Dr Mathews Phosa is a prominent political and business leader in South Africa. Dr Phosa qualified with a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of the North and later was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Law Degree (PhD (in Law) from Boston University, USA in 1995. He was appointed by President Nelson Mandela as the first Premier of Mpumalanga. He held this position until 1999 after which he became a member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC. In 2007 Dr Phosa was elected Treasurer-General, a position he held until 2012. Dr Phosa is the chairman of various boards, including Jubilee Platinum, SMEC, Hans Merensky, Vuka Timbers, Renaissance Capital, Bauba Platinum, and MCLI to name a few. Dr Phosa is a prolific author who speaks nine languages. 

Murendi Mafumo is a water scientist with 10 years’ experience working within the water and sanitation sector. He started off working within the City of Cape Town as a water scientist, looking at developing systems for a city that only receives winter rains, he worked as part of a team of scientists in design and monitoring water treatment systems for the City of Cape Town. He studied water treatment technology through the University of Cape Town and is founder of Kusini Water.

Ndumiso Madlala was born and raised in a village of Elandskop in Pietermaritzburg, he is a Chemical Engineer by profession. After graduating in 2001 he got a scholarship to further his studies at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. His Masters thesis introduced him to what would later become his passion, beer. He returned to SA and briefly worked for Sasol before SAB poached him. He later worked for Heineken to set up their only brewery in South Africa and subsequently joined SABMiller Africa looking after 25 breweries in 14 African countries. Ndumiso left corporate world to follow his entrepreneurial passion. He found brand Soweto Gold a craft beer that was the first to be brewed in a township. After successfully running the company for 4 years he joined forces in August 2017 with the worlds’ second largest brewer, Heineken to make Soweto Gold one of the household beer brands in South Africa.

Ashwin Willemse is a retired South African rugby union player. He played at wing for the national team, the Springboks. He was one of the outstanding performers during the 2003 season.

Tim Cohen is the editor of Business Day. He began his journalism career on Dome newspaper, the official student newspaper of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, whose production schedule was largely dependent on the availability of beer. He graduated to the last outpost, The Natal Witness, which was fuelled by tea, but was subsequently lured to the coffee-infused domain of Business Day. On Business Day, he was political correspondent, finance editor, London correspondent and editor at large, among a variety of other posts. It was probably the coffee.

Mondli Makhanya is Editor-in-Chief of City Press and has been in the media industry for more than 26 years. He has been editor of the Mail & Guardian, the Sunday Times and deputy news editor and Executive Editor at the Star. He was one of the founding editors of Sunday World. Makhanya has also served as Chairperson of the South African National Editors Forum and as Treasurer of The African Editors’ Forum.

Jana Marais is a financial journalist who has worked for Bloomberg, Sunday Times and The Africa Report. She is currently the editor of finweek, a business and investment magazine.

PhD & MSc (Economics) London School of Economics, UK, MA (International Economics) Wits University (first-class and recipient of a Merit award), BA (Wits University). Thabi is our Economic Strategist, reporting to the Chief Investment Officer. She provides important input into the work of our Macro Desk (multi asset and fixed income teams).

Edith Vries is the DG of the Department of Small Business Development. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science, an Honours Degree in Psychiatric Social Work and a Masters Social Science specialising in Clinical Social Work. Vries is a fellow of the South Africa Harvard Fellowship Programme and of the Wits-Harvard Senior Executive Programme. She is a Gestalt practitioner and ultimately served as Acting Vice-Rector: Student Affairs at UWC. Vries has been Executive Director at the Independent Development Trust and Director-General of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Extensive experience in International Tax, Financial Services and Financial Instruments
Previously reviewing and approving technical opinions for assessments in the Transfer Pricing division of SARS
Provides training and review of all technical taxation opinions
Technical expert in Direct Tax
Experience in Transfer Pricing
Support audit teams in all taxation related matters
Assisted clients in drafting taxation opinion on a number of technical tax matters
Experience in structured private equity deals as well as transaction tax acquisitions
Experience in taxation of Southern African countries, including Zamia, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho

Chris Darroll is the founder and Chief Executive of Small Business Project, SBP. SBP specialises in undertaking targeted and robust evidence-based research to inform government policy-making, support SME development and job creation, assist in improving the efficiency of regulatory frameworks and administrative procedures for private sector growth. Chris has more than 26 years’ experience in private sector development, with a special focus on SMEs and job creation. Chris has served as an advisor to several key South African and African government Ministers on addressing constraints to private sector growth and SME development in particular. Chris was a primary architect of the pan-African Investment Climate Facility for Africa.