BrandSouthAfrica.com

Wendy Luhabe is an entrepreneur who has revolutionised the role of women in the South African economy with two bold initiatives.

As South Africa began the transition to democracy in the mid-1990s, Ms Luhabe founded Women Investment Portfolio Holdings (Wiphold), the first female-owned company to list on the then Johannesburg Stock Exchange. In 2003, she founded the R120-million Women Private Equity Fund, South Africa’s first fund to provide capital to women-owned businesses.

She has been a Non-Executive Director of both listed and unlisted companies since she was 36. She was the Chair of the Vodacom Board and currently chairs the Industrial Development Corporation and Vendome. Ms Luhabe is a Director of the JSE Securities Exchange and has business interests in Ogilvy, Resilience Company and Ralph Blackie and Associates.

Ms Luhabe, a recipient of two honorary degrees, is a trustee of the Duke of Edinburgh's Trust and a member of the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy.

Brand Pretorius is the Deputy Chairman of the International Marketing Council. He is the Chief Executive of McCarthy Limited, a position he has held since 1999. The group, which has interests in motor retailing, auctioneering, car rental and insurance, employs 8 000 people and has an annual turnover of R200-billion.

Mr Pretorius is a past President of the Retail Motor Industry Association and is a member of various advisory boards, including the National Business Initiative, a coalition of 140 leading South African companies dedicated to sustainable growth and development.

The influential Professional Management Review magazine has twice identified Mr Pretorius as the most admired leader in the motor industry. In recognition of his significant contribution, Mr Pretorius was inducted into the South African Automotive Industry’s Hall of Fame in March 2006.

Ajay Gupta is the Chairman of Sahara Holdings, a leading South African information and communications company, and head of the Gupta family.

After establishing brand Sahara in South Africa, Mr Gupta aggressively developed the Sahara Computers network across Africa, set up representation in the Middle East and Europe and, in late 2004, set up a partnership in India, the fastest growing information and telecommunications market in the world.

Mr Gupta has received many awards, including the “Fakhre-hind” (Proud of India) and Indian Industry Association’s “Udyog Ratan” (Business Excellence) for 2005.

He is a philanthropist by nature and has been described as a passionate man who leads by example.

André Fourie is the Chief Executive Officer of the New Business Initiative, a coalition of 140 leading South African companies dedicated to sustainable growth and development. It is the regional partner of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Passionate about exploring the broader role of business in society, Mr Fourie was the founding Managing Director of Business Against Crime, the deputy executive director of the Consultative Business Movement and the executive director of the Business Election Fund.

He is also a trustee of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF South Africa) and is a member of the National Environmental Advisory Forum to the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

Mr Fourie serves as Secretary to President Thabo Mbeki’s Big Business Working Group, an informal group of the country’s 20 leading business leaders that meets with the President to exchange opinions and discuss the economic future of the country.

Ayanda Ntsaluba, Director-General of South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs, is both a qualified medical doctor with a string of specialist qualifications, and a struggle veteran who spent many years in exile.

Ntsaluba also chaired the steering committee of the South African Aids Vaccine Initiative and served on one of the working groups of the World Health Organisation Commission on Macro-Economics and Health. He has also served on a number of statutory bodies, including the board of the Medical Research Council and the Health Professions Council, and represented South Africa in numerous international forums.

Prof Barney Pityana is the Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of South Africa.

Before taking up his position at Unisa in 2001, Prof Pityana was the Chair of the South African Human Rights Commission, one of the independent constitutional institutions established to protect democracy in South Africa. He also served as a member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights for six years.

Prof Pityana has published extensively in theology, human rights law and politics. He holds the ad hominem Chair in Law at Unisa. His interests and commitment to human rights has seen him serve on the Chairman of the African Union’s Commission’s Steering Committee on African Intellectuals and the Diaspora; the African Governance Institute; and as Chair of the African Council for Distance Education.

In 2006, Prof Pityana received the award of the Order of the Grand Counsellor of the Baobab: Silver from President Thabo Mbeki.

Bongani Maseko is the Chief Operating Officer of aiport operations for the Airports Company South Africa. He joined the company in 2001 as Assistant General Manager at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, moving his way swiftly into the General Manager position until 2004, when he was promoted to his current position.

Mr Maseko has a degree in Aviation Business Administration from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, US. He studied airport planning systems and design and airport ground transportation planning at the University of California before working in various capacities at San Francisco International Airport for eight years.

Cheryl Carolus is the Executive Chair of Peotona Group Holdings, a wholly women-owned company with assets in resources and infrastructure feeder industries. The company was set up to leverage sustainable opportunities for individuals and communities in the “second economy” through the company’s own “first economy” activities.

Ms Carolus was Deputy Secretary-General of the African National Congress in the early 1990s and helped lead the consultative process to develop a policy for a post-apartheid South Africa.

As South African High Commissioner to the UK, Ms Carolus built a good model for collaboration with South African companies based in London. She built strong networks with the major players in the British government, business and with non-governmental organisations.

Her three-year stint at South African Tourism as Chief Executive saw a major repositioning of South Africa as a serious global tourism destination.

Ms Carolus is currently the Chair of the South African National Parks Board and Chair of loveLife, South Africa’s national HIV prevention programme for young people. She is also a Board Member of Soul City Health Institute, the International Crisis Group and WWF International.

Dali Mpofu was appointed Group Chief Executive of the SABC, South Africa’s public broadcaster, in mid-2005. He is responsible for the overall strategic management of the organisation’s four television stations and 19 radio stations.

Mr Mpofu, an advocate by training, helped the African National Congress craft its policies in the lead-up to South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. In the mid-1990s, he practised law fulltime and was twice appointed acting judge in the Labour Court.

In 2000, Mr Mpofu joined the Altron Group as its Group Executive in Charge of Corporate Affairs. He remains on the Board of Altron, is the Chair of Boxing South Africa, and serves as the Ministerial Representative on the Council of the University of Johannesburg.

Mr Mpofu has also served as President of the Electronics Industry Federation and Chair of the ICT Black Economic Empowerment Charter Working Group. He also served as the first Chair of the National Anti-Corruption Forum.

Danny Jordaan is the Chief Executive Officer of the 2010 Fifa World Cup Organising Committee South Africa.

Mr Jordaan has been involved in politics as an activist, a politician and was a Member of Parliament under President Nelson Mandela in the mid-1990s. He was a member of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Delegation for the South African-European Union Trade Agreement.

He also served on the Presidential Task Team to deal with the transfer of diplomatic recognition from Taiwan, a partner of apartheid South Africa, to the People’s Republic of China.

A former Chief Executive of the South Africa Football Association, Mr Jordaan has been seconded twice to serve as the Chief Executive of the Fifa World Cup South Africa bid, first in 1998 and again in 2001.

Mr Jordaan has served on the Marketing and Television Board of Fifa since 1998. He received a Special Presidential Award from President Nelson Mandela in 1994 as well as the Presidential Sport Achievement Award from President Thabo Mbeki in 2001.

David Lewis received his training in economics from the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Cape Town. Between 1975 and 1990 he worked in the trade union movement, serving as General Secretary of the General Workers Union and national organiser of the Transport and General Workers Union. 

From 1990 Mr Lewis directed the Development Policy Research Unit, a UCT based research group specialising in trade and industrial policy.  Between 1994 and 1996 Lewis served as Special Advisor to the Minister of Labour and co-chaired the Presidential Commission on Labour Market Policy. He was a member of the Task Team advising the Minister of Trade and Industry on the development of competition policy and participated in the drafting of the Competition Act.  He served as a member of the Competition Board from January 1998 and chaired the Board from January-August 1999.  With the promulgation of the Competition Act in September 1999 Lewis was appointed Chairperson of the Competition Tribunal. He is Vice-Chairman of the Steering Group of the International Competition Network.  

From 1999-2002 Lewis served on the board of the National Research Foundation, the government agency responsible for funding research in the natural and social sciences at tertiary educational institutions. Since 1995 Lewis has served on the Board of Directors of the Industrial Development Corporation, the state owned industrial development financial institution. He is presently non-executive Deputy Chairman of the Board of the IDC.

Given Mkhari is the Chief Executive of MSG Afrika Investment Holdings, an investment company he co-established in 2002. The company has interests in 13 operational companies in the fields of telecommunications, media and business process outsourcing.

A former radio talk show host, Mkhari has led MSG into one of the fastest-growing black-owned investment companies in South Africa. MSG’s operational companies are leaders in their respective fields, employing more than 3 000 professionals.

Mr Mkhari is a director of the Jupiter Drawing Room, one of South Africa’s top advertising agencies. He is also a director of Telkom Media, Curious Pictures, and the loveLife Trust, South Africa’s national HIV prevention programme for young people.

Dr Hischam El-Agamy is the Corporate Development Director for southern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Central Asia at IMD, a leading global business school based in Lausanne in Switzerland.

His focus is on working with learning organisations and family enterprises to manage transformation and change processes. Dr El-Agamy is the founder of the Target Developments in Switzerland and consults to corporations in Europe and the Arabian Gulf regions in the areas of leadership development and family business. He is also the founder of Tharawat Family Business Forum; the first Arabian family business network.

Dr El-Agamy, who speaks five languages, also researches the impact of competitiveness of nations on their respective business environments, with a special focus on developing countries. He has worked on advisory assignments for the South African government in the area of competitiveness.

Iqbal Meer Sharma is the Deputy Director-General of Trade and Investment South Africa (TISA) in South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry. He is responsible for leading the development and implementation of trade and investment policies and strategies.

Mr Sharma previously headed up the Trade Policy division at the DTI, overseeing South Africa’s global economic strategies and managing South Africa’s bilateral trade relations and negotiations.

Before joining the department, Mr Sharma ran his own companies, including South Africa’s first computer education franchise and a software firm. He was hailed as “one of South Africa’s most remarkable entrepreneurs” by SA Success magazine in 1998.

Mr Sharma has an economics degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Jabulane Mabuza is the Group Chief Executive of Tsogo Sun Holdings, the largest hotel and entertainment group in Southern Africa.

Mr Mabuza has vast experience in the fields of marketing and business management and has held various directorships in the past 26 years. He has variously served as Chair of the Mpumalanga Development Corporation and Future Bank Ltd; as a former Chief Executive of the South African Black Taxi Association; and as Chair of the Marketing Federation of Southern Africa.

Mr Mabuza holds directorships for a number of companies within the Tsogo Sun Group as well as Southern Sun Hotels. He is also a Director of Hosken Consolidated Investments, New Seasons Investments, and the Southern Africa PGA Tour. He is Chair of the Casino Association of South Africa as well as the South African Tourism Board.

He is a recipient of the Black Management Forum’s Champion of Black Economic Empowerment Pioneer’s Award.

Joel Khathutshelo Netshitenzhe is head of Policy Co-ordination and Advisory Services in the Presidency, which conducts research and provides analytical support and advice to the Presidency on policy issues, and all aspects of policy co-ordination, implementation and monitoring.

He is the former head of South Africa’s Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), the centre for communication strategies throughout government. Mr Netshitenzhe joined GCIS in 1998, after heading up communication in President Nelson Mandela’s office.

An active member of the African National Congress since the mid-1970s, Mr Netshitenzhe has also worked as a print journalist, editing Mayibuye, an ANC journal. He also worked as a radio journalist for Radio Freedom. He studied in Moscow and the UK, and holds a Master of Science degree in Financial Economics from the University of London.

Mr Netshitenzhe is a Board Member of the Nelson Mandela Trust and CEEF Africa Trust.

Leslie Maasdorp is the Vice Chair of Absa Capital and Barclays Capital. He has more than 15 years of experience in economic policy making and has a long list of credentials for developing corporate strategies in the financial services sector.

He is the former International Advisor to Goldman Sachs International. He has held senior leadership roles within the South African government, leading the restructuring and privatisation programme as Deputy Director-General in the Department of Public Enterprises. In 1994 he served as Special Advisor to Tito Mboweni, the then Minister of Labour.

Mr Maasdorp serves as a Director of various companies, including Avusa, Pangbourne, Robor, Yard Capital and the Coega Development Corporation. He was named as a Young Global Leader for 2007 by the World Economic Forum.

Michael Spicer is the Chief Executive Officer of Business Leadership South Africa, an association of South Africa’s largest corporations and major multinational companies with a significant presence in South Africa.

Mr Spicer was previously an Executive Vice President at Anglo American plc and Executive Director of Anglo American South Africa. He remains on the Board of Anglo American South Africa in a non-executive capacity and is a Board Member of Rothschild South Africa.

Mr Spicer is deeply involved in business and public life. He is Deputy Chair of the National Business Initiative, a member of President Thabo Mbeki’s Big Business Working Group and a Board Member of the Business Trust, a partnership between the government and business that aims to reduce unemployment and build capacity.

In 2006, he was appointed as an Inaugural Member of the Presidential International Advisory Board of Mozambique.

Moeketsi Mosola is the Chief Executive Officer at South African Tourism, a position he has held since 2004. He was previously the national destination marketing organisation’s Chief Operating Officer.

In his time at the helm, tourism has been identified as a crucial sector to halve unemployment and poverty by 2014 under the government’s 2006 Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa. Under Mr Mosola’s leadership, South Africa has seen tourist arrivals grow at an average of 8% a year.

Prior to joining South African Tourism, Mr Mosola was Chief Director of Tourism Development at the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. His responsibilities included promoting and marketing key transfrontier investment opportunities.

He has been a recipient of the US Rising Star Award for future leaders of the international tourism industry; a Nelson Mandela scholarship; and a certificate of recognition from former President Mandela for his dedication to public service.

Prof Nick Binedell is the Founding Director and Sasol Chair of Strategic Management of the Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs), the business school established by the University of Pretoria. It is ranked as one of the top 40 global executive education providers by the Financial Times.

His previous experience includes a number of years in the mining industry. He was General Manager of GEC Equipment in the Barlow Rand Group. Prof Binedell has been involved in business education for more than 20 years.

His academic qualifications include a PhD from the University of Washington in Seattle, an MBA from the University of Cape Town and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Rhodes University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts for the Encouragement of Arts Manufacturers and Commerce.

His particular areas of interest include strategy formulation in the South African environment; the role of general management; leadership in complex organisations and the development of effective management and organisation structures.

Paul Bannister is the Managing Director of Ignite Strategies, a business and marketing consultancy, whose clients include South African Tourism, Coca-Cola South Africa and Africa, and Eskom, the national power utility.

He is the former group Managing Director of TBWA Hunt Lascaris, one of South Africa’s top advertising agencies, and has sat on the boards of Southern African Tourism Service Association, Tourism Business Council SA as well as South African Tourism.

Bannister’s initial training was as a town planner and, in 1975, he moved from the UK to take up a position with the Johannesburg City Council, before moving into brand management and marketing at Nestle.

He serves as a Board Member, Fund Raiser and Strategist for the National Arts Festival and is Strategic Advisor to the 2010 LOC.

Phindi Nzimande is the Chief Executive Officer of EDI Holdings, which was established in 2003 by the government to facilitate the restructuring of the electricity distribution industry.

A graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, Ms Nzimande worked in legal practice for a few years before taking up a role in the government as Strategic Management Team Advisor to the Gauteng MEC for Housing and Local Government.

In 1996, Ms Nzimande joined the Metropolitan Council of Johannesburg and was appointed the Executive Director of Contract Management for the City of Joburg in 2001, which entailed managing the relationship between the City and its utilities.

Her job at EDI entails merging the distribution section of Eskom, the national power utility, and that of municipalities. The industry will then be divided into six financially viable Regional Electricity Distributors throughout the country.

Ms Nzimande serves on the board of Momentum, the insurance operating subsidiary and fund management holding company of the FirstRand Group.

Reuel Khoza is the Chairman and major shareholder of Aka Capital, an investment holdings and private equity company.

From 1997 to 2005, Mr Khoza was the Chairman of Eskom, given the mandate to lead the transformation process at the national electricity utility.

Mr Khoza is Chair of Nedbank and the NEPAD Business Foundation, Polokwane International Airport, and Akani Leisure. He holds directorships at the JSE Securities Exchange, Corobrik, Protea Hospitality, and Gold Reef Casino Resorts Limited.

Mr Khoza is President of the Institute of Directors and describes himself as a practioner and theorist in the field of African leadership. He is a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Panel; a member of the Honorary International Investment Council of Nigeria and a member, past Director and patron of the Black Management Forum.

Professor Roy Marcus is the Chair of the Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management, a specialised institution of higher education that is recognised as an international centre of excellence in the field of technology management.

Involved in engineering education for much of his career, Prof Marcus established the Materials Handling Research Unit while at the University of the Witwatersrand. In 2004, he was awarded an honorary degree from the Technikon Witwatersrand.

Prof Marcus played an active role in the development of the government’s science and technology initiatives, acting as the Ministerial Advisor on Science and Technology and the Chairman of the National Advisory Council on Innovation.

He is currently Chair of the Council of the University of Johannesburg, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Belarus, and the Chair of the South African Power Utility Research Advisory Board.

Sandile Zungu is the Chair of Zungu Investments Company (Zico), which is the holding company of his business interests and of the Africa Vanguard group of companies.

Until recently, he was the Chair of Denel, a diversified industrial group supplying a wide range of products and services to both local and international clients. He is well known for starting Sarhwu Investment Holdings in 1997 and growing it to a company worth R400-million, before leaving to head New Africa Investments Limited’s Strategy and Empowerment Division.

He was Chairman of Barnard Jacobs Mellet Holdings, which is South Africa’s largest listed independent financial brokerage institution. He is a Director on the boards of JSE-listed Clover Holdings, Edgars Consolidated Stores and Ellerines Holdings, and on the boards of the Trade and Investment KwaZulu Natal (TIK) and the UNISA Foundation.

Mr Zungu is a member of the World Economic Forum in his capacity as Young Global Leader. He holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, an MBA from the UCT Graduate School of Business and a certificate in Global Leadership from Harvard Business School.

Dr Taddy Blecher is the Chief Executive and Co-founder of CIDA City Campus, a higher education college that uses donor funding, non-cash contributions, such as facilities and executive time, to offer “virtually free” education to disadvantaged students.

In 2006, Dr Blecher received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship presented by the Skoll Foundation to honour the most innovative and effective approaches to resolving critical social issues worldwide.

He was chosen as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2005. He also received the Global Leader of Tomorrow award from the World Economic Forum in 2002.

Formerly an actuary at a large South African financial services organisation, Dr Blecher has won several awards and scholarships, including the Liberty Life Gold Medal for top actuarial honours student in South Africa.

Themba James Maseko was elected an ANC Member of Parliament in 1994; and in 1995 he took up the position of Superintendent-General of the Gauteng Department of Education, where he served until 2000. During 2001 and 2002 he worked in the private sector as Managing Director of the Damelin Education Group and CEO of Sifikile Investments. He served for three years as Director-General of the Department of Public Works, from February 2003 to February 2006.

In the period before his appointment as CEO of GCIS he has been active in the private sector. As well as the International Marketing Council, Mr Maseko is a member of the Boards of Adopt a School Foundation and the Centre for Public Service Innovation, and of Vista University Council.

Zodwa Manase the founder and Chief Executive of Manase & Associates, an auditing and business advisory services company.

Ms Manase chairs the Audit Committees of the Presidency, Government Communication and Information System, the Media Diversity and Development Agency, as well as the International Marketing Council.

She is the Chair of Total SA and a Board Member of the State Information and Technology Agency (Sita), which aims to improve government’s service delivery through information technology and systems.

Ms Manase is a Board Member of the South African Reserve Bank and has served on the boards of the Central Energy Fund, Soekor, Mosgas, the Medical Research Council and Denel.

The founder member of African Women Chartered Accountants, Ms Manase is also a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants in Southern Africa.