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Mothomang Diaho
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National Programme
Manager, HIV/AIDS and Poverty Programme, UNDP. Mothomang
is a medical doctor with diplomas in child health, tropical
medicine and hygiene, public health, and she also holds a Masters
in Business. Mothomang was educated at the University of Adelaide,
(Australia), the South Africa College of Medicine, University
of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), and Harvard Business School
(U.S). Following her business degree, she gained management
experience by consulting with Abt Associates and working on
the Leadership Development Programme at Sasol. Mothomang first
developed an awareness of, and interest in, the field of HIV&AIDS
care when she was working in Swaziland in the late 1980s. There,
the epidemic became a vivid reality to her, and from then on,
her passion. Her approach to her work includes an ethic of sending
a message of hope in everything her office undertakes, with
an effort to avoid negativity and despair. Mothomang also has
extensive clinical and management experience, including serving
as a medical officer in Soweto, Alexandra, Cape Town, Swaziland,
and Lesotho. Mothomang's personal qualities are of someone who
is soft-spoken and thoughtful. She is constantly seeking a balance
between her professional life, her family, her community, and
her spiritual self. Mothomang believes in building and growing
human capacity among young leaders, and she mentors a number
of young people. Her recent training on emotional intelligence
and leadership, through both the UNDP and Gestalt Institute
of Cleveland, have equipped her with the tools to confront development
challenges. She serves as a Member of The Association of Right
to Care, and sits on the selection panel of the Harvard South
Africa Fellowship Programme. Mothomang is most proud of her
role as a mother. |
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Roger Dickinson
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National Programme
Manager, HOPE Worldwide. Born and educated in Johannesburg,
Roger Dickinson is the National Program Manager for HIV/AIDS
prevention at HOPE Worldwide South Africa, a leading NGO in
the HIV/AIDS field. Roger worked with faith based organisations
in four African countries before joining HOPE Worldwide in 2001
as a Community Mobilisation Coordinator for the Orphan and Vulnerable
Children Program. Roger has also been involved in facilitating
the creation and operations of large community based networks
of schools and FBOs responding to HIV/AIDS. He created and developed
the innovative HIV-Competence Framework currently being rolled
out across Africa. He enjoys writing and reading and is in the
process of publishing a children's book aimed at creating a
unique African mythology. |
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Adrian Enthoven
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Chief Executive
Officer, Spier Group. Adrian Enthoven is an Executive Director
of Capricorn Ventures International, an international investment
banking group focused on insurance, financial services, restaurants,
leisure, and wine. He is also the CEO of the Spier Group,
managing the South African based tourism, property and wine
assets in the group. In the early nineties, he worked as a facilitator
in the Metropolitan Chamber, a multi-party negotiating forum
responsible for the democratization of Greater Johannesburg.
During 1995, he worked as a special advisor to the Elections
Task Group, a national body responsible for co-ordinating the
first non-racial, local government elections in South Africa.
He was educated at Oxford University (BA Hons in Politics, Philosophy,
and Economics, and PhD in Political Science). He is passionate
about the challenges of corporate citizenship/responsible business
and the African Renaissance. He is married with four children
and lives in Stellenbosch on the Western Cape. |
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Managing Director, Tour Africa Investments/Non-Executive
Director, African Retail Experience. Karl Flowers early
education was marked by a shift from disillusionment to the
pursuit of excellence inspired by principled, un-limited,
and selfless community leaders. He qualified as a chartered
accountant in 1991 and is a past Vice-Chairperson (Western
Cape) and National Executive Member of the Association for
the Advancement of Black Accountants of South Africa. He worked
as a management consultant for Deloitte & Touche and Bain
& Company in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Dallas, and Chicago.
In 1998 he founded Pyxis Capital Management, a firm focusing
on evaluating private equity opportunities and providing strategy-consulting
services in the tourism, banking, oil and media sectors. He
is the Managing Director of Tour Africa Investments, and is
a non-executive director of African Retail Experience, both
of which have a tourism focus. He is currently on a "part-time"
sabbatical: he is a trustee of an education trust, attends
yoga and ceramic classes, travels and reads widely.
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Ferial Haffajee
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Editor in Chief, Mail & Guardian.
Ferial Haffajee assumed the position of Editor in Chief of Mail
& Guardian (M&G) in February 2004. She is the newspaper's fifth
editor, and the first woman to rise to that position. Previously,
she worked at Financial Mail as Senior Editor responsible for
political reporting she covered the presidency and the tripartite
alliance. She has also worked at the SABC (South African Broadcasting
Corporation) as a radio producer and television reporter. But
the pen has always beckoned - she cut her teeth at the M&G as
a cub reporter and served the newspaper as Media Editor, Economics
Writer and Associate Editor before assuming the hot seat. Her
part time passions include training young journalists, political
risk analysis, and training various organisations in media skills.
She is a board member of the Health-E News Agency and of M&G
Publishing, and a BA graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand.
Ferial is a judge for the annual Mondi magazine awards, the
Vuka advertising awards, the Black Business Quarterly BEE awards
and the Inter-Press Service's awards for correspondents of the
year. She was a winner, in 2004, of the Shoprite-Checkers women
of the year awards in the media category; one of the The Media
magazine's top 10 women in media for the same year and received
a recognition award from the Black Management Forum's Gauteng
region.
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Anthea Houston
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Executive Director, Development
Action Group. Development Action Group is a Cape Town based
non-profit company active in the field of community based housing
and urban development. Anthea serves on a reference group for
the Minister of Local Government and Housing in the Western
Cape and has been an activist in her local community and in
South Africa's development sector for 20 years. She studied
banking, but left the banking sector in 1995, after eight years
with Standard Bank of South Africa. She has a Postgraduate Diploma
from the University of Cape Town in Management: Organisation
and Management. Anthea is passionate about social justice and
leadership in the non profit sector. |
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Ann Lamont
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Chief Executive
of Mindset Network, a multimedia satellite television network.
Mindset is part of the solution for addressing South Africa's
key education challenges in the areas of schooling, HIV/Aids
as well as entrepreneurship. Ann graduated from the University
of the Witwatersrand with a BA LLB. At 22 she began working
in corporate finance at Rand Merchant Bank. She was the first
woman and the youngest person in the area and was quickly promoted.
She then joined Monitor Company, an international management
consulting firm, where she became a senior consultant and honed
her skills in business and strategy. Both of Ann's parents are
teachers and she has always wanted to work with children. Consequently
she joined SMC Kidz as marketing director. The organisation
produced publications for Disney and Marvel and as a result
she did a great deal of research into the South African children's
market. The company went into liquidation and at this stage
she took over as managing director and turned the company around.
Five years ago she became committed to creating an educational
network to reach disadvantaged children in South Africa and
Africa. She had a vision to link education via television, computer
and media initiatives. She joined Learning Channel as a consultant
and was then offered the position of chief executive where she
restructured the business and brought in a new shareholder.
Ann was then invited by Hylton Appelbaum, Executive Director
of the Liberty Foundation, to join him in creating and refining
his vision for Mindset Network. Ann's specific area of interest
is how technology integrates with human processes on the ground
to create a mass technological and human network to ensure human
and social change. Ann is currently participating in the Senior
Fellows Programme. She is a mother of a 7-year-old son, Joshua.
She has a keen interest in reading and sports and has been inducted
in the Sporting Hall of Fame for her swimming achievements. |
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Chief Emmanuel Lediga
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Founder &
Chairman, Legae Securities (Pty) Ltd. Chief Emmanuel Lediga
was born and bred in Johannesburg, South Africa. His 15-year
working life has been dominated by excellence in journalism,
financial markets, entrepreneurship, and black economic empowerment.
He matriculated with distinction in 1987 as a top student and
went on to complete a Bachelor of Commerce degree with Wits
University, majoring in Finance and Marketing. He also completed
his stockbrokers' exams there. He started work as Financial
Reporter with the Star newspaper where he covered stock-markets
and small business, for which he got an award. Financial markets
beckoned and Chief joined stockbrokers SMK (now Nedcor Securities)
as the first black dealer in the 116-year history of the stock
exchange and later moved to research where he was the assistant
to the Chief Economist covering the economy and politics before
and after the 1994 elections, earning a high place in the Financial
Mail ranking of analysts. In 1996, after returning from a stint
in London with a global investment bank, the entrepreneurial
bug bit him and he founded Legae Securities, the first black
owner-managed stock-broking firm in the history of the stock-market
together with HSBC, the huge global banking group. He expanded
the business rapidly to include equities, bonds, private clients,
and listings whilst managing its growing staff. Being one of
the pioneers of empowerment, he was intimately involved in the
listings of empowerment groups such as New Africa Investments
(Nail), African Harvest, Brimstone, and lately, Telkom. He also
got involved in initiatives such as the BEE Commission Report
and the Finance Sector Charter, and was deputy president of
ABSIP, a lobby group for black investment professionals. After
seven years managing Legae Securities he stepped down in early
2003, became Chairman, and later started to get involved in
other directorships and empowerment transactions. In 2000 he
accompanied President Thabo Mbeki on his state visit to the
United States where they met, among others, former President
Bill Clinton. Chief has over the years written about business
and personal finance and hosted a radio show on these issues
at Metro FM. He has been a featured in international media such
as The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC TV, CNN, Austrian
TV and others. He enjoys music and a good conversation. |
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Justice Malala
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Founder of SesaMedia. Justice Malala is the Founding
Editor of This Day, the acclaimed national quality daily newspaper
that folded in October 2004 due to financial difficulties.
Malala was trained at the Independent School of Journalism
and joined The Star as a general reporter in 1993. He went
on to become the newspaper's Education Reporter, Labour Reporter,
Provincial Correspondent and Political Correspondent. He joined
the Financial Mail in 1997 as a senior writer covering parliament
and politics and was awarded the Foreign Correspondents Association's
Award for Outstanding Journalism later that year. In 1997
Malala also won the Adult Basic Education Book of the Year
Award for his novella, Before the Rains Come. Malala joined
The Sunday Times' political team as a senior writer in late
1998. He spent four months covering President Thabo Mbeki's
1999 election campaign. He was appointed London correspondent
of the Sunday Times in December 1999. In May 2002 Malala moved
to New York where he established the newspaper's bureau. Malala
has written regular political columns for The Star and The
Sunday Times, a television column for The Star Tonight! and
a foreign affairs column for The Sunday Times. He has contributed
articles to a large number of South African publications ranging
from Y Magazine, Enterprise, Sunday Independent, and Femina
to various specialist publications. His work has been published
internationally in newspapers such as The Guardian, The Independent,
Forbes and The Observer. He has also contributed to BBC Online
and Deutsche Welle. Malala holds a BA in Politics and English
from the University of South Africa and numerous journalism
diplomas. He runs his own media company, SesaMedia, based
in Johannesburg.
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Henry Malinga
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Chief Director,
Supply Chain Policy, National Treasury of the Republic of South
Africa. Henry Malinga is responsible for the procurement
reform process of the South African Government. His other responsibilities
are to develop policies for Supply Chain and determine best
practices in line with new developments in procurement. Prior
to joining the public sector, he spent 11 years with South Africa's
largest gold mine (Anglogold), as Procurement Manager. He has
also served three other organisations in various positions,
for example Agricultural Corporation as Accountant, City Council
as Auditor, and at a bank as Financial Advisor. He has spoken
at numerous platforms on Supply Chain Management in Government,
both in South Africa and in other countries. He represented
the South African Government at the World Bank/DAC/OECD Roundtable,
and is currently spearheading a project to create a cadrč for
Supply Chain Management both in the national government and
local government (municipalities) in South Africa. |
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Lumkile Mondi
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Chief Economist and Executive Vice-President for Professional
Services, Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). Mr
Mondi's role is to strategically lead and manage the professional
services division of the IDC. He has more than eleven years
of postgraduate experience and over seven years working in
financial markets. Prior to his promotion in July 2004 Mr.
Mondi held the position of the Head of Research and Information
Department as Chief Economist and his key responsibilities
were: to oversee the analyses of the macro and micro economic
environment (business, economic, industry and policy) globally
and locally: to synthesise and interpret the information into
strategic intelligence for the IDC, its stakeholders and its
clients. He writes, presents and comments on radio, print
media and television on political economy. Mr Mondi is a member
of the Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals
(ABSIP), an affiliate of the Black Business Council. His responsibilities
include developing and positioning the BBC's economic stance
with the goal of strengthening the SME sector that is a key
in resolving the unemployment problem that South Africa faces.
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Chairman of
the Board, Deloitte South Africa. She is a CA (SA), holding
a Higher Diploma in Banking Law (Rand Afrikaans University);
B Compt (Hons) (University of South Africa); BA (Econ) (Hons)
(University of South Africa); BA (Econ) (University of Botswana
and Swaziland).Futhi joined Deloitte South Africa in 1988 and
rose up the ranks and holds the honour of being the first African
black woman to be appointed as a Partner by one of the top four
accounting firms in South Africa, first black woman to be appointed
to the board at Deloitte and recently, was appointed as the
first woman Chairman of Deloitte Southern Africa. She also serves
on the boards of high profile financial services institutions,
such as the Financial Services Advisory Board and the Money
Laundering Advisory Board, to mention a few. She is an active
participant on a number of government and quasi-government bodies.
Her experience includes managing the audits of large corporate
treasuries, local and international financial institutions,
including the treasury of a large parastatal organisation. Futhi
is the first woman National President of the Association for
the Advancement of Accountants in Southern Africa (ABASA) and
the past Chairman of the Johannesburg Branch of ABASA. Futhi
is a past board member of the South African Institute of Chartered
Accountants and is further involved in the transformation of
SAICA as a Board member of Thuthuka. . She is also one of the
four Vice Presidents of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA).
She previously led the Black Business Council Economic Research
Unit and was also a member of the Black Business Council Presidential
Working Group, which provided policy input to government's macro
economic framework. Futhi serves as Director and Chairman of
the Investment Committee of the Public Investment Corporation
(PIC) with assets under management of R400 billion (US$ 60 billion).
The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is a non-banking financial
intermediary responsible for the investment of social security
and trust funds, but more particularly, for the investment of
public sector pension and provident funds entrusted to it or
placed with it. She was a member of the financial sector-working
group that was responsible for the formulation of the Financial
Sector Transformation Charter which provides a framework and
establishes the principles upon which Black Economic Empowerment
will be implemented in the financial services sector. A milestone
in the South African history. She is a member of the NEPAD Business
Group, which works with the NEPAD Secretariat to develop effective
public-private partnerships to support the New Partnership.
She is also a Convenor of the East Central Southern African
Federation of Accountants (ECSAFA) NEPAD Committee. She is the
Trustee of WDB trust. The WDB trust is a woman centred socio-economic
development programme targeting poor women by their building
capacities through access to reliable financial services, appropriate
business skills and technical support as well as information
and communication technology training. She was honoured as "2004
Business Woman of the Year" by the Businesswomen Association
and Nedbank. |
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Ayanda Ntsaluba
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Director General,
Department of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Ayanda Ntsaluba was born
in the Eastern Cape on 31 May 1960 and completed his primary
and secondary schooling there. He matriculated in 1976 at St
John's College in Umtata, and the following year registered
for a medical degree with the University of Natal (Durban).
Graduating with MBChB in 1982, Dr. Ntsaluba did his internship
at Umtata General Hospital, where he stayed until September
1985, when a period of detention and solitary confinement interrupted
his work. On release from detention he felt compelled to leave
the country and go into exile. It was six years before he came
home to stay and resume his plans to specialise in obstetrics
and gynaecology. During his years in exile, Dr. Ntsaluba had
the opportunity to study International Relations, Political
Economy, and Philosophy at the Moscow Institute of Social Science.
He spent most of those years, however, in Southern and East
Africa -- in Zambia, Angola, Tanzania, and Uganda -- working
in numerous health facilities, primarily attending to the health
needs of the scattered community of South African exiles. In
1990, Dr. Ntsaluba moved to London, where he completed an MSc
in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing at the London School
of Economics (University of London). His studies were funded
through a Nelson Mandela Award, sponsored by the Students Union
of the LSE. Between 1991-1995, Dr. Ntsaluba undertook his specialist
training in obstetrics and gynaecology, and upon completion,
he was admitted as a Fellow of the College of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology of South Africa. In June 1995, Dr Ntsaluba was appointed
as Deputy Director-General for Policy and Planning in the national
Department of Health. In June 1998, Dr. Ntsaluba was appointed
Acting Director-General of Health, and three months later was
confirmed as Director-General. He has served on a number of
statutory bodies and represented South Africa in numerous international
forums. He also chaired the Steering Committee of the South
African AIDS Vaccine Initiative and served as a member of one
of the working groups of the World Health Organisation Commission
on Macro-Economics and Health. In September 2003, Dr. Ntsaluba
was appointed Director-General of Foreign Affairs of the Republic
of South Africa. |
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Dele Olojede
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Winner of
the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2005 for his
extended examination of post-genocide Rwanda, Dele Olojede is
now Executive Chairman, Timbuktu Media Plc. Timbuktu Media,
a start-up based in Johannesburg and Lagos that seeks to invest
in existing media properties throughout Africa as well as develop
new ones. Timbuktu is focused primarily on media that provide
a common platform for the business, political, and cultural
elite of Africa and its Diaspora. For nearly a quarter-century,
Olojede had been a reporter, foreign correspondent, and editor
on three continents. In December 2004 he ended a 16-year stretch
at Newsday, the New York newspaper where his last major role
was as Foreign Editor, a position from which he supervised the
paper's correspondents in five overseas bureaus, in Mexico City,
Beijing, Jerusalem, Johannesburg and Moscow. Prior to that,
Olojede served as Asia Bureau Chief for the newspaper, based
in Beijing, from which he reported on East and Southeast Asia.
He was also Africa Bureau Chief, based in Johannesburg, and
reported from almost every country on the continent. He was
Newsday's United Nations correspondent, and has had a variety
of other reporting assignments since he joined the paper in
June 1988. Olojede began his reporting career in his native
Nigeria in 1982, after graduating from the University of Lagos,
from which he holds a BS in Mass Communication. Olojede moved
to the United States in 1987 to attend the Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism, where he earned a Masters in
Journalism. In the summer of 2003, he completed the Management
Development Program at the Media Management Center of the Kellogg
School of Management at Northwestern University. Olojede is
a member of the board of the National Press Foundation in Washington.
He has served twice on the jury of the Pulitzer Prizes as well
as the Alicia Paterson Foundation. He was Times Mirror Journalist
of the Year in 1997, and has won, among other awards, the Newsday
Publisher's Award four times as a reporter, and was Editor of
the Year in 2002. He is a Ford Foundation Grantee. He and his
wife, Amma, have two daughters. He plays golf. |
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Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo
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Founder member and co-owner
of Zuka African Tourism and Investment Corporation (ZATIC) (Pty)
Ltd. Lindiwe's career with Hyatt was launched at the Grand
Hyatt, Washington DC, in 1995. Lindiwe then joined the Park
Hyatt Hotel in Rosebank from 1995 until the end of 2000. In
2001, Lindiwe made the transition to the Department of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism as Chief Director, Tourism Support, where
her responsibility lay in quality assurance of the tourism sector
as well as international and inter-governmental liaison. A year
later, Lindiwe's re-entry into the hospitality industry was
with the Southern Sun Hotel group, where she held the position
of General Manager of the group's flagship, the InterContinental
Sandton Towers hotel. At the end of 2004, Lindiwe left the Southern
Sun Hotel group. She has since launched the Zuka African Tourism
and Investment Corporation (ZATIC) (Pty) Ltd, as founder member
and co-owner. This entity focuses on investment opportunities
in the tourism industry, as well as the acquisition and management
of hotels and resorts in South Africa and the rest of the continent.
Lindiwe also serves on the boards of the South African Weather
Services (SAWS), as Chairperson HR and Remuneration Committee,
the Sandton Tourism Association (STA) and the South African
Tourism board as a Director. |
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Alwyn Smith
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Executive,
Supply Chain Management, Barloworld Logistics. In August
2004, Alwyn was appointed Executive - Supply Chain Management
at Barloworld Logistics, a division of the Barloworld Group.
His main responsibilities are the leveraged inventory business
unit and Black Economic Empowerment in the division. Previously,
he spent ten years at Barloworld Steel Tube, first as a divisional
Financial Director, and for the last seven years as Managing
Director of Barloworld Stainless. He is currently the Chairman
of the South African Stainless Steel Development Association
(Sassda). After being Head Boy of the school and boarding schools,
Alwyn matriculated at Paul Roos Gymnasium in 1983 and completed
a BA in Accountancy at the University of Stellenbosch. In 1987
he won a Rhodes Scholarship and read M.Phil (Management Studies)
at Oxford University's Templeton College. Having attended the
University of Stellenbosch on a Rand Mines Bursary, his relationship
with the Barloworld Group exceeds 22 years. Although in the
early nineties he did spend three years in Kortrijk, Belgium
as financial manager of a Belgian family owned industrial group.
He met his wife Julie, who was raised in Malta, during his student
days in England. They have a daughter and a son aged 7 and 5
respectively. He plays tennis and loves fishing and reading
non-fiction.
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Heather Sonn
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Chief Executive
Officer, Legae Securities (Pty) Ltd. BA Smith College (US);
MSc Georgetown University (US). Heather spent a substantial
part of her working life in the United States, where she worked
for Merrill Lynch as an Investment Banker in New York until
1999. She returned to South Africa and was employed by Gensec
Asset Management, which later became Sanlam Investment Management
(SIM). She started out internally focused on the fund management
process. She later worked in institutional marketing and was
responsible for the development of the empowerment strategy
and oversaw its implementation. During this time she built critical
relationships with major pension funds and many of the empowerment
players in the investment sector. She joined Legae Securities
in January 2003, which is the first black stockbroking JSE member
firm, established in 1996. The company is currently 88% black,
and 50% women, with women holding most of the key positions.
Legae was voted the 'Top Unlisted BEE Company' in the 2004 BusinessMap
Foundation BEE awards. The criteria were a combination of sound
and profitable financial operations, along with a track record
of sustainability and outstanding empowerment credentials. In
December 2003, Heather was voted by Mail & Guardian as one of
the top 100 people to watch in South Africa in the coming decade.
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Founder, Stratfund
Asset Consulting. Rhonda Stewart is a specialist in the
fields of Fund Management and Corporate Governance. She has
more than twenty years experience in the financial markets,
with organizations ranging from Foord Asset Management to Syfrets
and Alexander Forbes, where she was a Senior Director of International
Asset Consulting and Investment Solutions. She founded Stratfund
Asset Consulting in 1999, to provide Investment Strategies for
Institutional Investors. This was followed by the establishment
of a Corporate Governance Consultancy, aimed at raising the
standard of Governance in companies who focus on attracting
Foreign Direct Investment and Portfolio Flows into Africa. As
a group, Stratfund provides an investment hub of information,
research and due diligence on African investments. Rhonda is
a Trustee of various pension funds, including the National Productivity
Institute and the Investment Committee of the Government Employees
Pension Fund. Over the years, she has advised a number of trade
unions on their investments and has utilised her experience
to assist charitable foundations, community projects and relief
funds. She is a strong proponent of socially responsible investments
and established the Kotulo Trust together with a group of women
who hold similar aspirations - to assist South African women
to become skilled and self sufficient. She lives in Johannesburg
and is married to Axel Kompat, who works in the Film Industry.
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Logan Wort
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Chief Operating Officer in the National Treasury where
he is responsible for strategic positioning, management coordination
and risk management within the department. He also manages
the communications, media and public image of the National
Treasury and the Ministry of Finance. This role requires him
to inform public discourse in a meaningful way, either through
interactions with the media or through direct measures of
intervention with the citizenry, about how the Finance Ministry
operates collectively as institutions of government and the
execution of their legislative mandate through a series of
complex processes which seek to ensure economic prosperity
and stability for South Africa as an emerging economy and
to protect its fiscal sovereignty. Logan Wort previously headed
the Finance and Investment Sector of the Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC), where he was responsible for macroeconomic
convergence, development finance and trade and investment
promotion. Logan Wort was born in Cape Town where he pursued
part-time studies ten years after leaving school. His leadership
experience was shaped by his involvement in the struggle against
the Apartheid State where he served in leadership positions
in a range of mass democratic movement organisations for many
years. During this time Logan Wort was arrested and detained
without trail spending a combined period of two years in Apartheid
prisons. Logan Wort studied political science and sociology
and holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration. He lives
with his wife and two children.
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Gavin Yeats
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Gavin Yeats had
his early upbringing in Lesotho and Zululand, where his family
were traders. Schooled at Hilton College and DHS in Durban,
he completed a BA degree majoring in English and History, followed
by a Law degree at the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg).
A fascination for the commercial world led Yeats to invest in
a cash and carry operation. This investment evolved into a foodservice
business with branches in the major commercial centres of Kwa-Zulu
Natal. This group was later sold to the Caterplus Division of
Bidvest. Yeats then purchased Columbus Hygiene Systems from
the Unilever group. This business manufactures cleaning equipment,
chemicals, and polishes for the local market as well as exports
to Europe. He then made a further investment in an electrical
manufacturing and distribution business - Matelec Pty Ltd. This
business is the market leader in the low cost lighting and switch
arena. It exports into Africa as well as the UK and Australia.
The management has developed an outsourced assembly model over
a number of years, which they believe will be particularly beneficial
to the SA market. In 2000, Yeats and a group of investors purchased
Vereeniging Refractories from Anglo American. This business
was founded by Sammy Marks in 1878 and remains the market leader
in refractory supply to the mining industry in sub-Saharan Africa.
The business exports refractories and fused grain materials
throughout the world. In a further divestment from Anglo American,
Yeats, in partnership with Samancor, purchased the Marico Chrome
Mine. The chromite is exported to the Americas, Europe and Asia.
International investments include an electrical distribution
business in Australia, and an investment in a cotton trading
and ginning company. This business has ginneries in Uganda,
Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Yeats has been married to
Penny Mills for 11 years and has three children - Sarah, Julian
and Samantha. Yeats enjoys reading and travel. He is an avid,
albeit poor, golfer and cyclist. |
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