Educated at Herzlia School and Universities of Cape Town and Cambridge. Presently judge of High Court, Cape Town (since 1998) and Judge President, Competition Appeal Court (since 2000). Still teaches as hon prof at the University of Cape Town tax, constitutional law, competition law and legal theory. Author of 10 books – latest being with Cheryl Saunders and Alan Richter on Constitutional Values (2015)) Held visiting professorial posts at Toronto, Melbourne, Harvard, NYU , Florida Brown and Georgetown. Concerned Manchester United supporter. Married to Claudette with two children Liat and Joshua.

Amanda Dambuza is the Chief Executive of Uyandiswa; a consulting firm she founded 5 years ago. She was until recently also the Financial Services Director of the JSE listed organisation, Adapt IT. Adapt IT owned 49% of Uyandiswa, a deal concluded in October 2014. Effective 1 July 2017 Amanda concluded another transaction with Adapt IT to buy back 49% of Uyandiswa making it a 100% Black Female Owned (BWO) organisation with an annual turnover nearing R100 m and around 75 staff. This transaction also included a buy out of the Business Analytics and Intelligence business of Adapt IT. Prior to founding her own companies Amanda had spent most of her over 15-year corporate career in the Financial Services industry particularly banking. She is the overall winner of the Veuve Clicquot ELLE Boss Award 2017.

Itumeleng (Tumi) Phake is a South African based entrepreneur, business speaker and mentor. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Zenzele Fitness Group, a fitness and wellness company that operates 13 gym facilities across South Africa. He was named and won the 2017 Entrepreneur of the year. A former banker with seven years’ experience in investment and banking, Phake spent a lot of time learning and leveraging off industry experts. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Financial Management from the University of South Africa (UNISA). Inspired by his passion for health, fitness and business, in 2014 Tumi founded Zenzele fitness Group. Zenzele delivers turnkey fitness and wellness solutions for corporate and government clients who seek to promote employee wellness. Furthermore, Zenzele designs, furnishes, outfits, operates and manages fitness facilities, extending beyond the idea of a simple gym. Top-of-the-line technology and equipment allows for the tracking of all activities and facilities while working closely with medical experts across the country to deliver excellent service to users.

The story started when shopping would be a nightmare for Ouma Tema, its either she found what she wanted but never in her size. Everything in her size had grandma written all over them. When life gave the business woman lemons she decided to make lemonade. Ouma Tema started making her own clothes sharing it on social media, friends and fellow plus size ladies kept on asking where she got all the clothes and sharing with her their shopping frustrations. She saw the gap in the market and launched her own fashion brand targeting plus size women. Her mission is to challenge the stereotype concept that curves have no place in the fashion industry. From operating out of the boot of her car and garage at her apartment, today Plus-Fab has a fully-fledged production factory employing 16 people and sell through the fastest growing retail chain The Space. Plus-Fab is also available at Spree. Ouma Tema is a passionate business woman with interest in fashion, marketing and communications. She is one of the most sought-after plus size fashion designer in SA and neighbouring countries.

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.

Mike Schüssler, owner of Economists dotcoza, an Economic Consultancy, has been extensively quoted in the media over the last two and half decades. Mike’s innovative research on employment and household issues has earned him much praise. He is the most quoted and endorsed economist in South Africa for his insights from Academia to Analysts the world over. His innovative approach has led to new economic measurement indices and management tools such as Transport cost adjustment and logistics indices, the BankservAfrica transaction index and the ABSA SMME Index. Mike has won the Economist of the Year competition twice; one of only three economists to have won this competition more than once in the past twenty five years.

Annabel Bishop is Investec Bank Limited’s Chief Economist. She joined Investec in 2001 and has worked in the macroeconomic and econometric field for over 20 years. Annabel is the holder of the Sake/Beeld Economist of the Year title for 2010 and has won numerous monthly Reuters Econometer awards for correctly forecasting a range of economic variables. She has authored a wide range of in-house and external articles, published both abroad and in South Africa.  Before joining Investec, Annabel was the Economic Analyst at Econometrix, providing key macroeconomic research and specific project work to a variety of clients across the economy, as well running the firm’s econometric model. She holds a cum laude master’s degree in economics and econometrics.

Adrian Lackay is a former spokesperson for the South African Revenue Service (SARS). Before he started at the tax authority in 2003, he worked as a journalist and political correspondent. He is the co-author, with Johann van Loggerenberg, of the best-selling book Rogue – The Inside Story Of SARS’s Elite Crime-busting Unit. The book documents the success story of SARS since its establishment as a unified tax and customs administration in 1997, until the institution’s demise with the appointment of Commissioner Tom Moyane in 2014. It demonstrates how SARS, a globally respected revenue authority under the leadership of Pravin Gordhan, became a victim of state capture, with the institution’s top leadership being purged and persecuted through a remarkable disinformation campaign in the media, and ultimately, through a series of aborted criminal prosecutions by the state. Lackay specialises in communications, media- and reputation management, and economic research. He currently works at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) on a short-term contract.

Brendon is the Senior Projects Manager and a senior researcher for business environment specialists, SBP – the research and advocacy partner of the SBI. On behalf of SBP, he regularly engages with government on a number of ground-breaking research projects particularly focusing on SME development. Currently, Brendon leads SBP’s research team in conducting research on provincial administrative, regulatory and legislative issues to reduce Red Tape impeding SMME growth for the Department of Small Business Development, spanning all nine provinces. He is also SBP’s senior consultant conducting an impact evaluation of national government’s SMME National Strategy, commissioned by the Department for Monitoring and Evaluation on behalf of National Cabinet. He has represented BUSA at a global knowledge workshop on the informal economy convened by the ILO in Italy and has engaged extensively with official representatives from the IMF, ILO and OECD on South Africa’s socioeconomic policy reviews. Brendon holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria.