advisory board
Marc Balkin, Investment Committee, Alitheia IDF
Marc Balkin holds a BA and LLB degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand. He began his professional career as an attorney with Werkmans Inc. Balkin has extensive experience in private equity management, having consulted to several South African Investment Banks. Balkin was Founding Partner of O2 Capital, and served as non-executive Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Enablis Khula Acceleration and Loan Funds.
Garreth Bloor, President, The Canada-Africa Chamber of Business
Garreth Bloor is the founder of Glenheim, a venture capital advisory firm founded in September 2016. He was an elected public representative and Chairperson of the Economic Environment and Spatial Planning Portfolio Committee in the City of Cape Town, having been appointed by the mayor in July 2011 following his election in the same year. His fiduciary duties include policy, strategy, and oversight for the city-region's 3.7 million residents. He was a member of the 2012 Regional Leaders Forum in Brazil and is listed as one of 20 worldwide experts on the Green Urban Economy by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. He worked in the start-up sector and small business development and support prior to his current role in Cape Town.
Bloor has undergraduate and graduate degrees form UCT, where he is currently a member of the university council and a former Student Representative Council Vice President. He has participated in programs at Princeton University, Oxford, and Cambridge and is the youngest ever elected member of the prestigious Mont Pelerin Society. He is a board member of the Cape Town Partnership and has experience in the tech sector, working on start-ups in South Africa and the U.S., which have subsequently been acquired by larger firms. Bloor has additional experience in low-income micro-finance provision and consulting.
He is a prolific writer and international speaker, with work appearing across more than two dozen publications and academic journals, including the Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Wits Business Journal, and the African Yearbook of Rhetoric. In 2008, he received a Culture of Enterprise award from former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III for his research into "enterprise and a humane economy" and a separate award from the Cape Town Press Club for having more than 500 published articles as a student journalist and blogger.
Mike Blum, Founder, Materials Technology Associates, Inc.
Mike Blum was born in Johannesburg and is the founder of Materials Technology Associates Inc., a California company specializing in materials engineering, failure analysis, the evaluation of advanced materials, electron microscopy and corrosion testing. His Silicon Valley test center provides support to world leaders in high technologies such as heart pumps, cryogenic pumps, medical devices and computer chip manufacturing equipment. The company also serves process industries involved in liquid natural gas handling, chemicals and food production. Previously, he held leadership positions with international companies including FMC Corporation, Babcock and Wilcox, International Nickel, and Imperial Chemical Industries. He also co-founded Servicios Metalúrgicos, a company that provided materials engineering and failure analysis services to Mexican industry. Blum graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering and the University of London with a master’s degree in corrosion engineering.
Grant Bodley, Vice President & Partner, IBM
Bodley is a high tech industry and strategic sales leader with 25+ years of sales, consulting and business management experience with many of the world's most exciting companies, from high-growth start-ups to global industry leaders like IBM and SAP. Through his experience, he has demonstrated his ability to build, inspire and lead high performance teams to achieve dramatic results. He is an accomplished public speaker with exceptional interpersonal and communication skills.
Currently Bodley serves as Vice President and Partner at IBM. His role is as the leader of the Electronics and High Tech Industry Sector in North America at IBM Global Business Services. In this role, he works with electronics and high tech industry leaders to leverage digital technologies to improve enterprise performance in game-changing new ways. He is responsible for strategy, sales, P&L, delivery, and overall client success.
His previous experience includes over a decade of work at SAP, where he ultimately served as the Vice President of Strategic Customer Accounts. In this role, he led SAP's Strategic Customer Program in the West Region of North America, which included responsibility for SAP's most strategic customer relationships and the success of all lines of business, including software revenue growth, consulting and premium support services.
Bodley graduated with his Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Port Elizabeth.
Joseph Brown, Advisory Board Member, Talent Ninja
Joseph Brown brings over 30 years of sales, marketing and executive management experience to technology companies operating around the world. He is a visionary, result-oriented technology leader and a builder of high growth SaaS organizations and has worked with companies ranging in size from starts-ups to over $400m in annual revenue.
Having lived and worked in Africa, Europe and the USA (Silicon Valley), he has helped corporations grow their top line at companies such as Unisys Corporation, Auspex Systems Inc., Edify Corporation, RightNow Technologies Inc., Avangate Inc. amongst others. He is currently an Advisory Board Member at Talent Ninja. Joe received his B. Comm (legal) degree from Wits University and a Master of Business Leadership degree from the University of South Africa.
Joe is an avid sports fan having played soccer in South Africa in the final years of the NFL and the early years of the NPSL leagues for Wits University, Hellenic and Southern Suburbs. Today, Joe can be seen on the golf course and at Stanford University Football and Basketball games. He can also be seen in Las Vegas watching South Africa in the Rugby 7’s tournament.
Mark Browne, Independent Marketing Consultant, n/a
Based in the New York metropolitan area, Browne provides consulting and advisory services to Fintech start-ups (SaaS, Blockchain) serving asset management, asset owners and adjacent industries (Custody, Public and Private Markets). He possesses wide-ranging experience in building brands and the marketing and commercialization of investment products and financial services across multiple markets, regions and consumer segments having lived and worked in North America, the United Kingdom/Europe and South Africa.
Browne’s prior experiences include serving as Head of North America Marketing for Invesco’s Institutional business: Head of Distribution Marketing at Bank of New York Mellon Investment Management where he oversaw Global Institutional, US Retail and Retail Direct Marketing; and J.P. Morgan Asset Management where he ran Retirement Marketing. Earlier positions include senior marketing, product management and business development roles at Morgan Stanley and The Rotch Group/Consensus in the UK and Fairheads Trust Company/Old Mutual and Investec/91 Asset Management in South Africa.
Originally from Cape Town, Mark earned his Degree in Business Economics and a Post-Graduate Degree in Advanced Finance and International Business Management from the University of South Africa.
Browne is passionate about creating exceptional brand experiences, the power of marketing as a driver of long-term revenue growth, digital transformation and the growing role of Fintech and digital advice to democratize and improve access to financial services and solutions.
John Burger, Director of IT, Payments & Treasury Platforms, Kaiser Permanente
A proven leader and strategist, Burger provides the vision and technical insight critical to corporate optimization of technology resources. Burger has 20 years of experience in finance and IT. Burger was rated an impact player by Fortune 1000 companies/customers in improving overall productivity and service capability/quality to boost revenues and ROI.
Prior to Zaspar Technologies, Burger worked as a Senior Director of Portfolio Management for McKesson Corporation, where he collaborated with executives across multiple BUs to drive efficiencies/consistently deliver strategic programs and boost net profits by $20M. Burger directed teams up to 12 while managing $1-2 million budgets. From 1996 to 2005 Burger was Senior Consultant for SAP, where in he played an important role delivering successful ERP implantations, worked with acquisition integrations, and other various projects for global industry leaders across multiple sectors.
Burger is successful across multiple industry sectors, and finds the right technical tools/personnel to get the job done correctly and cost-effectively. In addition to a Bachelors Degree in Finance and Law from Rhodes University, he offers a firm grounding in multiple languages, platforms, tools and operating systems.
Claire Busetti, Investment Advisor, SPESA
Claire Busetti has more than 20 years of experience in private equity and investment banking. As an investment advisor for SPESA, she is involved in BEE and private equity investments as an investor, consultant, and mentor. Previously, Claire was the General Manager of the Isibaya Fund. Prior to that, she was Chair of Time Mining Holdings Ltd. and Director of B W Investments. She has also served as a Director for South African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association; the Chief Investment Officer for the National Empowerment Fund; Director of ABN Amro South African as Head of Corporate Banking; and Head of Strategic Planning for Standard Bank Group. Busetti was born and raised in Zambia and holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Natal and an MBA from the University of Witwatersrand.
Ewan Copelane, Former Vice Chairman , Former Global Corporate Bank Citigroup–Hong Kong
Ewan Albert Copeland graduated from Rhodes University in South Africa with honors in economics in 1966 and, as a Beit Fellow, received an MBA from the University of Cape Town in 1968. Following assignments between 1968 and 1974 with Union Acceptances in Johannesburg and Johnson & Johnson in the United Kingdom, he joined Citibank in Johannesburg in 1974 and has remained with the bank for the past 33 years. His career with the world's largest banking group has involved assignments in New York; responsibility for the New England region of the United States; a period in Seoul, South Korea, where he was head of the Corporate Bank; and a stint in Hong Kong, where he was head of the bank's Asia-Pacific Multinational Group. He more recently served as group executive and industry head, responsible for bank clients in the consumer goods, retail, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries worldwide. His client portfolio represented assets in excess of $50 billion. Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.
Dr. Neil C. Davey, MB.ChB. FFRad. (D) SA Neuroradiologist, President, Intermountain Medical Imaging
Dr. Neil Davey is a Neuroradiologist, practicing in Boise, Idaho. He is affiliated with multiple hospitals in Idaho and Oregon, including the Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Centers in Boise, Nampa, Ontario and Baker City. He received his medical degree from University of Cape Town Medical School and has been in practice for 29 years. He completed fellowships in Neuroradiology and Vascular/Interventional Radiology at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, before joining the faculty there in 1996. Dr Davey has been in private practice in Boise for 16 years and is a founding partner of Intermountain Medical Imaging, Boise's first freestanding, full-service imaging center. Past President of the Idaho Radiological Society, Dr Davey is co-Chairman of Radiology at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, Nampa and the Chairman of the Peer Review and Quality Committee at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center Boise. He is currently a doctor and President of Gem State Radiology. He is also a member of the board of directors at Blue Water Technologies, a water technology company based in Hayden, Idaho.
Pieter de Villiers, CEO and Co-founder of Clickatell; Advisor with SABLE; and Chairman of SiMODiSA, Clickatell
Pieter de Villiers is a South African born, Silicon Valley based entrepreneur with a passion for mobile and the empowerment it leads to. Pieter is also one of the youngest mobile industry veterans with over 14 years of experience in global telecoms, mobile messaging and mobile payments backed by the likes of Sequoia Capital. As the CEO and co-founder of Clickatell, Inc., a leading Global Provider of Application-2-Person Mobile Messaging and Mobile Transactional Services, Pieter has successfully lead his team to grow a multi million dollar profitable business operating on multiple continents. Since its launch, Clickatell boasts one of the largest messaging-as-a-service footprints globally and fastest growing mobile pre-paid networks, serving more than 28,000 companies across 960 mobile operators in more than 220 countries and territories.
Pieter has been recognized for his leadership and achievement in the mobile industry by many industry organizations, including Global Technology Business who named Pieter as one of "top 40 under 40" executives who will likely "run the telecoms industry in 2020." De Villiers has also been honored with the Mobile Village Mobile Star Award for Visionary of the Year in Wireless and the Visiongain Research Mobile Content Awards Industry Personality of the year.
Along with his work with Clickatell and the mobile industry, Pieter is also an active participant in socially responsible organizations and programs. Pieter is an advisor for the SABLE Accelerator Network which provides mentoring and consulting services to South African companies, entrepreneurs, and institutions. Pieter is also founder and Chairman of SiMODiSA, a groundbreaking initiative focused on exploring ways to accelerate tech startup success in South Africa and Africa. Additionally, he is one of the founder of the GSMA’s Hive Projects that works to power charities and communities through SMS. In 2012, Pieter was awarded with the Social Economic Impact Award from the San Jose Business Journal.
Pieter is a familiar face in the mobile industry and an active participant in many leading mobile organizations. Pieter has and continue to contribute in various forums and interest groups including: the GSM Association, CTIA, Open Mobile Alliance, Wireless Application Service Provider Association and Mobile Data Association. Pieter is an accomplished speaker and has presented his thoughts on mobile at various mobile conferences in the United States, Europe and Africa including: GSM Mobile World Congress - MMU, Mobile Money Africa, International CTIA Wireless Conference and the Rutberg & Co., Wireless Influencers Conference, etc.
Nitesh Dullabh, Former Director of Water Planning and Marketing, CEO, 2POD Adventures
Nitesh Dullabh is an international small business development and marketing leader currently based in Silicon Valley. With a strong work history in both South Africa and China, his greatest asset is the ability to bring people, institutions and products together to a common understanding of shared value.
Dullabh was previously the Director of Water Planning and Marketing for Stage 2 Innovations. He is now CEO of 2POD Adventures. Prior he was Director of Business Development for SmartBiz at BillFloat, an online credit delivery startup based in San Francisco, California. Prior to this, he was Vice President of Shared Services at KBR Capital Partners Management in Palo Alto, California, where he was responsible for managing collaborative B2B partnerships between third-party applications, vendors and internal stakeholders.
Dullabh has extensive global experience in creating bilateral and multicultural alliances in government and private business. He has worked for the South African Embassy in China, as well as for South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry. From there, he went on to manage partnerships and investment projects with South African and foreign clients in his role as General Manager at Gauteng Economic Development Agency. He later served at MARSH, a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan, as a Senior Risk Consultant with a focus on local risk management solutions for clients such as National Empowerment Fund (South Africa). He then became the Director and General Manager, Head of Africa, for The Beijing Axis, a managing consultancy that builds solutions for clients entering China.
Dullabh graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (previously Durban-Westville) in South Africa with a bachelor’s degree in public management in 1990. The following year, he received a bachelor’s with honors in international studies from Rhodes University in South Africa, where he later went on to complete a master’s degree in the same subject. He earned an MBA from Henley Business School at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom in 2006. He has also studied Mandarin Chinese at National Taiwan Normal University in Taiwan.
Manie Eagar, CEO, DigitalFutures B.U.I.L.D.
Manie Eagar is a futurist, strategist and creative entrepreneur with a 20-year track record as an executive director, advisor and representative of international business, NGOs and donor agencies. Clients appoint him to drive new wealth creation, business value and strategic innovation.
Eagar is the CEO of Idaeon, a strategic business design and creative leadership consultancy. Idaeon provides a visionary process at the convergence of dynamic systems and strategic design to achieve optimal and innovative solutions for everyday ideas and business initiatives and ventures. Eagar developed Leadership by Design, a next-generation leadership framework that has been applied by a variety of consultants and executives and formed the foundation of a master’s degree program in innovative leadership at the Da Vinci Institute Business School for Management Leadership.
He is a creative leader, known for shaping strategic conversations to support executive decision-making and sustainable execution. Eagar has successfully completed the groundbreaking 2012 Stanford Venture Lab’s Technology Entrepreneurship, Creativity, New Learning Environment and Startup Boards courses. The courses pooled the know-how of more than 75,000 international students from 150 countries to virtually engage via the latest social media while crafting and submitting their ideas for assessment to support a wide array of prospective venture ideas and startups. He acted as a mentor and board member to a number of teams.
He facilitated the creation of Vodacom/Vodafone’s hosted call center offering and Africa-wide initiative deploying the advanced Presence Technology multichannel contact center software. He supported the establishment of the Media Cloud initiative of Red Pepper Studios powered by Vodacom and is the founder of SourceAfrica, an Africa-wide initiative to promote viable business process outsourcing and ICT-enabled services.
Barclays Africa (Absa) successfully deployed his groundbreaking and proprietary openaxyz strategic innovation and collaboration software. Openaxyz was selected for the Research Innovation Commercialization (RIC) Technology Innovation Idol 2012 in Canada. He served as an advisor to a variety of design and innovation centers, including the Ackoff Centre for Systems and Design Thinking at the Da Vinci Institute.
He was the chief strategist for the $40 billion Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) Infrastructure Centre of Excellence for Infrastructure Development plan, approved by the South African cabinet in 2012.
Malcolm Elvey, Principal Partner, Elvey Partnership
Malcolm Elvey is an authority on corporate finance and has founded six companies and led several industry consolidations. He has served on the boards of eight public and many privately held companies.
Elvey was born and educated in South Africa, where he worked for Tiger Brands and led Metro Cash and Carry from 1968 to 1975. Since then, he has lived in New York, where he established Jetro Cash & Carry, which was the precursor of the Warehouse Club phenomenon.
Elvey led several strategic industry consolidations as CEO of the Americas for Pritchard Services, The Hawley Group, and ADT. These included building maintenance, hospital maintenance, home healthcare, burglar alarms, car auctions, lawn care, and food service. He handled many M&A transactions in all of these industries, not only as the strategic visionary, but also as a pragmatic executor.
After ADT, his search for entrepreneurial opportunity led him to a small, profitable court reporting company that, from 1989 to 1999, led to the consolidation of the very fragmented industry. Multiple acquisitions built Esquire Communications into a publicly traded, $175 million national business.
He went on to found Collaborative Capital, a venture capital technology firm where he remains an active coach, helping portfolio companies in the development of strategic plans. One of these portfolio companies, Groundlink, was run by him for two years.
He served on the board of directors of The Children's Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ.PLCE) from 2002 until 2012. He served as Chairman of the Audit Committee, on the Compensation Committee, and the Nominating and Governance Committee. He has visited the offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing.
During most of 2011, he was Chairman and Interim CEO of Panviva.com, a Melbourne-based software company pioneering business process guidance. He is actively involved in several nonprofit organizations, including Friends of Bezalel Academy of Art & Design, SACCA (the South African Chamber of Commerce–America). He has been active in the leadership of the Young Presidents' Organization and the World Presidents' Organization since 1973.
He has been an adjudicator of business plans and student mentor at Columbia Business School since 1999.
In 2010, he created "Turning Point," a multimedia iPad app featuring Eliot Spitzer. The software platform, MMOOKS, enables publishers to enhance their backlist using Apple's multimedia technology.
Elvey is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he taught strategy and finance from 1966-1967.
Nils Flaatten, Non-Executive Chairman, Tshwane Economic Development Agency
Nils Flaatten is the Founder and Director at Blue Viking Advisory Services, a niche Cape Town-based consultancy that provides government and investment advisory services to domestic and foreign businesses as well as Africa Market Access strategies. He is currently a non-executive chairman at the Tshwane Economic Development Agency.
Nils completed his high schooling at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch. He then spent a year as a Rotary exchange student in Spooner, Wisconsin (U.S.A.), where he attended Spooner High School. He served in the South African Navy as a combat officer and visited Marion Island and the Antarctic during his sea time. He obtained a bachelor's degree from the Stellenbosch University. After university, he worked in London for Dresdner RCM Global Investors and then Barclays Global Investors in Jersey (Channel Islands). Flaatten then moved to Hong Kong, where he worked for Citigroup as the Asia-Pacific Regional Marketing Manager in the bank's Global Corporate and Investment Bank division. While in Hong Kong, he also served as the Chairperson of the South African Business Forum.
He then returned to London, where he worked for the Capital Markets Company (Capco) as a management consultant. Here his assignments included work on European stock exchanges, the acquisition of an outsourced trade service company, financial services outsourcing, and capital market process management.
He then returned to South Africa, where he served as advisor to the Provincial Minister for Development, Economics, and Planning and Managing Director of the African Carbon Trust. He was previously the CEO for Wesgro, the Western Cape Government's investment and trade promotion agency.
Flaatten has also guest lectured at the Stellenbosch University Graduate School of Business, teaching on doing business in China and China market access. He sits on the board of an NGO called Young in Prison, and his interests include wine, rugby, golf, dinghy, and offshore sailing.
Simon Flax, Head of Product Finance, Riot Games
Simon Flax is Head of Product Finance at Riot Games. Prior he was Senior Director of Finance and Strategy at DreamWorks Animation. Previously, he served as the Director of Strategy and Development at Disney Consumer Products, where he managed the divisional and annual strategic planning process and drove long-term growth strategies. Prior to this role, Flax was a consultant at Alvarez & Marsal, Arthur D. Little, Droege & Co., Booz Allen Hamilton, and Accenture, where he developed and implemented growth/efficiency strategies for clients in multiple industries, including consumer products, technology, financial services, energy, healthcare, government, and manufacturing, among others. Flax earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Cape Town and his MBA in finance from the NYU Stern School of Business.
Anthony Galloway, Founder and Chairman, LEAP Science and Math Schools
Anthony Galloway is the founder and Managing Director of Omni Learning (Pty) Ltd. He qualified as a teacher at Rhodes University, and after three years of teaching experience, he left the field of formal education in 1981 to join the international MAST Organisation. After heading MAST's Cape operations for 12 years, he joined another company of business training specialists called Stratagem in 1993.
During his six years at Stratagem, he completed an international MBA through the Henley Business School in the U.K., and in 1999 he chose the independent route and started Omni Learning. His major interests are people, sports, and learning.
Galloway's professional passion is to accelerate the development of individuals, teams, and organizations through the design and facilitation of learning solutions that produce the desired results.
Geoffrey Keith Garrett, Chief Executive Officer, Syspro USA
A driven, visionary, high energy leader who has launched businesses, fixed revenue, and profit issues, and designed complex systems to enhance growth in highly competitive markets. Known for rapidly understanding market ecosystems, analyzing challenging problems, aligning teams, and articulating a game changing go to market strategy. Geoffrey has over two decades of experience in digital transformation, B2B software, CRM & ERP, strategy, customer experience, sales performance, and sales enablement underpinned by strong financial acumen. He is adept at creating an inspiring vision, being the integrator, building relationships, and influencing executives and other stakeholders to navigate large organizations and cross-functional teams. He was recognized by Industry Era as one of the 10 BEST ENTREPRENEURS of 2019, in Silicon Review as one of the 30 BEST LEADERS to watch in 2020 and was nominated for the Orange County Business Journal awards of 2020 in the category of "INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR."
Quentin George, Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Co.
Quentin George is a co-founder and Principal of UNBOUND, the first and only independent systems integrator exclusively focused on the marketing technology landscape. UNBOUND creates custom marketing systems that dramatically improve business results by bringing together media owners and brand marketers on equal terms.
He is currently a fulltime senior advisor at McKinsey & Co. Prior to this role, he served as Chief Innovation Officer at IPG Mediabrands, where he was responsible for the overall growth, development and implementation of the company's intelligence capabilities across all agencies. The New York flagship, IPG Media Lab, and the company's digital intelligence database, IPG Virtual Lab, were both under Quentin's leadership. Internally, he drove IPG Mediabrands’ digital culture, creating a toolkit of resources that connect the network with a complete catalog of IPG Mediabrands’ services and platform capabilities, partner solutions, and case studies. In addition, George identified and introduced IPG Mediabrands and its leadership to potential technology and content partners that were ideally suited to enable the company’s network and clients to grow.
One of the most tenured leaders in the digital arena, George was appointed Chief Digital Officer of IPG Mediabrands in 2009. He joined the IPG Network in 2007 and was named Global Lead for Digital Media and Strategic Innovation at Universal McCann. Prior to his role at UM, he served as Chief of Corporate Development and Managing Director for Organic, Inc., where he grew the business substantially beginning in October 2004. During his tenure at Organic, he led assignments for clients such as Sprint, 20th Century Fox, Mitsubishi Motors and GeekSquad.
Earlier, George served as Senior Vice President of Client Services at Avenue A/Razorfish, where he co-managed the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices and was responsible for driving online-based initiatives for clients such as Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Disney, Cisco Systems and Genentech. In 1994, he co-founded Electric Ocean, an internationally renowned interactive marketing agency based in Cape Town, South Africa, where he won one of the first Clio awards ever for digital work. He's also a founding member and former co-chairman of the Digital Interactive Media Association (DIMA).
George resides and makes wine in San Francisco with his wife, Michelle, and his two children.
Mark Gibbon, General Partner, Nomad Ventures
Gibbon has helped execute over 30 strategic transactions covering mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and restructures, joint ventures, channel partnerships, and complex outsourcing contracts. His practice's objective concentrates on developing programs for clients and partners in new business venture initiation, business diversification and transformation, and commercialization of underperforming assets. He has more than 18 years experience in business development, finance, project, and operations management covering corporate strategic planning, new market and venture strategy and execution, partner/alliance creation, technology transfers, business process outsource contracting, and business integration. Earlier career roles include EDS in BPO general management included contract work-outs, the Lacek Group in business strategy and corporate development, Hill Samuel Investment Bank in M&A advisory areas, and Arthur Andersen working in corporate finance services.
Gibbon specializes in strategic business and corporate development, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and venture program initiation. His current focus is on business process outsourcing services and SaaS for the financial, health insurance, and employee benefit industries, loyalty business solutions, and technology, digital media, social media, and mobile application industry solutions.
Tal Gilbert, CEO, Vitality USA, The Vitality Group
Tal Gilbert has worked for Discovery (South Africa’s largest health insurer) in Johannesburg, London, Hong Kong and New York. During his time with the company, he has led international product development efforts, initially in the U.K. and more recently in Asia and the U.S. His primary work has been in internationalizing the Vitality program, an evidence-based, incentivized approach to improving health, and embedding this approach within established health and life insurance products. In the U.S., Vitality works with large employers to improve the health of their employees and is also integrated with insurance and payroll vendors through its co-branded partnerships, HumanaVitality and ADP Vitality. Gilbert is a Fellow of the U.K. Institute of Actuaries and a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand and Magdalen College, Oxford.
Selwyn Goldberg, Of Counsel, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Selwyn Goldberg is of counsel in Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz's Corporate Department, focusing principally on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other complex strategic transactions involving technology and intellectual property assets. His experience includes transactions in a wide range of technology areas, with a particular focus on semiconductors, computer hardware and software, multimedia, telecommunications, and electronics. Selwyn’s clients have ranged from small start-up ventures to Fortune 100 companies. In addition to his transactions practice, Selwyn has advised on general intellectual property matters, including the development of patent programs, analysis of patent portfolios, development and protection of intellectual property, and valuation issues.
Selwyn received his B.S.E.E. from the University of Cape Town, his M.S.E.E. from Rutgers University and his J.D. magna cum laude from New York University School of Law where he was Associate Editor of the New York Law School Law Review. Prior to attending law school, Selwyn was a member of the technical staff at RCA's David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, New Jersey.
Selwyn is a frequent speaker, and has had occasion to address various Practising Law Institute seminars, the Outsourcing World Summit and the Stanford E-commerce Best Practices Conferences, among others. He is a member of the American Bar Association (IP Law and Science & Technology Sections), American Intellectual Property Law Association, California Bar Association (IP Law and Science & Technology Sections) and the San Francisco Bar Association.
Eylan Harris, Senior Manager - Product Management, Apple
Eylan Harris is currently a Product Manager at Apple. He was a Management Consultant with PwC, focused on retail and consumer goods operations. He began his career as an IT consultant at the University of Cape Town before joining A.P. Moller-Maersk’s (Maersk/Safmarine) global management acceleration program (MISE). After two years in various training-related roles, he completed a two-year expatriation, and he was based in Shanghai, China. In this role, he optimized supply chains of the world’s leading retailers and ran several business process improvement projects across China, Southeast Asia and India.
Upon repatriating back to South Africa, he completed his MBA at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, where he was class president, and started working for Pepkor (Pep) as an inbound supply chain consultant.
At Pep, Harris moved into a product development role, where he focused on emerging technologies to help build loyalty to Pep’s cellular base. This included building South Africa’s fastest-growing social media network (6 million users in four months), digital payment platforms, loyalty programs and domestic remittances, among many other accomplishments.
In December 2011, Harris moved to the United States and now lives in San Jose, California, with his wife, Andrea, and tries to enjoy all the biking, wining, hiking and dining he can.
Anthony Helfet, Investment Banker, Retired
Anthony B. Helfet is former Managing Director at Dillon Read & Co., Inc. and it’s successor organization, UBS, where he served for 20 years. Helfet was also Managing Director, Northwest Region Investment Banking at Merril Lynch and Company for 10 years. There, we was involved with numerous major financial transactions in the USA, including sale of Crown Zellerbach to James Goldsmith and the sale of Safeway Stores to KKR. Historically, Helfet has held other positions with Merriman Curhan Ford & Co., Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. and Dillon, Read & Co. He has also served as a director of Alliance HealthCare Services, Inc. from 2001 to 2009.
Helfet was born in Scotland. He lived in Cape Town, South Africa from 1948 and 1960, where he attended Kingswood College (1957-1960). Helfet holds an MBA and an AB Degree in Economics from Colombia University. He served in the United States Marine Corps as an infantry officer from 1967 to 1970, including service in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969.
Anton Honikman, CEO, MyVest
Honikman is CEO of MyVest. Prior he was Managing Director of Ada Investments and is responsible for the general management of the U.S. business—including strategy, marketing, business development, and product development. Prior to Ada, Honikman was Head of Barclays Global Investors' (BGI) New Ventures Group. This encompassed both a corporate venture capital fund and the incubation of strategic initiatives. Before that, he worked as a Senior Investment Strategist in BGI's Structured Solutions Group, with primary responsibility for designing and promoting defined contribution and retirement income products. This included the successful distribution of the LifePath series of life cycle funds with institutional investors in the wake of the passing of the Pension Protection Act (2006). Honikman joined BGI in 2005 as a Senior Investment Strategist in the Index Equity Group with a focus on international index products. He joined BGI from Barra (now MSCI), where he spent 10 years in a variety of product management and business strategy roles. Most recently, as Vice President of Product Strategy, Honikman was responsible for the conception and commercialization of BarraOne, Barra's flagship web-based, multi-asset class portfolio analytics platform. He earned his bachelor's degree in business science with honors in financial economics and applied statistics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Stephen J.D. Bell, B.Sc Medicine Honors, PhD, MBA, Federal Trade Commission Trustee
Stephen Bell is currently Trustee (Fiduciary), Monitor and Advisor overseeing the execution of the anti-trust order arising from the $68 billion Pfizer acquisition of Wyeth in 2009. In this capacity, he represents the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Canadian Bureau of Competition, the European Commission, the South African Competition Commission and the Ministry of Commerce in China.
Before assuming the Trustee appointment in 2009, Bell was Project Director and Principal Investigator for a $300 million U.S. Health & Human Services award to Solvay Pharmaceuticals. He has also held various senior-level and executive appointments worldwide, having previously worked for leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies including Boehringer Mannheim in South Africa, Roche Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland, Biotech Australia, The Upjohn Company (Pfizer) USA, Boehringer Ingelheim USA, BioSante Pharmaceuticals USA and Solvay Pharmaceuticals USA.
Bell is an accomplished entrepreneur, having formed a startup company and built it up for 10 years, taking it from invention and patenting of the lead technology all the way through R&D, business development, clinical development, out-licensing, IPO and finally partnering. Additionally, while serving in various consulting roles over the preceding 25 years, he has collaborated with and added significant value to a number of other small and mid-sized companies.
In the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields, Bell has wide-ranging business experience, including M&A, post-merger integration, licensing, intellectual property, business strategy and development, financing, research, product development, clinical development, regulatory affairs and compliance, manufacturing and commercial operations across a wide range of specialty areas. These include vaccines, biologicals, molecular biology, stem cells, cell therapy, infectious diseases, diagnostics, cancer, allergy, autoimmune disease, endocrinology, neurology, cardiology, aesthetic medicine, medical devices and medical instrumentation.
Bell earned his bachelor's degree from Rhodes University before pursuing a graduate degree in clinical science and immunology from the University of Cape Town Medical School. Bell then received a Swiss National Research Foundation award to undertake allergy studies at the University of Bern. Subsequently, he received a PhD in medicine from the University of New South Wales in Australia. Additionally, he holds a MBA (Beta Gamma Sigma honor inductee) from the Kennesaw State University Michael J. Coles College of Business in Georgia.
Dr. Roy Jackson, Founder, Romich Group
Dr. Roy Jackson is a highly regarded gynaecological surgeon with experience in the biotechnology industry as a business executive. He completed his medical school training in South Africa (University of the Witwatersrand) and then a specialty residency in Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver Canada.
In 1994 he entered private practice as a gynaecologist; he has worked at several hospitals. Currently he is Medical Director of Southern Health Centre and Head of Gynaecological Services at False Creek Surgical Centre in British Columbia.
In 1996 he founded Romich Medical, a healthcare device and equipment company dedicated to the research, sales, marketing and distribution of innovative medical devices.
More recently Dr. Jackson has been active in launching a private value-added seed investment group, the Romich Biotechnology Fund. Dr. Jackson is an investor and an active member on the management team for Doyen Medical.
Angel Jones, Founder, Homecoming Revolution
Jones is the co-founder and Executive Creative Director of advertising agency, Morrisjones, which created the Kulula.com brand in its entirety and also works with renowned brands such as Appletiser, Discovery,Mugg & Bean, and Nestlé. In 2003, she founded Homecoming Revolution, a globally acclaimed organization that encourages and assists South Africans living abroad to return home. Jones' next endeavour is to take Homecoming Revolution onto the African continent to bring back African Diaspora skills, both physically and virtually.
Jones has won multiple international creative awards, is a board member of Roedean School Johannesburg, and was the keynote speaker at the Roedean Centenary Celebrations. She was also a Thinkfest Speaker at the 2011 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. She has been published in SA: Reasons to Believe; SA–More Good News; SA's Most Promising Companies 2005, and Inspirational Woman at Work. She earned her bachelor's degree in economics and English at UCT after attending Roedean School as Vice Headgirl. She then earned a post-graduate IAA degree at the AAA School of Advertising. Learn more atwww.morrisjones.co.za.
Randhir Judge, CEO, Judge For Yourself Insurance and Financial Services, Inc.
Randhir Judge is a veteran of the financial services and insurance industry for over 30 years. He has international experience in the areas of personal and business planning, wealth accumulation, preservation, and transfer strategies. His clientele include high net-worth individuals, closely held corporations, and Fortune 500 Corporations. He has been a member of The Top of the Million Dollar Round Table (the premier association of Financial Professionals) for several years, and is a Fellow of the Life Insurance Association as well as a Fellow of the Life Underwriting Training Council. Apart from being Secretary and Treasurer for the local chapter of National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), he is currently its President. He is also currently the President and Co-Founder of FoundersClick Inc., a unique ecosystem that connects startups to investment professionals as well as service providers.
He is a moderator for the American College and has been teaching classes in the areas of financial, insurance, and retirement planning since 1993. He has been a featured speaker in the areas of financial, estate, and retirement forums in four continents. He is a founding member of the Indus Entrepreneur, a volunteer organization with over 15,000 members that empowers leaders to excel. He has helped raise thousands of dollars for various charitable organizations. His philosophy of "karma" has helped thousands of people network and helped those that have been less fortunate. To this extent, he is the Chief Instigator and Strategist and is on the board of a knowledge collaboration and mentoring solutions company that is helping change the world.
Karen Kearney, Treasurer of Global Business Services, Stanford University
Karen Kearney is currently serving as Treasurer of Global Business Services at Stanford University—a new function at the university—providing operating and compliance support for Stanford's global activities. Kearney has been associated with Stanford for over 20 years in various financial roles. Her professional career has been focused in the non-profit sector. She previously served as the CFO at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and has consulted with a range of San Francisco Bay-area non-profits. She undertook chartered accountant articles at PwC, London, and obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees at Cambridge University. She grew up in the Cape wine country (Groot Drakenstein) and attended school at Herschel in Cape Town.
Jeffrey Klein, CEO & Deputy CIO, Aptitude Investment Managment
Klein is CEO and Deputy CIO at Aptitude Investment Management formerly known as Federal Way Asset Management. He previously joined Weyerhaeuser Company in 2004 as Portfolio Manager and Deputy Chief Investment Officer of Weyerhaeuser Asset Management LLC. He developed guidelines and conducts asset allocation and asset/liability studies that have led to pension/trust investment structure and policy. He was responsible for integration, revision, and development of the hedge fund portfolio, from externally managed portfolios to internally managed portfolios.
Prior to joining Weyerhaeuser, he was the National Practice Director for Watson Wyatt Investment Consulting in Canada. He had previously served as a Senior Consultant and Practice Leader, as well as a Pension and Investment Consultant with Watson Wyatt Investment Consulting in Canada. Before joining Watson Wyatt Investment Consulting in Canada, he held positions with Southern Life Association in Cape Town, South Africa, and Legal and General Assurance Company in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Klein holds a bachelor's degree in business science (with honors) from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and a Certificate of Finance and Investment from the Institute of Actuaries (U.K.), and he is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, London, and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.
Eric Langalakhe Mahamba-Sithole, Former Functional Champion, Rest of Africa Support, Industrial Development
Eric has extensive experience in the fields of Education, Training, Capacity Building, Editing educational publications and the sourcing of projects for funding in Africa spanning over a period of 35 years. He is now retired. He had a strong work history in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda and various African countries. His greatest assets are the the ability to assess skills development needs, structuring appropriate skills transfer interventions, assessing the viability of business funding enquiries as well as the ability to bring people, institutions and products together to a common understanding of shared value.
Eric was the Functional Champion in the Rest of Africa Support Unit of the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa where his previous role was that of Head of the IDC Academy which, among other functions, was responsible for the training of small and medium enterprises.
Prior he was the Head of Training at the then Stanbic Africa Division of the Standard Bank Group where earlier he served in a similar capacity in Uganda and Zimbabwe. Previously, he was an academic at the Zimbabwe Open University and University of Zimbabwe. Before becoming an academic he spent many years as a trainer, training manager and senior editor in various public and private sector institutions where his focus area was the training and capacitation of small and medium enterprises. He started his working life as a school teacher.
Born in Durban, South Africa in 1958, he emigrated to Zimbabwe in his youth where he was largely educated. He holds a Teaching Diploma, a Bachelor of Education and Master of Education degree as well as a Global Executive Development Programme diploma.
Vinny Lingham, Co-founder and CEO, Civic Technologies
Vinny Lingham is Co-founder and CEO of Civic Technologies. Prior he was the CEO of San Francisco-based startup Yola.com. Yola (previously known as SynthaSite) was established in 2007 and raised $25 million in funding from Johann Rupert's LXE & JSE listed Reinet Fund. Yola is the world's leading easy-to-use, browser-based, website development software for SMEs and groups, and it currently has over 2 million users worldwide.
Lingham has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Top Young ICT Entrepreneur in Africa (2006) and was also a finalist for the Men's Health Best Man (2009) and ICT Personality of the Year in South Africa (2008). He also previously founded Clicks2Customers, which also won the Top Technology Company award in South Africa in 2006 for its revolutionary search engine marketing software and services, with world-class clients such as Walmart.
Lingham has previously served on marketing advisory boards for NASDAQ-listed Valueclick and Yahoo, was also selected as anEndeavor "High Impact Entrepreneur" in 2006.
Lingham studied B.Com (information systems) at the University of Cape Town, but his entrepreneurial blood saved him from graduation in his final year of studies. He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife, Charlene, and he always enjoys a good round of golf or game of chess or poker.
Raymond Low, VP Finance, Corporate Controller , Apollomics
Raymond A. Low is VP of Finance, Corporate Controller at Apollomics. He was previously appointed as Chief Financial Officer of AXT in October 2009. He joined AXT as Corporate Controller in February 2005 and was promoted to Vice President, Corporate Controller in July 2006. From June 2004 to February 2005, Low was an independent consultant on a Sarbanes Oxley assignment. From May 2002 to June 2004, Low was Corporate Controller for Therasense Inc. (now Abbott Laboratories), a publicly traded manufacturer of blood glucose monitors. From April 2000 to May 2002, Low was corporate controller of RStar Networks Inc., a publicly traded Internet service provider. From April 1998 to April 2000, Low was Director of Accounting for AT&T. He spent three years in public accounting with BDO Seidman in San Francisco and three years in public accounting with Deloitte & Touche in South Africa. Low is a California certified public accountant and a member of the California Society of CPAs. He is a past member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in the United Kingdom. He has an MBA from Chadwick University, Alabama, a bachelor of accounting science degree (with honors) from the University of South Africa, and a bachelor of commerce degree from Rhodes University in South Africa.
Desmond Low-Kum, Director - Business Development, Blue River Partners, LLC.
Desmond Low-Kum is currently the Director of Business Development at Blue River Partners, LLC. He was previously Senior Manager of Operational Risk Management and Compliance at Stanford Management Company (SMC), which was established to manage Stanford University's financial and investment real estate assets. Low-Kum is responsible for planning, managing, and conducting the operational risk management/due diligence reviews for both pre-investment and ongoing investments. He has more than 25 years of experience working in private industry, public accounting, internal auditing, and operational investment management. He currently serves as the backup to the SMC Business Resumption Planning (BRP) Manager. In addition, during the course of conducting operational risk management reviews of managers, he reviews many BRP plans developed and implemented by the managers.
Prior to joining SMC, Low-Kum spent 16 years working at the university's Internal Audit and Institutional Compliance Department, with responsibility for managing audits in a number of diverse areas such as SMC (investment management), DAPER (Stanford Athletics), SLAC (High Energy Physics Laboratory), and the University Controller's Office. He joined the University's Internal Audit Department in November 1989 after working in internal audit in the S&L and mortgage banking industry in San Francisco and public accounting (KPMG in Johannesburg, South Africa). He qualified as a chartered accountant, a certified investments and derivatives auditor, an associate of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants, and a certified information systems auditor.
Low-Kum has a bachelor of commerce degree from Rhodes University, South Africa, and a bachelor of accounting science (with honors) from the University of South Africa. He is a past president (1998–1999) of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Information Systems Audit and Control. He has been a member of the Stanford Federal Credit Union supervisory committee (audit committee) since 1997.
Grant MacQuilkan, Principal, ICCG Capital
Grant MacQuilkan is a native of Cape Town, South Africa, and is the Principal at ICCG Capital. After earning his accounting degree, he worked as Manager at Armstrong/Nix & Associates before starting his own CPA firm, Bovard & MacQuilkan. He later founded Integrated Corporate Consulting Group, Inc., and ICCG Capital, which has since owned several companies in a variety of industries. He currently serves as CEO of certain portfolio companies and on the board of directors of all portfolio companies. He leads the consulting practice of ICCG and is a resource to all portfolio companies' accounting or bookkeeping personnel. MacQuilkan also serves several non-profit organizations and is involved in public policy matters at the municipal level.
Vincent Mai, Chairman and CEO, Cranemere LLC
Mr. Vincent A. Mai is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Cranemere LLC. Mr. Mai was the Chief Executive Officer, since 1989, and Chairman, since 1998 of AEA Investors LP. He led the firm in a new direction by committing it to extensive due diligence, successfully implementing operating improvements in portfolio companies, and working in close partnership with management teams to build businesses. Mr. Mai was intensively involved in every aspect of the firm’s decision-making process on all investments. Before joining AEA, Mr. Mai was a Partner at Lehman Brothers Inc. for 14 years. He was the Head of the International Investment Banking activities and a Co-Head of all their investment banking activities for three years. Before assuming management responsibilities at Lehman, Mr. Mai worked with a broad range of European and United States businesses on their strategic and capital-raising needs. He began his career at S.G. Warburg & Co. in London, where he became an Executive Director. During that period, Mr. Mai worked closely with Sir Siegmund Warburg, one of the co-founders of AEA. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Burt's Bees and on the Board of Sesame Workshop. Mr. Mai serves as a Member of the Board oft Li & Fung (Distribution) Ltd. He also serves on the Boards of the International Center for Transitional Justice and the Juilliard School. Mr. Mai has been a Director of Dal-Tile International, Inc., since October 1989. He served on the Boards of many AEA portfolio companies and was a Director of The Carnegie Corporation, Fannie Mae, and of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Mai is a qualified Chartered Accountant. He was educated at the University of Cape Town.
Nomaxabiso Majokweni, Advisory Board Member, AT Kearney
Majokweni is currently an Advisory Board Member with AT Kearney. She was the Chief Executive Officer of Business Unity South Africa and has held senior positions in both the private and public sectors over the past 20 years. She has undergone executive education training at the University of Stellenbosch Business School and IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland. After graduating from the University of Transkei in 1990 with a B.Com (honors) degree in economics, she started her career in organizational development and recruitment at Alusaf Hillside Smelter in Richards Bay, KwaZulu Natal.
In 1996, she was recruited to the DTI to become part of the first corps of post-liberation economic representatives. This group was sent abroad to position and market South Africa as a viable and competitive investment location and a source of high-quality value-added exports. Majokweni was posted to Hong Kong as the South African Commercial Attaché, also responsible for Southern China. She was later promoted to Washington D.C. as a Regional Director, responsible for the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Her tasks entailed interacting and influencing leading multinational corporations, multilateral organizations, business associations, media, and government. Her impressive success was recorded in facilitating expansions, re-investments, and new investments by various companies, including General Motors and General Electric.
In 2001, she returned to South Africa and was appointed Chief Operating Officer in Blue IQ, where she was responsible for strategic planning, operational efficiency, and subsequent commercialization of 11 multi-billion (rand) strategic smart-industries economic development projects spanning industries such as automotive, tourism, smart manufacturing, ICT, transport, and science and innovation centers. Her strategic and financial planning capability led to the successful implementation of impactful corporate strategies and business plans, as well as the establishment of project implementation vehicles such as Mbombela consortium for the Gautrain.
In May 2003, Majokweni was appointed CEO of Sandton Convention Centre. Leveraging her international and local business networks, she was able to turn the venue into an internationally preferred destination hosting a number of international conferences, exhibitions, and special events that had never been held in the country before. Her success in this position was anchored in a three-pronged business strategy that focused on operational and commercial excellence, market penetration and development, as well as making the centre an "Employer of Choice."
In 2006, she started a consultancy called L'Avant Group, which specialized in tourism and location marketing and customer experience optimization consulting. Over the past four years, the business has grown, and its clients include international and national government agencies, municipalities (local economic development), and hospitality establishments such as hotels and resorts.
Ludwick Marishane, Founder, Headboy Industries
Ludwick Marishane is a SABLE advisor founder of Headboy Industries, an invention development and commercialization company that works to bring innovative ideas to market. He evaluates proposed ideas, researches new clients, generates funding, and manages the overall operations of the company, among other responsibilities. Ludwick is also Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Exel@Uni. He also works for Google as the EMEA Campus Ambassador at the University of Cape Town, where he provides support and engagement opportunities for outstanding students in business, marketing, computer science, and other fields of study. Marishane has won numerous awards, including the 2011 Google Zeitgeist Young Mind Award. He is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in accounting and finance at the University of Cape Town.
Jose Marsal, Commercial Director Latin America , Danlaw Latin America
Jose Marsal is Managing Director at OneTierra Holdings, a “boutique” enterprise with a network of partners across Latin America and Asia. OneTierra specializes in Mobile-to-Mobile solutions, technical support services and emerging markets consultancy. As an emerging markets specialist, Marsal has been based in Johannesburg, Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur, and Mexico City over a ten-year period, with ongoing development projects in countries such as Chile, Colombia, Perú, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Singapore and Australia. His main focus and skill is the development of regional based operations and teams from inception to successful and profitable businesses. This entails multiple skills and flexibility with a hands-on approach and the ability to manage and collaborate with cross-regional teams, partners, government, and customers. Marsal was previously Ctrack´s Regional Director for the Lat-Am region, based in Mexico City. Ctrack is a South African listed company with operations in more than 50 countries. Marsal graduated with a bachelor's degree in business economics from Rhodes University and a master's degree from Stellenbosch University.
Mayan Mathen, Founder, Catalina Labs
Mayan Mathen is the founder of Catalina Labs, a startup in the home security/IoT space based in Silicon Valley. This stealth mode company aims to change the way consumers manage their digital lives in a world full of connected devices and complex home networks.
Mayan came to the Valley in 2013 to co-found NTT Innovation Institute (NTT i3), an applied R&D and Client Experience Center, for the world’s largest telecom provider. As NTT i3’s Chief Technology Officer, he established a high-tech customer experience center and applied R&D lab, directing projects for threat intelligence, SDN, NFV and cloud computing platforms designed to enable digital business. Mayan’s work with NTT i3 sparked engagements with CxOs of some of the world’s leading companies.
Mayan previously served as the Chief Technology Officer for Dimension Data Middle East and Africa in Johannesburg, where he led strategic efforts to develop technology offerings for enterprises and emerging markets in the region. Prior to his service as CTO, Mayan’s role in Dimension Data Group included travelling globally as an ambassador, storyteller and founding member of several new business units. In 2011, he was an honored nominee for the Computer Society of South Africa (CSSA) Visionary CIO Award.
Mathen is an accomplished speaker and widely recognized global technology leader who often presents at major conferences around the world. He is frequently invited to provide his insights, opinions and ideas to leading media, analysts, clients and vendors around the world. He is currently passionate about how businesses and consumers are embracing the evolution of the computing paradigm in the era of mobile computing. Transformative business models, industry changing innovations and the evolution of ICT policy and regulation are also key areas of keen interest.
Mathen is also passionate about science, travel, military aircraft and Formula 1 racing and frequently travels to airshows and races around the world. At 7 feet tall, he makes a big impression wherever he goes. In fact, when he’s travelling, tourists typically ask him to be part of their photo, rather having him take their picture.
Tasneem Mayet, Sustainability and Finance Director, Mayet Enterprises Limited
Tasneem Mayet has more than 18 years of experience in the international investment banking industry and advises companies on raising and investing capital. She began her career in Boston before moving to Singapore, and she now alternates between Dubai and London.
Mayet runs a consulting firm, headquartered in Dubai, that advises small to medium-size businesses on financing, M&A, IR, marketing, strategy, governance, philanthropy and succession. The firm also links entreprenuers with institutions to gain scale and access to capital.
In addition to presenting at conferences in London, Cairo, Jeddah and Dubai on company formation, acquisitions, regulation, IPO preparation, succession planning, philanthropy and shareholder value, Mayet has participated on jury panels for the Business Plan and SME awards.
Mayet‘s career includes tenures at Mashreq, Dubai World, Dubai Islamic Bank, Societe Generale and Bear Stearns subsidiaries or divisions. She has been involved in approximately $8 billion in public equity offerings in New York, London, Dubai and other bourses, in addition to around $60 million in private placements.
In her spare time, Mayet enjoys supporting educational initiatives and producing fine art photography. She is a South Africa-born graduate of the London School of Economics and Boston University, where she sits as a guest of the dean on the CAS Advisory Board.
Mayet can be reached at tasneem@mintwings.com.
Ian McGregor, Former Executive Vice President and General Manager, McCann Erickson
McGregor is formerly the Executive Vice President and General Manager of McCann Erickson Los Angeles, a leading advertising and communications agency. He graduated from Rhodes in 1969 and attributes much of his success to the outstanding education—academic, social, and sporting—that he was privileged to receive in Grahamstown. Following graduation, McGregor was hired into the Unilever S.A. Management development program in Durban, and in 1973 he joined Lintas Advertising, an IPG Company. He was transferred to the United States in 1980, where he has held senior management positions with several IPG companies. His clients have included leading blue chip companies Johnson & Johnson, Lever Bros, Nestle, and Northrop Grumman. In addition to numerous industry awards, he is particularly proud of the marketing successes he has been associated with, such as the introductions of J&J's Acuvue, the DirecTV satellite service, and Tivo. McGregor returned to South Africa on assignment from 1990–1992 as Chairman of Lintas South Africa and Regional Director for Southern Africa. McGregor is currently chair of the AAAA's Western Region Board of Governors, and is President of the Board of Governors of the Fulfillment Fund, an award-winning Los Angeles charity that provides mentoring and college access programs to under privileged students. McGregor is Zimbabwean by birth and married to Elizabeth, who is the Associate Head of a K-12 Los Angeles private school. McGregor has a daughter, Kaarin, who lives in Plettenberg Bay, and he and Elizabeth have two children: Lindsay, who recently graduated from Princeton, and James, who is a senior at Boston College.
David Meachin, Chairman and CEO, Cross Border Enterprises, LLC
David Meachin is Chairman and CEO for Cross Border Enterprises, LLC. He has served on public SEC-reporting company boards for 16 years, during which time he has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Board, Chairman of the Audit Committee, and a member of the Compensation and Governance committees. Companies on whose boards he has served include Lyondell Chemical Company (NYSE), a global Fortune 100 company that was sold in a going-private transaction for $19 billion cash for the equity and debt of the company; Millennium Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE), Ground Round (NASDAQ), and Metha Energy Solutions, Inc. (OTC). He also served on the board of an Indian emerging growth fund and is currently Chairman of Great-Karma.com, Inc., Chairman of ioGlobal, Inc., and a Director of SouthAfrica.io Holdings (Pty) Ltd. He serves or has served on a number of non-profit organizations' boards as Chairman, Vice Chairman, or Director, including the British American Educational Foundation and University of Cape Town Fund in the U.S. He is an Advisory Board member of Structured Credit International Corp. (SCIC) and of the South African Chamber of Commerce America (SACCA), and he is an XCEO Ambassador of XCEO, Inc. Meachin is a member of The Economic Club of New York, the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Corporate Directors Group, and the European American Chamber of Commerce in New York.
In 1991, Meachin founded Cross Border Enterprises, www.crossborderent.com, an internationally oriented boutique investment bank that assists IT- and technology-focused companies with their investment banking (M&A and financing) and business development needs. Previously, he served for 10 years as a Managing Director of Merrill Lynch & Company in New York after being associated with Salomon Brothers in New York and London and with Smith, Barney & Co. in New York and Tokyo. He started his career as a Project Engineer for Humphreys and Glasgow Ltd., a London-based international chemical plant contracting company.
Meachin is a frequent speaker and forum participant on issues of corporate governance, private equity, and investment banking at director conferences and university business and law schools in the U.S. and internationally. He has lived and worked in New York, Tokyo, London, Paris, South Africa, and Zimbabwe and traveled extensively on business in the U.S., Canada, Europe, China, India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Southern Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Meachin, who was born in Devon, England, and spent his formative years in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, is a citizen of both the U.S. and the U.K. He received his MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. He holds graduate qualifications from Cambridge University and the French Petroleum Institute, Paris (which he attended as the Total Oil Company Scholar from South Africa). He received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Cape Town, where he served on the Students' Representative Council (SRC), and a bachelor's degree in physical science (first class) from the University of Natal in South Africa, where he was the recipient of a SA Breweries scholarship and the Hilton College Old Boys scholarship. He matriculated (first class) from Hilton College in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
Michael Michael, VP of Operations, AIC Technologies
Michael Michael is currently Managing Director and VP Operations with AIC Technologies. His 32 years in IT started from his early days of coding Sinclair Basic on the ZX Spectrum, soldering components on the IBM XT.
Michael’s principal catalysts have been a combination of solid business acumen and in-depth technical experience, fueled by a passion for venturing into new territories and innovating technological solutions, primarily to overcome socio-economic limitations in order to improve lives. He regards technology as a tool for innovation, but his philosophy for growth and excellence is established on the art of human capital management and the pursuit of possibilities in the face of obstacles.
Michael has invaluable experience working in both the private and public sector, interacting both operationally and at C level, and where applicable, at the highest political levels. His education includes time spent at University of the North, University of Witwatersrand Business School, Damelin, Eskom Business College, Foster Melliar, Microsoft, Stratham Bryce, Sololearn, IDM, Starlink and RBTC.
Kheepe Moremi, Managing Partner, Mark to Market Capital
Kheepe is currently managing partner at Mark to Market Capital and a Director at VC Capital. He is a seasoned marketing, strategy and innovation professional with solid general management and entrepreneurial experience and a proven track record of improving operating performance of teams, businesses and brands. Previously holding positions such as the founder board member of the Marketing Association of South Africa, the founder marketing director of Brand South Africa, the executive lead of customer strategy at Deloitte Digital, an advisor to the Board Chair of Eskom, the head of strategy, innovation and marketing at FNB (a division of First Rand Bank), a marketing manager at Nedbank, and brand manager at African Bank and Procter & Gamble, Kheepe has also worked with and advised top leadership in government and in the private sector. He is an IE/Brown Executive MBA graduate and Strategy & Innovation graduate from Oxford University’s Said Business School.
David Muller, Vice President of Application Development, Populus Financial Group
David Muller is the Vice President of Application Development at Populus Financial Group. He was previously VP of Engineering at Experian Consumer Direct, leading the technical team that oversees the delivery of web and mobile applications for the consumer marketplace. He is passionate about data and KPIs, recognizing that the quality, content and relationship of data truly drive value for an organization.
Muller has more than 20 years of global experience in leading corporations in the successful delivery of cost-effective, high-performance solutions. He has solid experience in developing and implementing business strategies with relevant policy, building business support and allowing organizations to respond quickly as conditions change. His multi-industry knowledge and out-of-the-box thinking help organizations deliver lasting value to their customers.
An accomplished speaker, Muller has regularly presented at executive and technology conferences in North America, Hong Kong and Australia. Previously, Muller has worked at CoreLogic, Ingram Micro, IBM and Software AG. Muller completed the management development program in business administration and management from the University of South Africa.
Craig Mullett, Founder and President, Branison Group
Craig Mullett founded Branison Group in 2004 and has worked closely with his research team to grow the business through closing deals for clients. Craig was previously Director of Business Development for Amphenol Corporation, a $3bn NYSE electronics manufacturing firm and at the time a KKR portfolio company. In this role, he completed 24 acquisitions around the world.
Prior to this, he was General Manager of HomeWorths, a direct marketing business he started for the Wooltru Group, and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte & Touche.
Craig was Valedictorian of his MBA class at the Netherlands Business School at Nyenrode University, and has a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) degree from the University of Cape Town.
He also attended the International Leadership Academy of the United Nations in Jordan, and was a Rotary Business Exchange Scholar to Malawi and Finland.
Craig is currently an advisory director on several private and non-profit boards
Ralph Nefdt, Former Managing Partner, Grant Thornton LLP
Ralph Nefdt previously served as the Managing Partner of Grant Thornton LLP's Phoenix, Arizona office. Nefdt had been an audit partner with Grant Thornton LLP since joining the Firm in 2001. Prior to joining Grant Thornton, he worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Coopers & Lybrand in the U.S. (San Francisco and New York) and in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Before accepting his current role, Nefdt was located in Grant Thornton's San Francisco office, where he served as the firm's national Software Industry Practice leader. In addition to his portfolio of audit clients, Ralph served as the Professional Standards Partner (PSP) for the Greater Bay Area offices for many years. In that role he had responsibility for overseeing the offices' Risk Management and Professional Excellence policies and procedures in Northern California.
Liam Pedersen, Head of Automous Mobility, Nissan Motor Corporation
Liam Pedersen is currently developing a new generation of driverless vehicles at Nissan Motor Corporation's advanced research center in Silicon Valley. Pedersen was previously a robotics researcher at NASA Ames Research Center, building intelligent robot systems to look for life on Mars and thinking about the future of space exploration. His research interests are robotic rovers for planetary surface exploration and the application of autonomy for greatly increasing the science return of future Mars rovers. He led an effort to assess and predict space robotic capabilities to support NASA policy-making activities for future missions 10 and 20 years hence. During his time at NASA, he was the PI of a project to develop single-cycle instrument deployment and he lead the rover autonomy milestone demonstrations on the K9 rover. His most recent project was a solar and wind-powered robot that will traverse Antarctica to look for microbes in the ice. Pedersen was born in Cape Town, South Africa, before moving to the squats of London, then to the Greyhound bus terminals of the U.S.A. before being deported from Mexico and ending up in the Colombian jungle, where he avoided school and spent idyllic days fishing from a dugout canoe. Eventually, polite society caught up with him and he went to Chile, learning to read on the way. Upon returning to South Africa, he had to flee to Swaziland to avoid conscription and get more education before being allowed back into the United States as a Fulbright Scholar. Pedersen received bachelor's and bachelor's with honors degrees from Rhodes University in South Africa, an MSEE at George Washington University, and a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2001. He has worked extensively with rovers and planetary scientists in the Atacama Desert, the Canadian arctic, and Antarctica. He built the system onboard CMU's Nomad robot that allowed it to autonomously identify meteorites in Antarctica in January 2000.
Clinton Phillips, Founder & CEO, 2nd.MD
Clinton Phillips previously founded Aspen Back & Body in 2005, a front-runner in non-surgical rehabilitation for spine problems. The clinic helped 1,900 people avoid spine surgery and had over 40 of the Forbes 400 families as clients. Clinton also served as the Vice President for the Laser Spine Institute, a national leader in minimally invasive surgery, and he and his wife own the patent and business IdealStretch. He has been featured on CBS, ABC, Forbes, Aspen Peak, Town & Country, etc., and manages health matters for several royal families and U.S. leaders. He is also the founder and CEO of Medici, the WhatsApp of healthcare--on demand healthcare with your own doctor, therapist, vet and more.
Mark Pretorius, Venture Capitalist, Premanco Ventures
Mark Pretorius is the founder and Managing Partner of Premanco Ventures. He has over 20 year of experience in venture capital and international business development. Previously, he was a General Partner and Chief Operating Officer of Blumberg Capital, an early stage venture capital firm, and prior to this, he was the Investment Director for Invest Australia in Silicon Valley. He was also the General Manager for Datakor International, and spent the previous ten years with Unisys and MDS|Qantel focused on international information technology projects.
Past investments include: Allerez (acquired by Mercury Interactive), Callixa (acquired by SAP), CaseStack, Damballa, eVoice (acquired by AOL), Freshwater Software (acquired by Mercury Interactive / Hewlett Packard), Go Networks (acquired by Nextwave), LiteScape, IP Infusion (acquired by Access), PureSight (acquired by Boston Communications Group), QuestionBox, Siperian (acquired by Informatica), Vista Research (acquired by McGraw Hill).
Hendrik Pretorius, CEO and Immigration Lawyer, ImmiPartner
Hendrik Pretorius was born in South Africa and is Managing Partner of Lipson & Pretorius LLP (www.lipsonpretorius.com), a well-renowned boutique immigration law practice in the Bay Area of California.
Hendrik is currently the CEO and an Immigration Lawyer at ImmiPartner. He was previously with Lipson & Pretorius LLP which focuses primarily on helping foreign entrepreneurs and companies enter the U.S. market through counseling and processing of U.S. immigration cases. Hendrik also works with foreign investors seeking to invest capital into the U.S. economy in exchange for legal permanent residency (Green Card status). Lipson & Pretorius LLP also represents various well-established U.S. technology companies and two world-renowned University of California campuses.
Hendrik has spoken on the topic of the intersection between entrepreneurship and immigration law on many occasions at business incubator and accelerator programs as well as institutions such as UCLA, Santa Clara University, and others. Hendrik has been selected as a 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 Rising Star Super Lawyers, an honor given to only 2.5% of lawyers in the State of California.
Hendrik himself went through the immigration process after entering the U.S. in 2000 and obtained citizenship around 2006. Prior to that Hendrik lived in Pretoria, South Africa as well as Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Mexico City, Mexico as his father was Trade Consul in the South African diplomatic service.
Alan Rabinowitz, Chief Medical Officer, PHEMI
Dr. Rabinowitz is the co-founder of PHEMI Health Systems and serves as Chief Medical Officer of the company. He received his medical degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, completed his internal medicine and cardiology training at the University of Toronto and undertook subsequent training in interventional cardiology at St Paul’s Hospital, University of British Columbia. He is currently a cardiologist at St Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver and an Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Rabinowitz also serves as a consultant to numerous medical institutions and organizations globally on medical innovation and system improvement, and has initiated and facilitated multiple international physician educational and practice exchanges.
In his capacity as Director of the Coronary Care Unit at St Paul’s Hospital, Dr. Rabinowitz recognized the critical importance of disruptive data solutions in transforming healthcare to enhance patient care, research and innovation, and achieve sustainability of the healthcare ecosystem. This drove him to co-found PHEMI.
Richard Rabins, CEO and Co-Chairman, Alpha Software
Co-founder of Alpha Software Richard Rabins focuses on strategy, sales and marketing. He served as CEO of SoftQuad International from 1997 to 2001, when it owned Alpha. In addition to his 30 years with the company, Rabins played a key role as co-founder and served as President and Chairman of the Massachusetts Software Council (now the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council), the largest technology trade organization in Massachusetts. Prior to founding Alpha, Rabins was a project leader and consultant with Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), and a management consultant with Management Decision Systems, Inc. He holds a master's degree in system dynamics from the Sloan School at MIT, as well as a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in control engineering from University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has served on the boards of Silent Systems, Legacy Technology and O3B Networks and is co-founder of Tubifi.
Wayne Reuvers, Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer, Live Technology
Wayne Reuvers is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of LiveTechnology Holdings Inc., a developer of marketing and communications technology. As the visionary behind LiveTechnology, his fundamental roles are directing the strategic vision of LiveTechnology and overseeing the management and leadership of the research and development team, growing, perfecting, and evolving LiveTechnology's unique Marketing Resource Management Systems. Under his leadership, the business has successfully grown relationships with over 40 systems integrators, consultants, advertising, brand, and media agencies, providing them with technology to help manage their clients' brands, marketing, and communications on a global, national, and local level. These channels, by applying their strategic thinking and creativity to the technology, have provided solutions to more than 85 corporations, including GE, Microsoft, McDonald's, AOL, AT&T, Cingular, NEXTEL, Dell, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Nissan, Honda, Renault, Peugeot, Texaco, Shell, Coke, Pepsi, Sony, Philips, Hyatt Hotels, Best Western Hotel Group, Embassy Suites, AARP, Allstate, AIG, Bank of America, and others.
Reuvers, at the age of 14, developed, marketed, and sold Graph-IT, a stock-market technical analysis software product for the Apple computer, which sold successfully to banks, stock broking firms, and individual investors. He formed ICT in South Africa in 1987 and specialized in strategic business development, servicing local and international clients including UAL, Investec, NedCor, Yellow Pages, and Old Mutual. For approximately three years, beginning in 1989, he consulted in Germany and the U.K. for leading companies, including Steinmuller AG, Linde Tvt, John Laing PLC, Ralph M. Parsons Ltd., London Underground Ltd., London Regional Transport Ltd., Anglo American Corporation, Old Mutual, and British Rail. In 1992, Reuvers designed and managed the development of Gilt Manager, a bond-derivative modeling software that was later sold to Reuters. In 1995, he pioneered biometric fingerprint recognition technology and oversaw its implementation and roll-out by the South African government for its pension fund payments via mobile cash dispensing vehicles linked wirelessly. This included optimizing Printrack's (U.S.A.) minutiae algorithm from 1 minute 32 seconds to just 7 seconds, allowing these mobile ATMs to process more than 4 million pensioners per month. In 1996, by consolidating his two businesses, ICT and DISC (Dealing and Investment Systems and Consultancy), Reuvers formed LiveTechnology International, creating one of South Africa's first interactive consulting, information publishing, and content management companies. Within two years LiveTechnology became one of the largest South African interactive companies, and in 1998 it went public on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as a key component of Paradigm Interactive Media Group. In 1999, Reuvers conducted a management buy-out and took LiveTechnology to the U.S. in late 1999.
In 1999, he and his team completed the design of a revolutionary, object-oriented database (LiveOODB) and XML structured language (LiveServer) markup language.
Sean Riskowitz, Managing Partner, Riskowitz Capital Management, LLC
Sean Riskowitz is the Managing Partner of Riskowitz Capital Management LLC, a New York City-based investment manager. He is the General Partner of the Riskowitz Value Fund LP, which invests exclusively in listed South African equity securities. He also co-founded and is Chairman of Midbrook Lane (Pty) Ltd. in South Africa, which has generated a strong performance record since 2007.
Riskowitz began investing at a young age and employs a value-oriented investment strategy to construct a concentrated portfolio of high-quality but mispriced equities in the South African stock market.
Riskowitz previously worked in wealth management and journalism in Johannesburg. He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a bachelor of commerce degree.
Caroline Rowland, Founder, Egoli Media, Inc.
Credited by The Observer as being one of the 10 most influential people in bringing the Olympic Games to London, Caroline Rowland is a senior level strategist who has helped 10 cities and countries secure hosting rights to major international sports events and has supported six organizing committees in their destination marketing, audience engagement and commercial partnership campaigns when hosting major events.
Over the last 20 years, Caroline has become recognized as both a formidable business leader and prolific global film-maker and story-teller. She is currently the founder of Egoli Media, Inc. She founded New Moon in 1996 and grew the business to become a multi-million dollar strategic and creative agency, producing over 120 award-winning promotional and documentary films over that period.
Now living between California and London, Caroline is British / Swiss citizen and was educated in South Africa. She has twice been nominated as Entrepreneur of the Year in Britain, was awarded South African Woman in Business of the Year in 2013 and nominated as British South African Business Leader of the year in 2015. In 2016, Caroline was awarded the Distinguished Rhodian Award by her Alma Mater, Rhodes University.
Her creative awards include an Emmy nomination for ‘FIRST: The Official Film of the London 2012 Olympic Games’ as well as the New York Festivals Grand Prix and IVCA Grand Prix for her work for London 2012.
Caroline’s strategic advisory skills stem from her high level of exposure to business and government on five continents, her extensive network of global contacts in sport, education and the arts, a strong understanding of rights, digital content strategy and execution as well as audience acquisition and stakeholder engagement campaigns.
Caroline is highly commercially astute, but with a strong creative insight and enviable global network. She brings a pragmatic approach to problem solving at a senior level as well as being an inspirational presenter and interviewer.
A former competitive swimmer, Caroline is an enthusiastic horsewoman, golfer, private pilot and keen skier.
Simon Roy, President and CEO, Jemstep
Simon Roy is a South African-born, early-stage technology entrepreneur who focuses on business strategy, corporate development, and fundraising. His roles have ranged from active founder and CEO to board member and angel investor. The companies he has worked with include a vertically focused ERP company, an enterprise-focused gaming company, an eBusiness exchange, a social media company, a physician point-of-care order system, an online data storage company, and an enterprise security company. Roy is currently working with Jemstep Inc., an early-stage, web-based personal finance service founded in South Africa, as EVP of Corporate Development. Roy has served on the boards of General Electric Retail Systems (GERS) Inc., Jemstep, Accrue Software Inc., MySpace, and Seriosity Inc., among others.
Roy moved to Silicon Valley in 1996 as CEO and President of Accrue Software Inc., where he successfully led the evolution of the early product concept into a company delivering eBusiness analysis solutions to the enterprise. During his tenure at Accrue, the venture-funded company was selected by Fortune magazine as one of the "Top 25 Cool Companies" of 1997. He was a frequent speaker at technology forums, including Agenda and Internet World. The company was listed on NASDAQ (ACRU) and was subsequently taken private under the name Datanautics.
From 1989 to 1996, Roy worked at the strategy consulting firm of McKinsey & Company Inc. as a senior engagement manager in their New York offices. At McKinsey, he worked closely with management of various Fortune 100 technology and financial services companies to restructure, develop, and implement competitive strategies to drive growth and increase profits. His clients included large money center banks, brokerage firms, R&D laboratories, and technology-based telecom equipment companies. In 1995, Roy took a leave of absence from McKinsey and Co. to successfully lead the turnaround of Ensign Clothing Limited, a public company in South Africa. In a nine-month period, he successfully restructured the company's business and finances, averting liquidation and achieving a four-times return to investors.
In addition to his commercial activities, Roy devoted two years, pro bono, to lead the real estate acquisition and construction of a $24 million campus for the Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto, California. He served on Hausner board for six years, including two years on the executive board as VP of Real Estate, and was the 2003 recipient of the Henry Lehmann Award. He is also an alumnus of the Wexner Heritage Foundation leadership program. In 1989, he earned his MBA in finance with distinction from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1982, he earned his bachelor's degree in business science with honors in economics from the University of Cape Town. During his conscription military service, Roy was a faculty member and an economics lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch. Roy lives with his wife and three children in Los Altos, California, and enjoys cycling, surfing, and snowboarding.
Pumela Salela, Country Head, Brand South Africa
Pumela Salela is the Country Head for the United Kingdom (UK) under Brand South Africa, the custodian of the South Africa Country Brand. Her role is to market South Africa in the UK, attract foreign direct investment (fdi) into South Africa, mobilise Global South Africans (GSA) abroad and to manage the brand reputation of South Africa. Prior to serving in this role Pumela was the Chief Director for Economic Policy Development and Planning at the Department of Economic Development in South Africa.
Ms. Salela is a Board member of the Global Sourcing Council, an Ambassador for Sustainable and Socially Responsible Outsourcing in Africa, and sits on the Executive Committee of the Tri-Sister City Alliance (TriSCA), the first Sister City Alliance between BRICS cities in order to create jobs for knowledge workers. She was appointed to be in the Advisory Council of the World BPO Forum, which is considered “the Davos of BPO”. Pumela also serves in the Advisory Board of the World Summit on Internet and Social Media (WSIM). Pumela is also an advisor to a digital finance institution called Digifin. The Rockefeller Foundation acknowledged her contribution and innovation in formulating systems which address poverty by selecting Salela to be one the 18 global recipients of the foundation’s inaugural Global Fellowship on Social Innovation – the only South African to receive the honour.
Pumela has also worked as a BPO/ITeS Consultant for the World Bank, based at the organisation’s United States headquarters in Washington D.C. and a Director: BPO and O (Business Process Outsourcing and Offshoring) and Information Communications Technology (ICT) Enabled Services at the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), South Africa, where she was responsible for drafting strategies and policies to create an enabling environment for the BPO and ICT sectors in South Africa. The Director role was preceded by her position as Deputy Director for Investment Promotion at Trade and Investment South Africa (TISA – within the dti), where she was responsible for attracting and negotiating with potential foreign investors to set up BPO operations in South Africa. Pumela worked for a number of years in various marketing roles in FMCG multinationals and media organisations in South Africa and the United Kingdom before joining the public sector. She has also been a lecturer in Strategic Brand Management at VEGA, The School of Branding.
Salela studied to complete her MBA with distinction (cum laude) in England through a Nelson Mandela Scholarship. In her private capacity, Pumela is the Chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Scholarship Alumni Association and a Mentor to Graca Machel Scholars. She is featured in the 2013 issue of the book: South Africa’s Most Inspirational Women. She has also been featured in 2012 issue DESTINY magazine as one of South Africa’s Young and Powerful Achievers. In 2013 DESTINY magazine showcased her as one of the Top 40 young leaders, innovators and job creators in South Africa (2013). Ms Salela has served as an On-air Advisor to investors on an Entrepreneurship Television Show called Rize Mzansi (meaning Rise South Africa) aired in the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in 2014.
Lawrence Seeff, Angel Investor and Entrepreneur, Better Place
Lawrence Seeff leads the Global Alliances group for Better Place. In this role, he works to establish strategic alliances, partnerships, and other value-added business relationships with companies that operate globally within the Better Place ecosystem. These include industry leaders in the energy and technology sectors, as well as global integrators and suppliers.
Seeff has more than 20 years of experience in leading and growing privately held, billion-dollar firms in the global real estate and financial sectors.
Before joining Better Place, he founded South African real estate group Seeff Properties. In his 20 years as Chairman and CEO, the company grew to over $1 billion (U.S.) in sales, with 250 branch offices and 1,000 employees.
Seeff also was a co-founder and served as CEO of OOBA, South Africa's leading home loan facilitator. With his guidance, OOBA—formerly known as MortgageSA—achieved sales of more than $4 billion (U.S.).
In addition, Seeff has been a member of the board of directors for Upside Wireless, a global messaging solution provider based in Vancouver.
During the course of his extensive business career, Seeff also played cricket professionally in South Africa and represented the country in international matches.
Larraine Segil, Partner Emeritus, Chair & CEO, Vantage Partners
Larraine Segil was born in South Africa and holds BA in Latin and English, a BA Honors in Latin and Classics, a JD & an MBA. She is a seasoned Senior Executive with entrepreneurial general management experience, along with a high level of expertise in strategic cross cultural conflict resolution, and the creation, implementation and management of complex global business alliances in various industries; healthcare, technology, consumer products, manufacturing, aerospace and financial services. Additionally, Larraine has startup and turnaround experience with an immense knowledge of innovative problem solving. Larraine has lived in South Africa, Canada and the Middle East, which has enabled her to understand how to develop buy-in for complex change management in cross cultural organizations.
Larraine has served at many Global 100 and Fortune 500 companies assisting them with creating and managing their critical business relationships with suppliers, customers, alliances, joint ventures or channel partners. She has held many high ranking positions ranging from CEO at an Advanced Materials company, Instructor of Executive Education in Alliances at Caltech, serving on the board of the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance and also has served on the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO/World Health Organization Advisory Group, that is just to name a few. She is also currently the Chair and CEO at The Exceptional Women Awardees Foundation.
Larraine currently holds many positions at various companies. She is Partner Emeritus of Vantage Partners, Member of the Board of Frontier Communications (NASDAQ:FTR), Board Member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Texas, and serves on the Board of Governors at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, among others.
In addition to her accomplished work history, she has also authored a total of six books; one fiction and five business books and has composed cookbooks and children's books and two music CD’s. She now runs an sustainable urban farm, making goat cheese and jams.
Clive J. Shiff, PhD, Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Shiff serves as an Associate Professor at John’s Hopkins within the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Department. His main research interests are in the study of tropical parasitic diseases, particularly schisosomiasis and malaria under African conditions. In this capacity, he also serves as the PI and lead scientist running the Malaria Institute at Macha, Zambia. This functions as a core facility for the Research community at Johns Hopkins University, with a focus on field research. A South-African native, he has successfully championed an environmental, Africa-specific model for the west’s response to parasitic diseases in the continent of his birth. Due to his expertise, he holds a position within the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Integrated Vector Control, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Committee on DDT and its use against malaria. He received his Master of Science and PhD in Zoology at Rhodes University.
Mark Simoncelli, Global Senior Vice President: Growth Implementation Solutions, Frost & Sullivan
Mark is a seasoned Management Consultant and Senior Executive with a specific focus on Business Growth having led over 100 Strategy and Implementation projects across all geographic regions and most core industry segments. Mark is also recognized as a thought leader in Digital Transformation with a particular focus in helping companies monetize digital products and services. Mark has twice been awarded as the Deal Maker of the Year (2013 & 2014) for M&A transactions. During his career Mark has helped Fortune 500 companies generate and realize multimillion dollar opportunities and has built a global consulting practice. As a Rhodes alum, he proudly flies the banner globally in his various interactions and partnerships. A resident of California with his beautiful wife Bronwyn and beloved three sons; Camren, Nathan and Jedd. Mark has been blessed to have travelled the world with work to 52 Countries and 20 States within the US and still counting. Extremely passionate about the topic of Growth (Industry, Business, Team and Individual) and the multifaceted levels of enabling successful business outcomes. His educational grounding at Rhodes has certainly helped lay the foundation for forecasting and understanding trends coupled with the ability to systematically implement solutions in response to these opportunities.
Eric Smit, Chief Financial Officer, eGain
Eric Smit, Chief Financial Officer, brings over 15 years of finance and operations experience to his position. Previously, he was with WhoWhere? Inc. as Director of Finance since 1996. Prior to WhoWhere?, he served as Vice President of Operations and Chief Financial Officer of Velocity Inc., a software game publisher and developer. Prior positions held by Eric Smit included Controller for Reference Software International until its acquisition by WordPerfect Corp. Smit began his career in accounting at Laticorp, Inc. and Centennial Savings and Loan. He received his Bachelor of Commerce degree from Rhodes University, South Africa.
Stephen South, Co-Founder, Data Science & Functional Programming (Scala, Java 8, Clojure, Elixir, JavaScript/ES6) , Source Coders
Stephen South is the Co-Founder of Bridge Noble, an international boutique technology recruitment consultancy with offices in the UK and USA. He is an expert on open source development and big data, and has extensive experience helping companies of all sizes grow their software and web development teams.
Originally from South Africa, Stephen began his career as a VB/SQL software developer. He then switched to recruiting software developers and joined one of the most respected IT recruitment companies in the UK, Huntress, where he worked for almost five years as an Associate Consultant and Team Leader.
Mike Spicer, Former CEO, Business Leadership South Africa
Michael Spicer is Vice President of Corporates and Africa at Business Leadership South Africa. Previously, he was BLSA's Chief Executive Officer for 6.5 years. He rose in a 20-year career at the company to be an Executive Vice President at Anglo American PLC and Executive Director of Anglo American South Africa. In his early career, he worked at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and the South African Institute of International Affairs (Jan Smuts House), where he was Deputy Director. He remains on the Board of Anglo American South Africa in a non-executive capacity, is a board member of Rothschild South Africa and Accelerate Cape Town, and was appointed non-executive Chairman of BDFM in March 2011.
Spicer has a wide involvement in business and public life. He is Vice President of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) and was appointed in 2006 as an inaugural member of the Presidential International Advisory Board of Mozambique and now chairs that body. He is also immediate past Chairman of the Council at St. John's College, from which he matriculated before completing his bachelor's and master's degrees in history at Rhodes University with distinction. He joined the Board of Governors of Rhodes University in November 2009 and was appointed Chairman in May 2012.
Rory Stear, Executive Chairman, Flambard Holdings
Stear is the Executive Chairman of MobileWave Group PLC, of Flambard Holdings, a privately held international investment company, and Lifeline Technology, a micro-energy social enterprise focused on the aid and development sector. Stear co-founded Freeplay Energy, an award-winning micro-energy company that pioneered renewable energy products for use in the developing world, which was sold in 2008. He founded Lifeline Energy (formally the Freeplay Foundation) in 1998. Lifeline Energy is a multi-award-winning charity registered in the U.S.A., U.K., and South Africa. Stear has extensive experience in the areas of building businesses, corporate social responsibility, raising capital, and leading organizations. He has operated globally for the last 20 years, especially in the U.S.A., U.K., Africa, and Asia.
Stear is a frequent speaker at dinners, business schools, and conferences around the world on his vision of business being a force for social responsibility. He is a member of the Dean's Council at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a member of the advisory board at the Business School at Nelson Mandela University. He was a member of the Renewable Energy Council for the Global Agenda at the World Economic Forum from 2009 to 2010 and a fellow of the Schwab Foundation at the World Economic Forum from 2002 to 2010. In 2009, he was a judge in the WEF Technology Pioneers program, and he is a member of the London Chapter of the Young President's Organization. Stear was named an Entrepreneur of the Year byBusinessWeek magazine in January 2000 and was featured in the "Agenda" issue of Fast Company; was a 2007TIME/CNN/FORTUNE Principal Voice and a 2007 TIME "Hero of the Environment." He is a recipient of the Theodor Herzl Award from the Jerusalem Fund and twice traveled (to the U.S.A. and U.K.) as a member of delegation with former South African President Nelson Mandela. In 2010, he accompanied South African President Jacob Zuma to the U.K. and to India as a member of his business delegation.
Anthony Stonefield, Former General Manager - Global Technology & African Innovation Investments, MBD Asset Managers AG
Anthony Stonefield is a seasoned innovation executive with over 24 years of front-line entrepreneurial experience building disruptive ventures, and designing, productizing and deploying applications for Mobile/Telecoms, Digital Media & Marketing, Biomedical, FinTech, AgriTech and Green Energy. For MBD Asset Managers (www.mbdam.ch), he sources and develops investment opportunities both in the technology field globally and within the Sub-Sahara Africa context where he works closely with the Alternative Initiatives for the Development of Africa (www.aida.co.bw).
Listed as “one of the top 50 mobile content executives” by Mobile Entertainment Magazine, Stonefield pioneered the $8 billion downloadable song industry (in cooperation with AT&T/Bell Labs) in 1995; popularized ringtones in 2000, driving over $1.5 billion in content sales through his first start-up company and catalyzing what became a $9 billion mobile content market; developed and ran a key Internet communication project at Qualcomm Labs; and co-founded a groundbreaking therapeutic stem cell company.
Stonefield advises or mentors 12 dynamic start-ups through business accelerators, technology incubators and NPO’s such organizations as the International Labor Organization, and he routinely judges tech innovation contests like UNESCO’s Innovation Prize for Africa and DEMO Africa. He has co-authored 11 patents and has degree in biology is from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Shaun Tomson, Associate, Walter Wilhelm and Associates
Tomson is a World Surfing Champion and is recognized in the South African Sports Hall of Fame as well as the U.S. Surfing Hall of Fame. In addition to his athletic success, Tomson has established himself as a successful entrepreneur. Since earning his degree in business administration and finance from the University of Natal, Tomson has established two successful clothing brands—Instinct and Solitude. He is also an author, speaker, and the writer and producer of Bustin' Down the Door, a documentary film. Based on his personal experiences in life and business, he has created a business philosophy based on his book, Surfer's Code: 12 Simple Lessons for Riding Through Life, which focuses on the impact that positive values can have on the way businesses connect, communicate, and collaborate. His philosophy has influenced and inspired many major brands, including General Motors, Google, and Disney. Learn more at http://shauntomson.com/.
Cedric Tyler, CEO & Founder, BusinessGenetics & xBML Innovations / Barifor (Pty) LTD
Cedric Tyler is a leading global expert in the fields of business modeling, business process, and information technology. He began his career with IBM in the IT industry. He spent many years in this field and also worked on cutting-edge technologies in an applied research capacity for IBM at IBM's showcase development facility (RESPOND) in the U.K. Subsequently, Tyler founded INFOMET (Pty) LTD and Infolab, two international companies specializing in the business-to-information technology interface. These companies were acquired by IBM in the early 1990s.
Tyler is the principle inventor of the breakthrough xBML™ (eXtended Business Modeling Language) methodology, a rule-based, synoptic, and formal language for describing business. This approach is hailed by leading analysts as potentially "industry-changing," "unique," and "one of a kind" (Gartner®, 2007). xBML has also been hailed as the successor to classical 20th century process maps. The approach provides a unique capability to develop and leverage business models across a multitude of corporate initiatives, ranging from business improvement/optimization, business requirements definition, Sarbanes-Oxley, and other regulatory compliance to outsourcing, mergers, and acquisitions. Tyler is a principal of BusinessGenetics Inc., an international organization that provides training and professional services, and he serves on the board of xBML Innovations, which provides a comprehensive xBML software solution suite and affinity solutions.
Tyler recently published Business Genetics: A Business Management Tool for 21st Century Commerce (Wiley 2007), a book that challenges and confronts mainstream thinking and theories and introduces a revolutionary, unique approach to foundationally rethinking the manner in which we describe, plan, and improve business. Tyler and his company have consulted to and advised many leading Fortune corporations and the federal government. He holds a bachelor of commerce degree with economics and business administration majors (Rhodes University) and has served as an adjunct professor at the Daniels College of Business (executive MBA program).
Roelof van Ark, Former CEO, Independent Freelancing , California High-Speed Rail Authority
Van Ark is a senior executive with more than 30 years experience as an engineer and manager for some of the world's leading transportation companies. He brought tremendous expertise and leadership to implement California's 800-mile, high-speed rail system.
He was President at Alstom Transportation Inc. for more than five years and previously served as President of Aviation Security for Invision Technologies Inc. He also spent more than 20 years as an executive, managing director, general manager, senior technical manager, and senior project engineer for Siemens—the manufacturers of the popular ICE high-speed trains—working in Germany, South Africa, and most recently in Sacramento, California, where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens Transportation Systems from 1999 to 2002. He is currently board director and strategic executive consultant as an independent freelancer.
Van Ark holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and an MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Jean-Marie van der Elst, CEO, Director, TAS Forensics LLC
Jean-Marie, CEO of TAS Forensics LLC, has been an academic in the field of Finance and Economics and an international executive as CFO & CEO in multinational corporations with more than 30 years of experience. Jean-Marie is a financial & business forensic expert on financial and economic matters involving civil and criminal court proceedings, arbitrations and mediations in South Africa and internationally. Jean-Marie is also Director at The Berkeley Research Group LLC. He has successfully negotiated settlements to material disputes, and is associated with Greg Johnson Forensic Consulting who has more than 25 years forensic experience in domestic and international matters. TAS Forensics has grown into an accredited and valued team with colleagues in South Africa, Europe and the USA.
He holds a Masters degree in Finance, has completed the Corporate Finance Program at London Business School, the Senior Executive Program at Colombia University, NY, and is a full member of the ACFEI (American College of Forensic Examiners Institute). He has enrolled for a D.BA at the Florida Institute of Technology and is involved with Groundswell Ventures, mentoring, promoting and helping to develop start-up businesses in Brevard County, Florida. Prior to his employment at TAS Forensics Services, Jean-Marie was the Group Manager at Coca-Cola Sabco in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. His past employments have seen him working in Russia & the Baltics, Tanzania, South Africa, Switzerland, and London.
Jean-Marie speaks French, Spanish, English, Deutsch, and Afrikaans, and is very active in volunteer work involving children and social services.
Etienne van Straaten, Trade and Relations Development Specialist, Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Etienne holds qualifications in human resources management, public administration and international trade and commerce.
Audrey Elizabeth Verhaeghe, Chairman, SA Innovation Summit
Audrey Verhaeghe is currently a chairman at SA Innovation Summit, and a board member at ANZA Capital. Previously, she was CEO of the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS) and championed the SA Innovation Network (Saine). RIIS was born out of a passion for the successful implementation of innovation. It is based on the recognition that our future impact, economic growth and overall sustainability will depend on how well we are able to develop our own innovative capabilities as well as harness the innovative opportunities that present themselves in the organizations we work for. The need for organizations to instill continuous corporate renewal has become imperative for their sustainability in the environment and industries of the future.
Verhaeghe's most recent passion in business is for open innovation, and RIIS has an agreement with NineSigma, the world's largest open innovation platform, to bring the concept and tools of open innovation to South Africa.
Innovation, entrepreneurship and business sustainability are her primary focus areas in business. She has been an adjudicator at various innovation competitions. Innovation projects include strategy, audits, surveys, consulting, implementations, research and training. She has published a number of articles and conference papers on innovation as a business process in publications such as SA Innovator, Business Today and CPSI. Learn more at www.riis.co.za.
Chris Vermeulen, Mentoring Programme Manager, Angel's Resource Center
Chris Vermeulen is currently Mentoring Programme Manager at the Angel's Resource Center. He is also the Founder and CEO of Let'sTalk. He was formerly the General Manager of the Bandwidth Barn, a subsidiary of the Cape IT Initiative that serves as a business accelerator for information and communications technology start-ups in the Western Cape. Formed in 2000, the Bandwidth Barn is now widely recognized as the most successful IT incubator in South Africa. Vermeulen previously held roles at Cisco Entrepreneur Institute and the Cape IT Initiative and also served as Chief Operating Officer for MSA. He holds an MBA with specialization in Entrepreneurship from the University of Liverpool.
Peter von Moltke, Former Executive Director, Founder & Managing Partner, MECLABS Institute
Peter von Moltke is a leading airline and travel industry executive. With more than 30 years of industry experience, he has founded, grown, and managed a wide variety of prominent technology and service-oriented businesses, both nationally and internationally.
Currently, Peter is the Founder and Managing Partner at Vomo Ventures Aviation & Travel Consulting Co. Previously, he was the President of UBM Aviation, a wholly owned subsidiary of UBM Corporation, a global media, event, data services, and news distribution company headquartered in London with eight other offices worldwide. The UBM Aviation business includes several global aviation brands, including OAG, OAG Cargo, Routes, ASM aviation consulting, Aircraft Purchasing and Maintenance Exhibition, Airport Cities Exhibition, and several aviation publications.
After graduating with honors from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg with a degree in aeronautical engineering, and after initially working at Boeing as an aircraft performance engineer, von Moltke soon found himself at System One Corporation, which provided IT solutions to the airline and travel industry worldwide. He held various positions in flight operations product management, sales and marketing, and systems engineering at System One, played a leading role in a number of company acquisitions and joint venture efforts. He was instrumental in establishing the company as a leader in its marketplace.
After five years at System One, von Moltke moved on to American Airlines Decision Technologies (AADT), which was then a subsidiary of AMR Corporation. He built the first sales and marketing organization for the company—which was a start-up at the time—and provided decision support software and consulting services to the aviation industry. He led the company in its establishment of a new corporate identity, including all branding and associated marketing strategies, and he initiated and subsequently led the introduction of new software maintenance and support services, the first help desk, as well as the first legal department. His drive and vision helped the company grow external revenues from under $2 million to more than $25 million in less than three years. Von Moltke played an instrumental role in merging AADT into the Sabre Group, which became the global leader in providing distribution and IT-related services to the commercial airline, travel, and transportation industry. During his 10 years at the Sabre Group, von Moltke also held positions of President, AMRIS, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and Senior Vice President–Asia-Pacific.
As Managing Director–Asia-Pacific at Orbitz, LLC, von Moltke was a key member of the executive team that earned Orbitz the largest and most successful launch in Internet history, helping to establish the company as one of the word's largest Internet-based travel portals.
As President and CEO of Lufthansa Systems Americas, Inc., a provider of IT products and services to airlines and travel companies worldwide, von Moltke led a major restructuring effort, refocused sales and marketing, and implemented a new technology framework within his first 12 months. During his leadership at Lufthansa, revenues increased by more than 300 percent, profitability improved from a significant loss to a respectable profit margin, and customer satisfaction improved significantly. He also sold numerous flight operations contracts in the region (UPS, Air Canada, Federal Express, and United Airlines).
He also served as Senior Vice President of Airline Business Group at Amadeus Americas, a global leader in providing distribution and technology services to the travel industry. At Amadeus, he established a global sales, marketing, and operations partnership for a Low Cost Carrier passenger reservations system. He led the final rounds of GDS content negotiations with the major North American airlines and played a key role in closing a major contract with the Star Alliance and United Airlines called "Star Common Platform." In addition, he led the team for the successful sale and implementation of international websites for American Airlines and US Airways.
Von Moltke has served on the advisory boards of several global aviation and technology companies. He lives with his wife, Mic, and son, Dion, in Coral Gables, Florida. His passions include a deep love for his home country, South Africa, for which he serves as a brand ambassador, and for motor racing. His son, Dion, is a world-renowned professional racecar driver. His primary hobbies include helping launch website businesses and photography.
John Wannenburg, Principal, Wannenburg & Associates
John Wannenburg has more than 30 years of corporate and agency experience in public relations and marketing on two continents, having emigrated to the United States from South Africa in 1996.
Wannenburg is the principal of Wannenburg & Associates, a strategic PR and communications consulting company. Recent projects have included assisting Tuck School of Business, ranked by The Economist as the number one business school in the world, with a strategy to raise awareness for the school in Southern Africa, and raising awareness for a name change of the North American division of an international leader in delivering fresh, world-class product and service solutions to global fruit trading partners. Previously, he was a partner at Robinson Packer & Wannenburg where he worked with companies in numerous industries to lead initiatives that focused on corporate turnaround, growth, and raising corporate profiles.
Wannenburg also has significant crisis communications experience and is as adept at keeping clients' names out of the media as he is raising their awareness. Other than his agency experience—including a shareholder position in South Africa's third largest PR agency—he has significant corporate experience. In the U.S., he served as Vice President of Corporate Public Relations for ARAMARK, and he held executive marketing and sales positions with Ford Motor Company and Xerox in South Africa.
Wannenburg earned degrees in English and law at Rhodes University in South Africa.
Bernard Wolfsdorf, Managing Partner, Wolfsdorf Immigration Law-Group
Bernard P. Wolfsdorf is a recent past President of AILA and Managing Partner of the top-rated Wolfsdorf Immigration Law Group, with offices in Los Angeles and New York. With 17 lawyers and almost 50 professionals, the firm is known worldwide for its excellence in providing value and top-quality global immigration representation. Wolfsdorf Immigration has been described by Chambers USA as "a force to be reckoned with."
For the previous three years, Wolfsdorf was named the "most highly rated immigration lawyer in the world" by the peer-reviewedInternational Who's Who of Business Lawyers, the official research partner of the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association. Who’s Who 2012 Editor-in-Chief Callum Campbell said, “Bernard Wolfsdorf received unrivalled levels of praise from sources both in private practice and in-house across the globe, and we are delighted to declare him the leading lawyer in the world for corporate immigration work once again.” Wolfsdorf achieved the most votes from his peers worldwide and has been recognized as "an undoubted leader" and "one of the prestigious names in the field" who "knows his stuff back to front." Chambers Global’s World's Leading Lawyers for Business Guide noted his "outstanding consular law practice" and called him a "cutting-edge thinker."
Wolfsdorf has had a major impact on the practice of immigration law and a long history of commitment to AILA. He is the recipient of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Service Excellence Award for outstanding volunteer services advancing the mission of AILA for its members and the public. He has contributed thousands of volunteer hours for the association and its members.
Chambers USA America's Leading Lawyers describes him as "[o]ne of the hardest-working immigration lawyers around…He continues to lead from the front with astute strategic and tactical decisions." The Martindale-Hubbell ratings have consistently given Wolfsdorf an "AV" rating, the highest possible in ethics and competence. Best Lawyers in America selected Wolfsdorf as its “2012 Lawyer of the Year for Los Angeles.” He is listed in Martindale Hubbell's Pre-eminent Specialist Directory and in Southern California’s Super Lawyers. Chambers USA gave him a “star” rating, with only three attorneys in California being awarded this honor. Chambers Global’s World's Leading Lawyers for Business also rated him in its top tier.
Wolfsdorf has been recognized as one of the nation's Top 10 Immigration Lawyers by Human Resource Executive magazine. He has been a California state Bar-certified specialist in immigration and nationality law for more than 20 years. He can be reached at bernard@wolfsdorf.com.
academic faculty
Dr. Piet Barnard, Director: Research at the Contracts & Intellectual Property Services at the University of Cape Town
Barnard joined UCT in 1999 as a Research Contracts Manager and was appointed as Director of Research Contracts & Intellectual Property Services in 2006. Before joining UCT, he worked at Somchem, a division of Denel, in a number of technology development and research and project management roles. He has a broad background with a bachelor's degree in physical science, a master's degree in chemistry, and a MBA. In 2003, he was fortunate to spend three months at Queen's University in Be
Lawrence G. Baxter, Professor of Law at the Duke University Law School
Professor Lawrence G. Baxter is the William B. McGuire Professor of the Practice of Law at Duke Law School. He was also Professor of Law at the University of Natal, South Africa, before joining the faculty at Duke in 1986. Baxter left Duke in 1995 to become an Executive Vice President at Wachovia Corporation, where he built an emerging businesses group and the bank’s online financial services business. Baxter returned to Duke in 2009 as a professor of the practice, and he now teaches and researches in the fields of banking regulation and the application of complexity science to law, public policy and regulation.
In his career, Baxter has established a record of accomplishment across a wide range of disciplines, from higher education to large corporate business. As a tenured professor at world-class institutions of higher learning, Baxter is a popular teacher of large and small classes and a prolific publisher of scholarly articles. He quickly became involved in matters of public policy and has maintained that interest and influence in the realm of business. As a business leader, Baxter developed a proven track record of building complex new businesses from inception to industrial scale and demonstrating operational and service excellence. His involvement at the cutting edge of technology-driven business has provided Baxter with a rare grounding in the way in which public policy and law are translated into action within the economy. Having served as a senior corporate executive, Baxter has also acquired a strong sense of the importance of leadership principles as a means of inspiring younger professionals, improving the ethical standards of public and private conduct, and elevating performance to new levels of excellence and effectiveness. Throughout his career, a consistent characteristic of Baxter’s work as both academic and business leader has been the successful application of cutting-edge thinking in multiple disciplines to develop new approaches to understanding and addressing complex issues in the private and public sectors.
Jonathan Berk, Professor of Finance at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Berk is the AP Giannini Professor of Finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). His research is primarily theoretical in nature and covers a broad range of topics in finance, including delegated money management; asset pricing (the relation between stock returns and characteristics of the firm, such as accounting numbers, investment, firm size, etc.); and valuing the firm's growth potential, the firm's capital structure decision, and the interaction between labor markets and financial markets. He has also explored individual rationality in an experimental setting.
Berk has coauthored two finance textbooks: Corporate Finance and Fundamentals in Finance. The first edition of Corporate Finance is the most successful first edition textbook ever published in financial economics and is a standard text in almost all top MBA programs around the world. At the GSB, he teaches courses in institutional money management and critical analytical thinking.
Berk's research is internationally recognized and has won numerous awards, including the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award, the Smith Breeden Prize, Best Paper of the Year in the Review of Financial Studies, and the FAME Research Prize. His article, "A Critique of Size-Related Anomalies," was selected as one of the two best papers ever published in the Review of Financial Studies, and was also honored as one of the 100 seminal papers published by Oxford University Press. In recognition of his influence on the practice of finance, he has received the Graham and Dodd Award of Excellence, the Roger F. Murray Prize, and the Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award.
He served as an associate editor of the Journal of Finance from 2000–2008, is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Portfolio Management, and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Also, he is a member of the board of directors of the Financial Management Association.
Berk received his PhD in finance from Yale University. Before joining Stanford, he was the Sylvan Coleman Professor of Finance at Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He was born and grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Steve Burgess, Professor of Marketing and Director: Research and PhD Programme at the Wits Business School
Burgess holds extensive experience within the business school environment and is an internationally respected authority in marketing management and research in emerging markets.
Before joining NMMU in 2011, Burgess was a Professor in Marketing and long-time Research Director at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (GSB) from 2000–2011. Prior to these positions at UCT, he was the Association of Marketers' Chair in Marketing at the University of the Witwatersrand, a visiting Professor of Marketing at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and the Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University, and an affiliate of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan and the Centre for Marketing and Communications at Copenhagen Business School.
Burgess has also held positions of major responsibility in business such as Managing Director of Autopage Cellular in the Altron Group, ConsumaData (now part of Experian South Africa), and Senior Marketing Executive at Johnson & Johnson.
He serves on several boards and advisory boards, including the European Marketing Academy, the Chief Marketing Officer Council, the Academy of Indian Marketing, and the Emerging Markets Conference Board. In 2007, Burgess was awarded the first-ever Marketing Science Institute Visiting Scholar Award by the Marketing Science Institute (Boston, U.S.A.). He was recognised previously with the Fisher College of Business International Alumni Award for lifetime contributions to marketing in the U.S.A. and South Africa.
He is a member of the editorial review board for the International Journal of Research in Marketing and the International Journal of Advertising and frequently serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for other journals, such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, and Journal of Economic Psychology. In 2011, he published his fifth book, International Marketing, 2nd ed. (with Bothma, Oxford University Press).
He is respected in global academic circles for his research on marketing in emerging markets and has served as a conference track or session chair for the Academy of Marketing Science and the Association for Consumer Research.
Peter Clayton, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research & Development at the Rhodes University
Clayton completed his undergraduate and honors degrees at Rhodes before joining the Department of Computer Science in October 1982 after a few years working in the IT industry in Pretoria. He obtained his PhD in 1989 for research in the area of distributed and parallel programming. He was appointed as Professor of Computer Science in 1993 and served as head of the department for two very successful terms: 1995–1998 and 2000–2002. In May 2003, he received a prestigious NSTF Award for his research activities and leadership.
Margaret Cullen, Senior Lecturer for Entrepreneurship at the NMMU School of Business
Cullen is a senior lecturer to MBA and DBA students at NMMU Business School, and she develops course materials and supervises MBA and DBA student research. She is also actively involved in the general management of the NMMU Business School's MBA program. This includes building the Business School's image and recruiting students to the program.
Cullen has co-authored and authored several research articles and attended numerous academic conferences, both nationally and internationally. In 2010, she was the winner of the Business Women's Association's Business Women of the Year in the Professional category (Eastern Cape).
She has also presented several entrepreneurship workshops, one of which is a pro-bono partnership with IMBEWU NGO, focusing on fostering entrepreneurship in schools in the Zwide and New Brighton townships.
Niek du Preez, Former Professor, CEO at the Stellenbosch University and InduTech
Prof. Niek du Preez is currently the CEO of InduTech, a business engineering company specializing in innovation management for client enterprises and competitiveness of such companies.
Du Preez has been involved with academic activities of the Department of Industrial Engineering since 1981, when he was appointed as lecturer. He obtained master's and PhD degrees in industrial engineering and was chairman of the department for a period of 10 years between 1995 and 2005.
Du Preez is also the founder of the Global Competitiveness Centre in Engineering (1995) in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch. InduTech was established (1999) by du Preez to commercialize enterprise engineering software developed in the Enterprise Engineering Laboratory of the Stellenbosch University.
He is an active participant in the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP) and is also active in networking activities such as VRL‐kCiP and EMIRacle within the European Union. In his private time, he enjoys exploring Southern Africa in his 4x4.
Barry Dwolatzky, Professor of Software Engineering and Director and CEO of the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering at the Wits University
Prof. Barry Dwolatzky was appointed the Director of the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) in May 2007. Prior to that, he was the Academic Director at the JCSE and a professor in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at Wits.
Dwolatzky’s driving passion is to promote the growth and development of the South African software industry. He set up the information engineering option in the electrical engineering program at Wits and developed a course-based master’s program in software engineering, which was registered as a Learnership within the South African government’s skills development framework. He also played a key role in the founding of the JCSE in 2005. Dwolatzky has published more than 40 research papers in journals and conferences and has supervised 24 master’s students and three PhD candidates.
He joined Wits in 1989, returning to the university where he graduated and received a doctorate, after working in Great Britain on software-related research at the University of Manchester (UMIST), University of London (Imperial College) and the GEC-Marconi Research Centre for 10 years.
George Foster, Professor of Management at the Stanford University's Graduate School of Business
George Foster's research and teaching includes entrepreneurship/early-stage companies; financial analysis, especially in commercial disputes; and sports business management. His recent research includes global entrepreneurship and the role of financial and other systems in the growth and valuation of companies. He also is researching globalization challenges facing both sporting organizations and companies.
Foster holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics from the University of Sydney and a doctorate from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. He taught at the University of Chicago and the Australian Graduate School of Management prior to joining the GSB faculty at Stanford University.
His writings include more than 50 research articles, more than 70 cases, three monographs, as well as multiple editions of several textbooks. Foster's early and continuing research was on the role of financial analysis in the valuation and growth of companies. He subsequently broadened his research interests to include management control systems, entrepreneurship/venture capital, and sports business management. His textbook writings include Financial Statement Analysis; Cost Accounting: A Managerial Analysis; and The Business of Sports.
Foster works extensively with the World Economic Forum and is the Chair of their Global Agenda Council on Fostering Entrepreneurship. He led the research team on the 2011 Forum publication on Global Entrepreneurship and the Successful Growth Strategies of Early-Stage Companies.
Foster's 2010 California Management Review co-authored paper on "Building Sustainable High-Growth Startup Companies" won the 2011 Accenture Award for the article that "has made the most important contribution to improving the practice of management." He has won multiple other research awards, including the AICPA Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Accounting Literature (twice) and the Competitive Manuscript Award of the American Accounting Association (twice). He is a winner of the Distinguished Teaching Award at Stanford Business School and has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Ghent (Belgium) and the University of Vaasa (Finland).
He is actively involved in the business community, especially with venture capital-backed startup companies and has served on the board of directors for multiple companies. He is also actively involved with sporting organizations around the globe, including directing executive programs for the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and for the National Football League (NFL).
Michael Goldman, Assistant Professor at the University of San Francisco
Michael Goldman teaches, researches and consults in marketing and sales related topics. He is based at the University of San Francisco in the US, where he works with the Sport Management Master’s Program. Michael also holds an adjunct faculty role with the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg and has taught at the Strathmore Business School in Kenya and the Lagos Business School in Nigeria. Michael’s work is focused on assisting students, managers and clients enhance their abilities to acquire, grow and retain profitable customers.
In his academic role, Michael has designed, delivered and assessed post-graduate management courses on a number of academic and executive programmes, to managers from a wide range of companies, including PepsiCo, SABMiller Africa & Asia, Nokia Africa, Murray & Roberts, Standard Bank Group, Barclays, and Sasol. He has delivered presentations to students from a number of international business schools, including the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, Georgetown University’s Sports Industry Management Department, and the University of Sao Paulo’s Management Institute Foundation.
Michael has presented to a number of practitioner and academic conferences and workshops in South Africa, Spain, Australia, Kenya, Denmark and the USA. In his consulting role, Michael has assisted a number of companies with strategy, marketing, branding, sponsorship and research work in Southern and Eastern Africa, including Entyce Beverages, First National Bank, Edcon, MTN, Megapro Marketing, Business & Arts South Africa and the UNDP. Michael is a regular commentator on marketing related issues in the popular press and media and has published academically through the California Management Review, Management Decision, Global Transitions, and Ivey Publishing.
Trevor Hastie, Professor, Department of Statistics at the Stanford University
Trevor Hastie was born in South Africa in 1953. He received his university education from Rhodes University, South Africa (BS), University of Cape Town (MS), and Stanford University (PhD in statistics, 1984).
His first employment was with the South African Medical Research Council in 1977, during which time he earned his MS from UCT. In 1979, he spent a year interning at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and the Biomath Department at Oxford University. He joined the PhD program at Stanford University in 1980. After graduating from Stanford in 1984, he returned to South Africa for a year with his earlier employer, SA Medical Research Council. He returned to the U.S. in March 1986 and joined the statistics and data analysis research group at what was then AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. After nine years at Bell Labs, he returned to Stanford University in 1994 as Professor in Statistics and Biostatistics.
His main research contributions have been in applied statistics, and he has written two books in this area: Generalized Additive Models (with R. Tibshirani, Chapman, and Hall, 1991), and Elements of Statistical Learning (with R. Tibshirani and J. Friedman, Springer 2001; second edition 2009). He has also made contributions in statistical computing, co-editing (with J. Chambers) a large software library on modeling tools in the S language (Statistical Models in S, Wadsworth, 1992), which form the foundation for much of the statistical modeling in R. His current research focuses on applied problems in biology and genomics, medicine, and industry, in particular data mining, prediction, and classification problems.
Garth Saloner, Botha-Chan Professor at Stanford at the Stanford University's Graduate School of Business
Garth Saloner, who joined the Business School faculty in 1990, was one of the founders of the Stanford Computer Industry Project, a major study of the worldwide computer industry, funded by the Sloan Foundation, and a founder of the Center for Electronic Business and Commerce. He served the Business School as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director for Research and Curriculum Development from 1993-1996. In 2006, he led the Curriculum Review Committee that undertook a major overhaul of the MBA curriculum, allowing students more flexibility in selecting courses that complemented their experience and interests.
He is one of only two faculty members to have won the Distinguished Teaching Award at the Stanford Graduate School of Business twice, first in 1993 and again in 2008.
Saloner is known for his pioneering work on network effects, which underlie much of the economics of electronic commerce and business. His research focuses on issues of entrepreneurship, e-commerce, strategic management, organizational economics, competitive strategy, and antitrust economics. Much of his recent work has been devoted to understanding how firms set and change strategy, in established firms and startups.
He received a B.Com. and MBA (with distinction) from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, in his native South Africa. He received an MS in Statistics, an AM in Economics, and a PhD in Economics, Business, and Public Policy from Stanford University between 1978 and 1982. He joined the faculty of the economics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in 1982 and was promoted through the ranks to the position of tenured full professor in both the economics department and the Sloan School of Management before joining the Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty.