change Agents and Disability Champions amongst South Africans from the SA Disability Alliance.
Her qualifications include a Master’s Degree in (Industrial) Social Work from the University of Stellenbosch, and she is currently completing a PhD in digital inclusion for the disabled. She has delivered numerous keynote speeches, motivational speeches and business speeches, locally as well as internationally.
She founded the Women’s Achievement Network for Disability (WAND) in 2014 to promote the human rights of disabled women and girls. This provides a platform where disabled teenage girls have the opportunity to unlock their voices – increasing their knowledge and self-confidence which enable them to strive towards living full lives, eventually contributing on an economic and social level.
Karen participated as a keynote speaker about the digital inclusion of the disabled at the Annual AfricaCom Conference in South Arica in 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2017. She is the Chairperson of the Mobile Technology Forum, and a member of the ICT Disability Chamber of the Department of Telecommunications & Postal Services. She was the Deputy Chairperson of the SA Regulator’s Disability Consultative Forum from 2012 – 2015. Her disability initiatives have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, and she has conducted many TV and radio interviews.
Co-Founder & CEO, Awethu Project
Yusuf is the co-founder and CEO of the Awethu Project. In 2000, one of the top matriculants in Gauteng, he took up a scholarship at Harvard University where he studied Economics from 2001 to 2005 and graduated with Honours. Yusuf then moved to New York and Zurich to work in a volatility trading group for Credit Suisse Investment Bank. In 2007, he was awarded a South African-at-Large Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford, where he completed two Masters degrees, the first in Financial Economics and the second in African Studies (with the long-held goal of doing business in Africa in mind!).
At Oxford, the idea for the Awethu Project took root, inspired by the idea that South Africa profoundly under-utilizes our talent, and by a passion for fairness rooted in Yusuf’s mixed-race background. Yusuf entered the idea for Awethu into the largest business plan competition in the UK run by the Oxford Business School. The idea was one of nine finalists, creating the momentum for Yusuf to move home after graduation and put the idea to the test. Seven years later Awethu has grown from a R60K start-up operating out of Yusuf’s parents’ house into the most innovative SMME investment company in South Africa, with R450 million to invest in its mission. This mission is to use entrepreneurship to build a fair society in which all people can realize their potential.
To date, Awethu has incubated over 1000 entrepreneurs and created one of the lowest-cost and most scalable job creation solutions in South Africa. It is backed by individuals and institutions ranging from Archbishop Tutu to the South African Government and Discovery Holdings. Awethu has been recognized as a flagship project of the National Treasury’s Jobs Fund and aims to achieve positive systemic impact in South Africa. The company’s work has also been recognized globally by the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Echoing Green Foundation, and the Skoll World Forum.
Vice President (Group Sustainability: Health & EVP Support), AngloGold Ashanti
Brian Chicksen is the Vice President (Group Sustainability: Health & EVP Support) for AngloGold Ashanti. AngloGold Ashanti is a global gold mining business with operations in nine countries across four continents. Brian has worked for the past twenty years for AngloGold Ashanti Limited, in a variety of positions. Roles have included Managing Director of AngloGold Ashanti Health (Pty) Ltd, Vice President Safety Transformation and his current role which he has occupied from 2013.
He has a medical background as a Specialist Physician. His current accountabilities include leading the global health portfolio, as well as the design of the AngloGold Gold Ashanti sustainability strategic framework and enabling its implementation across the business.
Brian holds an Adjunct Professor appointment at the University of Cape Town and is a Visiting Fellow at Leeds University Business School. He has previously held non-executive positions on the Rand Mutual Assurance Board and the Hospice Association of the Witwatersrand (Chairman) and has been a ministerial appointee to the South African Safety in Mines Research Advisory Committee (SIMRAC).
CEO & Founder, Bakulu Power
A visionary with an eye for innovative, impactful project development, Lucia Bakulumpagi-Wamala’s novel approach to commercial/residential electrification, urban landscape improvement and educational R&D merges the worlds of art and energy. In a traditional and male-centric industry, Lucia’s focus is on developing and implementing collaborative renewable energy projects that engage communities, empower women and contribute to environmental sustainability. A natural connector, Lucia has bridged the fields of business, academia, politics, and arts in meaningful ways. As the Founder & CEO of Bakulu Power, a renewable energy company based in her native Uganda, Lucia’s goal is to power our tomorrow with projects and initiatives that foster social, environmental and economic development in her native country and throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2017, Forbes Magazine named Lucia one of the 30 most promising young entrepreneurs in Africa. Lucia holds an honors degree in Public Administration, with an option in Community Intervention from the University of Ottawa. Currently, Lucia is in the Senior Executive Program – Africa at Harvard Business School. Lucia has appeared on Africa News, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and has addressed the African Union and the most senior Africans within the United Nations (UN) system. Lucia is a thought-provoking presenter and panelist on topics concerning renewable energy, entrepreneurship, women in business and youth empowerment.
Co-Founder & MD, FSG Social Impact Advisors
Mark is co-founder and Managing Director of FSG and the author of influential publications on shared value, catalytic philanthropy, collective impact, strategic evaluation, and impact investing.
He oversees FSG’s consulting practice and helps drive the vision and growth of the firm. He has led consulting engagements across all of FSG’s impact areas, with particular emphasis on philanthropic strategy for private foundations, shared value initiatives, strategic evaluation, and impact investing. Mark also leads the research on many of FSG’s publications and publishes regularly in Harvard Business Review and Stanford Social Innovation Review. He is a frequent speaker around the world on topics in catalytic philanthropy, collective impact, creating shared value for corporations, new approaches to evaluation, impact investing, and social entrepreneurship.
Mark served for twelve years as President of Kramer Capital Management, a venture capital firm, and before that as an Associate at the law firm of Ropes & Gray in Boston, and Law Clerk to Judge Alvin B. Rubin, Fifth Circuit, US Court of Appeals.
A Shared Value strategy can be implemented in businesses across the spectrum, from finance and telecommunications to agriculture, mining and manufacturing – and beyond. The Africa Shared Value Summit is open to everyone who wishes to learn about and engage on Shared Value in Africa, including:
Mandy has more than 18 years’ experience across digital marketing and brand roles in Africa, with 7 years specifically focused on mobile with different Telco’s. She spent 5 years at DStv Mobile focused on developing portal content strategy in partnership with MTN, Vodacom and Glo Nigeria. Following this she helped inform the new MTN Group website, after aligning key business stakeholder goals with consumer expectations.
She has a good understanding of key markets across Africa, having focused on both the digital landscape and consumer insights in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola and Cote d’Ivoire.
As the Strategy Director at Liquorice, she is responsible for developing mobile-first channel strategies with user journeys across the digital path to purchase, for a number of Unilever brands in Africa, specifically OMO, Knorr, Lifebuoy, Bluebird, Vaseline and Axe. Utilizing cross-functional business thinking, she has both facilitated and contributed to integrated team workshops, adding strategic value in terms of thought leadership and consumer insights.
Julia has been working in the technology arena since 2008. She began her career at a Wireless Application Service Provider (WASP) start-up that specialised in mobile technology, where she worked as a business development manager and mobile strategist. Julia is an experienced project lead and strategist who has launched CRM programmes, developed digital native products and platforms, managed JSE listed companies’ online reputation as well as their digital advertising campaigns.
Thuli Magubane is a professional with a broad skills set. She has experience in management consulting, corporate finance and investment banking. Thuli is a graduate of UCT having majored in Political Science in 1999. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Management (PDM) from the Wits Business School. Thuli completed a Master’s Programme in Leadership and Strategy with the number one Business School in Europe, Instituto de Empresa (IE) Business School in Madrid, Spain.
She worked for boutique consultancies and corporates such as Absa Capital and Investec. Thuli is an entrepreneur who initially started with a business focused on Management Consulting. Thuli is very bright and knowledgeable; she has consulted for companies and organisations such as Sasol, Vodacom, Tata Africa, Group 5, SABC, City Of Johannesburg, Kangra Coal, ACSA and the Steve Biko Foundation to name a few. As a serial entrepreneur she has co-founded Meleah Investments an investment company and Big Value Vending which is focused in manufacturing transparent LCD Screens. Thuli is comfortable in front of corporate, government and non-profit sector audiences. She has extensive experience as an MC, Speaker and Facilitator. She is passionate about seeing women and the youth discover their life’s purposes and living them. Thuli is the former host of KayaBizz, the business show on KayaFM. She still hosts My Money and Me on KayaFM, a weekly show that deals with personal finance and investment matters. She was nominated for a Liberty Radio Award for the best Business and Finance Show in 2017. Through her work on KayaFM on the Bizz Boost initiative sponsored by Nedbank, Thuli has developed into a business guru offering SMME’s practical business advice. Thuli has also joined Making Moves as Business Coach. Making Moves is a TV show on SABC 1 focused on promoting entrepreneurship with over 1million viewers. Thuli also serves as a director of Benguela Global Fund Managers.
Ayabonga is a Johannesburg based development economist, columnist, radio presenter, photographer and activist. He is Managing Director of Xesibe Holdings (Pty) Ltd, a platform involved in advisory, facilitation and content development across a wide range of fields. He hosts #PowerHour on PowerFM, a political economy and policy show and writes a regular column for the Daily Maverick and the BusinessDay. Prior to this he was Economic Justice Manager at Oxfam South Africa (OZA) working on policy advocacy and research. He has also worked as an Associate Consultant at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a global development strategy consulting and policy advisory firm.
He has experience in economic research, policy and supply chain analysis, advocacy, development program design and M&E. He is also a co-founder of Rethink Africa NPC, a youth-led policy research, advocacy and advisory organisation. He has taken part in a wide range of research, advisory and policy engagements on development issues in agriculture, rail, urban design and labour market policy. His international experience on issues of sustainability and business includes conducting primary research with farmer organizations in Indonesia, for a multilateral client. He has also conducted primary research in Nigeria, for a market entry strategy on behalf of a global pharmaceuticals manufacturer. Ayabonga recently sat on the National Minimum Wage Advisory Panel appointed by the Deputy President and Nedlac, which advised on the R20/hour proposal. He holds an M. Com (Cum Laude) in Development Theory and Policy from Wits.
Arif Neky is the National Coordinator for the SDG Philanthropy Platform in Kenya, and Advisor, Strategic Partnerships and Philanthropy at the UN Kenya.
The blend of Arif’s extensive experience across social development and private enterprise across three continents provides a valuable addition to our UN Country Team. His leadership in social development, enterprise and financial services includes forging partnerships across philanthropic and non-profit organizations with governments, bilateral/multilateral donors and private sector.
As the former Regional CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) East Africa for over 13 years, Arif was directly responsible for a wide portfolio of programs in education, health, rural development and civil society enhancement with a team of over 250 staff to successfully impact development outcomes with many of the poorest communities in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
With AKF, Arif also nurtured non-profit networks and philanthropic institutions. He helped in the establishment of the Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF), was the Founding Co- Chairman of the East African Association of Grantmakers (EAAG), and recently – as its Founding Vice Chairman – helped in creating Viwango, a new flagship Kenyan organization to promote voluntary certification of CSOs in Kenya.
He has engaged actively in Education and Health Sector planning and was the first Chairman of the CIDA Kenya Partners Forum. Arif was previously the Regional Representative Eastern Africa for the French & International Bank – Société Générale where his achievements included consortium financing of selected development and infrastructure projects up to 250m French Francs per annum.
As company spokesperson, Motshidisi is responsible for Nestle’s reputation and perception management. She also manages Nestle’s B-BBEE strategy and development, developing mandates for each of the elements for the respective working groups and communicating with stakeholders.
An alumna of both the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Stellenbosch Business School, she began her career in journalism, writing for publications including The Star and The Cape Times. She then moved into the communications field, working in a diverse array of fields including entertainment (Multichoice) and government (Gauteng Department of Sports Gauteng Youth Commission).
She has worked for Nestle since 2008, and has been in her current role since 2014. She is passionate about coaching, mentorship and building capacity towards the realization of goals and objectives.
Eusebius McKaiser is a political analyst, broadcaster, philosophy lecturer and writer, based in Johannesburg. His academic background is in moral philosophy, having studied and lectured in the philosophy department at Rhodes University, before doing research in moral philosophy as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He remains an associate of the Wits Centre for Ethics.
As a broadcaster, Eusebius has previously presented Interface on SABC3 before hosting radio shows. He anchored Talk At Nine on Talk Radio 702 and ‘Power Talk With Eusebius McKaiser’ on Power 98.7 and presented the programme, ‘Meet the Media with Eusebius McKaiser on eNCA.’ He is now back on Radio 702 at 9h00 from Monday to Fridays as host of ‘The Eusebius McKaiser Talk Show’
He has written extensive social and political comment in the local and international print media, including previously carrying a column in the New York Times, and currently a column syndicated across Independent Media. He also appeared on many international broadcast platforms including the BBC, Sky, CNN, including Amanpour.
Before his media career took off, McKaiser worked as an associate at globally renowned strategy consulting firm, McKinsey and Co.
Eusebius is a former national and World Masters Debate Champion. He coaches debate and public speaking, and is also a regular MC, facilitator and keynote speaker on the conference circuit. He has three best-selling books out, A Bantu In My Bathroom & Could I Vote DA? And his third book has been released to immediate critical acclaim – Run, Racist, Run: Journeys into the heart of racism
At just 23, Sydney was named the winner of the SABC1 reality show One Day Leader. The show identifies young leaders, and encourages the pursuit of innovative ways to address societal issues.
He is committed to improving society, while influencing other young people to do the same. As founder of a community outreach youth movement called The Ave-Lanche, he works closely with local youth movements such as YB20 among others. Sydney is also a radio personality, and can currently be heard on PowerFM.
Having studied at North West University, where he began a Law degree before switching to his true passion, Education, Sydney is a seasoned debater and public speaker. He is currently in the process of registering an NGO called Little Big Steps, which aims to train young people in skills such as leadership, debating and publics peaking.
CEO of Discovery Health’s founders, Barry currently serves as Group Executive Director responsible for International Strategy at the Group level, and Chief Executive Officer of Vitality Group, Discovery’s international ventures arm.
He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a BSc degree majoring in Actuarial Science and Mathematical Statistics. In 1990, he was admitted as a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries (Edinburgh).
Deirdre recently joined Nando’s as the Head of Brand Experience from The Walt Disney Company after 5 years as the Head of Marketing and Communications for all of TWDC marketing for South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa.
Her integrated marketing communications company The Purple Apricot PTY Ltd. which she started in 2001 catered for many top brands for nearly a decade including Steers, Debonaires, King Consolidated Holdings, KFC, and Microsoft Channel Partners to name a few. She even developed her own cosmetics brand DV8 [expressions] which is a luxury brand centred around empowerment for women – a topic close to Deirdre’s heart.
Deirdre is passionate about sharing the knowledge she has accumulated over more than 25 years’ experience in the advertising, marketing and public relations industries. To this end she is well experienced on the seminar circuit on topics including the integration of PR, advertising and marketing; Customer Service and how to deal with difficult customers. She has also published articles on marketing, advertising and communications in the SA Finance Investment and Business Annual, and journals like Your Business. In 2009 Deirdre was nominated as “Inspiring Woman 2009″ by a network of 30 000 women and has also been a key speaker at various networks and conferences..
Barbara is the Senior Executive Manager: Communication & Marketing at the Gautrain Management Agency and has been involved in communication for the past thirty years, in a training, research and a practical capacity.
Her expertise is government communication, international relations, communication research and the implementation of stakeholder mobilisation and transformation campaigns. Barbara is part of the Gautrain Management Agency’s senior management team and had been part of the project since it’s inception in 2000 and is specifically responsible for its communication and marketing.
She holds a Doctorate in Business Management. The title of her doctoral thesis is The Search for Communication Equilibrium through Political Public Relations. Barbara is a senior member of the Communication & Marketing industry in South Africa and frequently delivers papers at national and international conferences.
Akiva has been growing businesses, from Fortune 500s to tech startups, for over 20 years. As the regional director for Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) in Sub-Saharan Africa, Akiva works with public and private businesses in over 20 countries throughout Africa, a hyper-growth continent. He enables these businesses to develop their capacity to achieve more than imagined by shifting their beliefs, thoughts and behaviours. He serves on CCL’s global innovation team re-inventing leadership and strategy models so that businesses can thrive in turbulent markets.
He is driven by a sense of urgency and purpose to turn Africa’s biggest threats into opportunities. To this end, he works with diverse stakeholders (from NGOs, equity investors to Fortune 500s) across Africa, co-creating shared values that galvanize economic growth.
As a regular keynote speaker, his most popular topics include: Innovation Myths; Collaborative Strategy; Leadership; Future Readiness; Profit with Purpose. In 2016 he presented in Asia, Europe, North America and concluded with a TED Talks in South Africa titled “Embracing the Inevitable Future”. He is working toward a PhD titled “Antifragile leaders” researching new practices and leadership behaviours that succeed (get stronger) in an unstable global economy.
Akiva’s mantra: Think like a scientist, act like an entrepreneur and live into a bold vision that changes our planet.
Tiekie is an activist who believes in the importance of profit with purpose, she is a trainer of young entrepreneurs in operational and financial capacity building, an SMME Business Consultant, a Vega Guest lecturer, a CSI Awards judge, a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) stakeholder, a CSI and sustainability strategist; a Loeries judge and the founder and CEO of Shift Social Development. Tiekie holds an Honours degree in Brand Leadership from Vega.
She spent 22 years in the advertising industry and in that time she held the position of Group Operating Systems Director at Net#work BBDO as well as having the role of General Manager at Proximity#ttp. In 2008 she took on the position as COO of Kagiso TV & Communications where she focused on changing behaviour through social development projects in marginalised communities. She founded Tiekie Barnard Consultancy in 2012 an effort to ensure that more businesses align their strategy with the practice of doing good while doing good business.”
Tiekie is the owner and founder of Tiekie Barnard Consultancy (TB Consult) that has recently gone through a name change and shareholder change to become Shift Social Development. A majority black female owned business, Shift, operating with creating shared value as its core focus.
Zoya Mabuto is the Founder and Managing Director of ZoyaSpeaks – the platform she uses to share African stories of hope and her ‘Africans solving African problems’ model. She is of the view that ‘no-one is coming to help us’ and as such we have the responsibility to build the Africa we envision.
She is an inspirational speaker, MC, and an expert public speaking coach with more than twenty years’ experience. Her speaking career highlights include representing the African continent at the World Championships of Public Speaking in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2015 and being invited to participate in the TED Worldwide Talent Search 2012: The Young, The Wise, The Undiscovered.
Cecilia is an Economist and Urban & Regional Planner with over twenty-five years of progressive work experience in urban environmental management, policy development, analysis and implementation. Seventeen years of her career have been spent working with the United Nations in programme development and management and inter agency cooperation.
In the last four years she was tasked with establishing a strategic presence for the UNEP in the Southern Africa region and tasked with setting up a new country office based in Pretoria. Her current role has entailed political and policy analysis, developing and monitoring environmental and relevant political, economic and social development trends in the Southern Africa region to generate knowledge, information and early warning for policy and decision making in order to incorporate them into the UNEP’s policy and programme development. Strategic partnerships with Regional Economic Commissions– SADC, COMESA and NEPAD and actively participating in thematic and technical teams, providing substantive policy support to regional, sub-regional and trans-boundary political processes are central to her current role.
Born in Milan, Maria studied Foreign Languages and Literature at Silvio Pellico School for Interpreters and then at IULM University. She worked for Edison, Ferrovie dello Stato, Trenitalia before joining Enel in September 2007.
She has since been in charge of Executive Education and the Cross Cultural Centre, International Internal Communication and in January 2012 she was appointed Head of External Relations of Enel Green Power, managing at an international level both Communications and Sustainability activities where she began the deployment of the Creating Shared Value (CSV) approach inside the company.
Since October 2014, she has led the Sustainability Projects and Practice Sharing Unit, within the Innovation & Sustainability Function of Enel Holding, taking charge among others, of the CSV deployment throughout the business value chain across the entire Group: a sustainability model embedded into business which allows the business to increase its competitive advantage and capture new opportunities which tackle social needs.
Educated in Johannesburg, Derek completed his Bachelor of Commerce Degree and his Bachelor of Accounting Degree at the University of the Witwatersrand. Derek qualified as a Chartered Accountant (SA) in 1996 after completing articles with Ernst & Young.
In October 1996, Derek joined the TBWA Group and, after spending 9 years in various commercial and operational roles in the Group, Derek was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer in September 2010 and charged with leadership, growth & development of TBWA’s business in Africa.
An experienced executive who has a passion for people and subscribes to leading from the front, Derek looks to combines well-informed business strategy with rigorous implementation in order to achieve impactful outcomes. Having been active in building networks in Africa for the past 10 years, Derek believes that Africa represents one of our greatest opportunities for learning and growth.
Derek is married with two young children and, in his spare time, can be found testing his legs in the bike lane that runs through the Cradle of Humankind.
Genevieve is Founder of 0TenTic8, a FinTech venture aiming to empower agricultural producers by democratizing their access to financial services and improving the transparency of the supply chain. Their first product, AgriLedger, a distributed Cryptoledger Mobile App that acts as an incorruptible source of truth. AgriLedger won the special prize from Singularity University at the recent FinTechJam in London.
Genevieve serves as the vice-chair for the techUK Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) Working Group. The DLT Working Group will provide strategic direction for all techUK activities related to blockchain and DLT. It will consider what action can be taken to industrialise, support blockchain technology readiness, help organisations with adoption and consider use cases not limited to financial services but a wide range of other sectors, including, the Internet of Things, smart energy & utilities, smart contracts and government.
FinTech is about problem solving, rethinking old problems and building the technology to make things easier, faster and less costly. Genevieve’s attitude towards change and new technologies are reflected in her successful journey and her recent selection as a finalist in the Women in IT Awards 2016 in the category ‘Security Champion’. Genevieve continues to gather additional recognitions for her work, she was recently recognized as of the Women in Fintech PowerList 2016 published by Innovate Finance.
Having deep understanding of the moving parts and pain points in the financial sector, Genevieve’s ambition is to collaborate on and build innovative solutions to address inefficiencies and obstacles towards the simplification of the customer journeys.
Contact details:
Twitter: @ginouinlondon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GinouInLondon
Christelle Kwizera, 23, is a mechanical engineer and social entrepreneur from Rwanda. She founded and currently she heads Water Access Rwanda, a social enterprise that is providing simple, affordable and durable water solutions to Rwandans while employing young people to be the solution providers.
WARwanda has provided water to 40 communities and offers services and products in the sector of sustainable access to clean water for the BoP markets of Rwanda, Burundi and DRC. Christelle graduated in magna cum laude in Mechanical Engineering at the Oklahoma Christian University in the USA. She is a passionate activist involved in youth advocacy and activism with several initiatives. She travels all over Africa to empower grassroots drilling enterprises to professionalize their work through inexpensive geo-surveying, a domain she has just published a peer-reviewed research paper. She works with Water4, a leading US NGO that supports manual drilling enterprises all over Africa, through managing logistics for their teams in Francophone Africa. A devoted believer with many talents and gifts, Christelle lives to see God’s plan fulfilled in her life.
Sanda Ojiambo is the Head of Corporate Responsibility at Safaricom, where she manages the Social Innovation, Sustainability, Environmental Management, Social Policy and the Corporate Social Investment portfolios. Sanda has over 9 years’ experience in multi sectoral policy and development work in the NGO sector working extensively throughout Saharan Africa; and seven years’ corporate sector experience in Kenya.
She previously worked as the Director of Programmes at the Africa Regional Office of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, where she provided technical and strategic leadership for the development and implementation of women’s health programmes in over 40 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Sanda has also worked at CARE International, UNDP Somalia and Planned Parenthood Federation of America- International; where she has managed a range of development projects including community based health and education interventions; NGO capacity building, women’s empowerment and sexual and reproductive health.
She has a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Development Economics. Sanda is passionate about contributing to Kenya’s development agenda and the evolving and growing role of technology in providing socio-economic development solutions.
Under the direction and leadership of Nonnie, the Gauteng Convention and Events Bureau is tasked with the marketing, promotion, fostering and development of business tourism and events in the province.
Nonnie has 21 years of experience in marketing across several sectors providing strategic guidance and direction on how to optimise marketing, communication channels and social media methods as effective delivery systems for profiling and promoting a Destination. She served as Senior Manager for Marketing and Sales at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and Senior Manager Strategic Marketing for Standard Bank Corporate and Investment Banking and Transnet respectively.
Nonnie holds a Secondary teacher’s diploma, a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting, she also holds an MDP and an MBA in Strategic Marketing. Nonnie served on the board of Cape Town Tourism, SAA, South African Travel Centre and was chairperson of Airchefs. She also served as Deputy Chairperson of the International Conference and Convention Association (ICCA Africa) Chapter and currently sits on the board of the Southern African Association for conference industry.
Doug has served in his current position since late 2015 where he is responsible for all components of the marketing function for restaurants in South Africa and neighbouring territories.
Prior to that Doug held the position of Marketing Executive of Ster-Kinekor Theatres, overseeing all marketing activities across South Africa and African cinemas. Before joining Ster-Kinekor, he worked at Cadbury South Africa and Snackworks (AVI), stewarding many of South Africa’s favourite consumer brands to record market share highs under his leadership.
Doug has received more than 30 international and national marketing and advertising awards most recently a Grand Prix Loerie and three gold Loerie Awards for Ster-Kinekor “#Open Eyes” campaign.
In 2016 the Loeries rated Doug as one of the top marketing ambassadors in South Africa. In 2015 Doug was recognized by Destiny Man Magazine as one of South Africa’s ‘Young and Powerful’ industry leaders. In early 2014 Doug was named one of the “Top 40 Under 40” in South African media personnel by The Media publication. His contribution to the marketing community is also evident in the fact that he has formally lectured and guest lectures on various marketing topics at The University of the Witwatersrand, University of Johannesburg, and The AAA School of Advertising.
Doug is a Wits graduate and holds a B.Com degree (Marketing & Business Finance) and B.Com Honours Degree (Marketing), both degrees he passed Cum Laude and at the top of his class (top marketing student and top Honours post graduate in 2004).
Gordon Cook is a co-founder and School Navigator for Vega School of Brand Leadership. He is a regular lecturer on executive and professional management programmes at the UCT Graduate School of Business. Gordon has helped design and facilitates Creativity and Innovation workshops for the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS).
He sits on various judging panels such as Business Arts South Africa (BASA) and the Loeries. After graduating with a focus on modern literature Gordon launched his career in advertising as a copywriter. He proceeded to consult to the marketing and sponsorship industries both in South Africa and United States.
He furthered his studies with a Higher Diploma in Adult Education from Wits and was one of the first registered Chartered Marketers in South Africa. He is listed as one of The Most Influential Advertising practitioners in South Africa in the Financial Mail AdFocus 2006 and listed in the Top 10 Academic category of The Annual 2010 that covers advertising media, marketing and branding.
His new project is Stir4Change – a Pty Limited company all about brand activism and starting fresh conversations in companies so that they may become more human-centric.
David is a marketing and brand strategy practitioner. With a deep knowledge in research-based insight, data analytics and strategy development.across many different markets and industry sectors, he has led projects for Absa/Barclays, Airtel, Bank of America Merril Lynch, BMW, DStv, Liberty, Merck Serono, Nedbank, Old Mutual, Primedia Group, Telkom, Standard Bank and Virgin Active.
David is a serial entrepreneur. Agency schooled at Grey and TBWA he has been involved in digital since 1995 as Strategy Director at tool (TBWA / Hunt Lascaris), MD of tinderbox and as global head of eBusiness at De Beers. Prior to joining Yellowwood, David was MD at Enterprise IG (Brand Union) and principal consultant at boutique marketing strategy company Everystone in London.
David cares passionately about deepening the marketing industry’s thought leadership and developing business and marketing models that create shared value and drive growth across the African context.
David is a prior Chairman of the South African Communication Design Council, the Digital Interactive Media Association and a prior Director of the Brand Council of South Africa. He has a BCom in Marketing & Business Administration and an Honours Degree in Advanced Strategic Marketing & Business Economics.
Before joining LeapFrog, Patrick was Partner at Kingdom Africa Management, a pan–African focused private equity investment firm with more than $600 million in assets under management. Here, Patrick managed multi–million dollar investments from sourcing through to leading successful exits, working across diverse sectors including infrastructure, financial services, consumer products and agriculture. Prior to this, Patrick worked in the investment banking division at Bear Sterns & Co in New York, where he managed billion–dollar transactions.
Patrick holds an MBA from FUQUA School of Business at Duke University and Warwick Business School (Distinction). He also has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of Cape Town, where he graduated first in class.
Dr. Sara Saeed Khurram is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sehat Kahani. Sehat Kahani is a social impact initiative of Community Innovation Hub based in Pakistan. Sehat Kahani works on improving basic health care in communities through a spectrum of services focused on primary health care consultation, health awareness and health counselling.
Dr. Sara Saeed Khurram has won notable awards such as CRDF Global, Ashoka Changemakers, ISIF Asia, the Unilever Sustainable living Young Entrepreneurs Awards and the Unicef- Global Goal Campaigner Award 2016 for her role formerly with doctHERs. She has been part of a well-known accelerator in Pakistan; Invest2 Innovate. She is also a part of regional Acumen fellowship cohort 2016.
Dr. Sara Saeed Khurram has been born and bred in Karachi. She has done her MBBS from DOW University of Health Sciences. Currently, she is enrolled in the Health Policy Management Programme at The Aga Khan University of Health sciences.
Dr. Sara Saeed Khurram enjoys Travel, Music but majority of her personal time is dedicated towards her 3 year old daughter!
Dimakatso is currently serving in the position of CEO of Women of Value SA, as well as Chairperson of Women in Tourism for the SADC Region. She holds an honorary doctorate in Theology for community capacity building programmes and social upliftment in addition to a degree in Informatics from UNISA.
She chairs the Women in Tourism Steering Committee for the SADC region under the formation of RETOSA (Regional Tourism Organisation in Southern Africa). The committee ensures that Member States are represented and women empowerment programmes are implemented across the Region. She is also a Chairperson for the Gauteng Cooperatives Provincial Working Group under the Gauteng Department of Economic Development, the group ensures the development of cooperatives within Gauteng. She’s Managing Director of Nhlankanipho Consulting, a manufacturing and consulting business. Dimaktso also mentors on the Gauteng Premier’s Office’s Young Woman Development programme.
Ryan is a management consultant specialising in corporate societal strategy. He works with executives to measure and articulate the socio-economic value of their company to society; to design strategies of shared value; to respond strategically to public policy pressures; and to build partnerships and manage dialogue with important groups.
His clients include Anglo American, Standard Bank, De Beers, Liberty, Momentum, Growthpoint, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and Emirates Airlines. His previous public sector clients include the National Treasury, GEPF, dti, UK Government, and World Bank Group.
Ryan holds a BCom in Economics and LLB from University of KwaZulu-Natal, and MSc in International Politics (cum laude) from the University of Edinburgh. Before joining Genesis he was legal counsel at JP Morgan.
He is the only Africa-based accredited consultant of the Shared Value Initiative.
Ryan is visiting lecturer on Shared Value strategy, and business-government relations at GIBS.
Kirsten hails from an environmental science background and after a number of years in the sustainability consulting industry in a large international engineering consultancy she now works as a specialist at Woolworths corporate head office in Cape Town. She is a part of the core team coordinating and embedding the Good Business Journey Strategy (including inherent plans and targets) across the business including corporate and store operations as well as the supply chain.
She has a passion for innovative ideas and enabling the creation of shared value for the environment and people as well as understanding how we can continue to evolve within the earth’s limited sphere.
A software developer turned entrepreneur and innovator, Thuli utilised her 17 year technical and development background to develop the MeMeZa Community Safety Alarm which utilises a rich back-end that allows for valuable data and intelligence to be captured in real time, the Memeza Community Safety Alarm won the GovTech ICT Award of 2016, and was a finalist in the TT100 awards.
Corporate Telecommunications Executive, Elmarie has over 14 years of experience managing operations and related sales channels, with expertise in developing client services and streamlining delivery of products and services. Elmarie lost her sister to Gender Based
Violence and this is part of the reason she teamed up with Memeza through the Vodacom Change the World programme.
Nthabiseng is the CEO at Lempe Advisory Services, a consulting company offering Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE)/transformation solutions. Nthabiseng has a National Diploma in Small Business Management from the University of Johannesburg.
She has worked as a B-BBEE professional for over 6 years, first as a Verification Analyst specializing in assessing complex ownership structures and later as a B-BBEE consultant.
Her practice was sparked by her passion for small business compliance which has a direct impact on the successful running of business enterprises in South Africa.
Miles is the Founder & CEO of Liquorice, one of Africa’s leading digital marketing agencies and part of the DigitasLBi network.
Over the past 25 years as a management consultant, client and agency manager/owner, Miles worked with major brands all over the world helping them harness mobile, web CRM, social networking and direct marketing.
With a post graduate work at University of Southern California and the London School of Economics, and a career involving work in the UK, Europe, Japan, US and South Africa, Miles is a true global citizen. Miles had senior management roles in some of the industry’s leading business including: Red Cell London (CEO) — WPP’s most creative international agency, Grey Direct (MD), Lowe Group (Planning Director), Seeboard (Managing Director) and Price Waterhouse Coopers (Management Consultant).
In 2014, Miles sold Liquorice to Publics Groupe and aligned the agency to Digitas LBi giving the network leadership in Africa. Key clients Miles has advised include, P&G, Mars, Diagio, Sainsbury’s, GSK, Oracle, Microsoft, SAB Miller, Pioneer Foods, BAT, Distell, Lloyds Bank, Sainsburys, Morgan Stanley, Porsche Cars and Lexus Cars.
Helen Botes has been at the helm of the Joburg Property Company since 2008. She has successfully repositioned the company by aggressively implementing the JPC Turnaround Strategy. In 2012 the City transferred the Metro Trading Company as well as its entire Facilities Management and Maintenance to her portfolio where she managed the integration of these businesses to the JPC.
The company continues to post strong operational and financial performance. Some of the projects delivered during her tenure include the Soweto Theatre, the R1.3 billion Newtown Junction Mall, the Office Space Optimisation (OSO) programme budgeted at R12 billion. The JPC is the first municipality to deliver a fully reconciled asset register in the country of approximately 30 000 land parcels.
Ms Botes developed and managed the transactional relationship for the City, which included fifteen bank accounts with various financial institutions. She also led the management, the compilation and consolidation of the prospectus of the City’s first listed bonds on the Bond Exchange of South Africa which raised R1 billion for the City. She also led the prospectus of the City’s first Domestic Medium Term Note.
Ms Botes holds a Masters in Business, and various financial qualifications. She is strongly committed to continuous education for her and her staff, as well as the transformation of the property industry.
Starting off his career in developing environmental public policy Thomas was instrumental in rooting environment, and specifically sensitive environments, into framework environmental legislation. By ensuring the inclusion of the Environmental Management Framework (EMF) concept in the provisions of the National Environmental Management Act.
The strategic nature and usefulness of the EMFs were recognised as an essential spatial tool to inform national and regional development planning. This afforded Thomas the unique opportunity to participate in influencing parliament and the National Growth and Development Strategy along an environmentally responsible growth trajectory. Participating in the strategic environmental dialogue of a new and emerging democracy.
With a background powerfully embedded in environmental policy and impact management, he entered the private sector quagmire. For the next decade he built up the environmental division of the then Africon, now Aurecon – one of the most prominent road engineers in Africa.
Having been somewhat removed from influencing the strategic environmental conversation, he took a tactical position at EY responsible for developing the environmental practice in Africa under the Climate Change and Sustainability Service line. This has opened the strategic environmental discussion with corporate South Africa, on matters of environmental stewardship, resource use and security, and the ‘social license to operate” Pandora’s box.
JJ is an urbanist from Johannesburg. He founded Bjala (which means to plant) in 2012 to provide holistic urban solutions to the challenges presented by urbanism, specifically those found in South Africa.
With an initial focus on low-income housing, JJ and his team have been pioneering the idea that social profits and financial profits are not mutually exclusive in the built environment sector. As a result, Bjala has developed the citizenship model.
He is a director on the board of the Bjala Foundation, a non-profit entity focused on community based urban programs in Johannesburg. JJ also serves as a director in Streetlight Schools, a Johannesburg based primary education non-profit.
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Michelle Constant has been the CEO at Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) for eight years. BASA is a 20-year-old Public-Private Partnership between the South African corporate sector and the Department of Arts and Culture. It is recognized as a change-maker and connector, with the aim of developing strategic partnerships between business and the arts sector in South Africa and the SADC region.
The BASA focus remains on Shared Value as a business and arts opportunity, as well as the use of Arts-Based Initiatives and Intelligence in the corporate sector and broader society. This focus is premised on the belief that the arts are valuable to society both intrinsically and economically.
Michelle serves as a non-executive director on the Board of South African Tourism. She writes a monthly column for different national newspapers and magazines focusing on arts policy, and the value of arts in broader society, including cultural tourism. In addition, she continues to host a weekly Lifestyle Show on national radio station SAFM.
She was an Ampersand Foundation Fellow in NYC in 2012, and in 2014 she graduated cum laude from the University of Pretoria Business School’s Social Entrepreneurship Programme. She also participated in the newly established GIBS Shared Value Workshop.
In 2015 Michelle won the CEO Magazine “Most Influential Women in Government and Business (Arts and Culture) in the SADC Region” Award, and in 2016 she was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the Government of France for her work in culture and the arts.
Recipient of the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 award in the Social Entrepreneur category in 2016, Gavin is a long term advocate and activist against hunger and malnutrition, he is the first Canadian to receive the William J. Clinton Award for international work against hunger and is the inaugural recipient of the international Michaelle Jean Emergency Hunger Relief Award. In 2015 Conscious Company Magazine featured Gavin as one of the seventeen ‘Rising Social Entrepreneurs’ of the year. In 2016 he was awarded with the Social Innovator of the Year Award from the Lewis Institute at Babson College.
Dr. Gavin Armstrong is committed impact entrepreneur. He is currently serving as the Founder and President of Lucky Iron Fish™, a social enterprise attempting to alleviate iron deficiency around the world using a simple health innovation. Through this role he was awarded the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 in the Social Entrepreneur category in 2016.
Gavin holds an honours bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Guelph. During this time he was elected as the Communications and Corporate Affairs Commissioner for the student union, served on the Senate, the Board of Governors, the Presidential Task Force on Sustainability, the BetterPlanet Project steering committee and cabinet (the capital campaign of the University), and as the student co-chair for the United Way Campaign.
He is also a 2015 fellow at the Unreasonable Institute in Boulder Colorado and has a PhD in biomedical science from the University of Guelph.
Gary Greyling is the Managing Director at Mpowered Business Solutions, one of the leading providers of technology-based B-BBEE solutions in South Africa. Gary has a B.Sc in Software Engineering and spent most of his career building systems aimed at helping companies improve their engagement in Economic Development policies.
He is passionate about the power that statutory policy has to change lives, and believes that with the right tooling and mindset, business can drive happiness into the lives of all it touches.
Claire founded Reel Gardening in 2009 with her partner Sean Blanckenberg. Having obtained her Masters in Architecture from the University of Pretoria in 2010, Claire attributes her business management style to the creative thinking skills she learnt while becoming an Architect.
An innovator and an entrepreneur at heart, she has an ability to look at processes and products and see a simpler, better method of getting the job done. At the age of 16, she applied these skills to the process of vegetable gardening and subsequently invented and patented a new process for planting seed known today as Reel Gardening.
Claire is an Ambassador for the Richard Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship as well as a regular speaker on social entrepreneurship at both the Wits Business School and the Gordon Institute of Business Science.
Meenakshi has been lecturing at the School of Economic & Business Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She has more than 11 years of experience in research and academics from Delhi University and Amity University She has worked with agencies such as The World Bank, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India and NCERT (National Council of Educational Research & Training).
Her research interests include the areas of rural marketing, creativity & technology innovation, inter-disciplinary research including sustainability issues especially at the bottom of pyramid, buying behaviour and psychographics of consumers with an emphasis on trends and contemporary issues.
She has participated in numerous national and international seminars and conferences and conceptualized various committees for bringing academic and institutional excellence. She has several research publications both national and international. Meenakshi holds a Master’s Degree, in Resource Management and Extension from Delhi University, India and also holds a higher post-graduation from Michigan State University, Michigan, USA.
She is currently finalizing her PhD in the area of business model innovation and sustainable development, at the University of the Witwatersrand.
As Director, Focal Point South Africa for the Global Reporting Initiative, Douglas is responsible for advancing the GRI’s mission in priority countries namely Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa.
Before taking up this role he served on the GRI Stakeholder Council for 5 years, and the G4 Supply Chain Working Group. Douglas has more than 10-years work experience on implementing multi-stakeholder based sustainability interventions in Africa. Douglas holds tertiary qualifications in Environmental Management, and Applied Physics with research in renewable energy, and professional qualifications in ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.
He was a key resource in setting up the Corporate Responsibility Forum Liberia and Responsible Business Initiative- DRC. Douglas was a member of the ISO 26000 Social Responsibility guidance standard expert group, country representative for Air Pollution Information Network Africa, Agribusiness Accountability Initiative Africa Forum, and Juror on the SEED Initiative for action on Sustainable Development and Green Economy.
Marcel has been active in the digital design and communication industry for over 18 years. He currently leads Accenture’s Design & Innovation capability in South Africa.
His current practice and interests lie in fields of design strategy and related methodologies, and the fostering of design lead innovation and leadership within large organisations.
Business woman, entrepreneur and founding member of HAPPY WITH A PURPOSE and MINA menstrual cups. In 2013, she was one of 300 women chosen from thousands of applicants to participate in the Goldman Sachs 10 000 Women Empowerment Programme at the prestigious Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), in Johannesburg South Africa.
Zaakira was also awarded the “WOMAN IN BUSINESS 2014/2015” award by the South African Turkish Business Association of South Africa (SATBA) for her efforts to uplift communities.