Bulelani is a young entrepreneur and business speaker on brand development & entrepreneurship. He is CEO of IAF brands, a township-based award-winning branding and print manufacturing company. He is the founder of Township Entrepreneurs Alliance (TEA), a non-profit organisation aimed at developing entrepreneurs in the informal and rural sectors. He has directly impacted over 12,000 young entrepreneurs and 20,000 young people from township high schools. He lives by the simple motto “GetThingsDone”

Leeko completed her degree at UCT, followed by a postgraduate degree at the GIBS and short-courses in Chicken Hatchery Management, Farm Management and Beekeeping. Leeko is the Founder of Made with Rural, a platform that links small and medium-scale farmers in rural areas to formal markets. Her organisation is currently supplying McDonalds, KFC, Pick N Pay, Fresh-mark, Burger King and Spar, through the enterprise development programme with Dew Crisp, and they also supply some small restaurants and vegetable stores directly.

Duncan is a financial planner, broker, community activist, husband and dad. His goal in life is to provide value and be of service, which he does through his work as a financial planner and entrepreneur. He has been running his own business for 13 years. He is currently studying to be a coach and launching an insurance/fintech product which he sees becoming global. His aim is to enhance the lives of those excluded from accessing value-full financial services.

Adri joined Khayelitsha Cookies in 2007 after leaving a corporate organisation, as she had a vision of a 1000+ ladies baking when she saw a small business employing 4 women at the time. In 2013, the company inherited R2.5million in losses and was worth R100K in net asset value. She gave the directors R1, took over the debt and literally put her house and assets on the line to keep 50 ladies employed. Currently they employ just short of 100 staff. Adri and her fellow director have managed to pay back some of the loans, had to borrow more money to relocate in 2017 to a larger facility, but they have truly turned this business around.

Tracy holds a PhD in Anthropology from Wits University and an M Comm from Stellenbosch University. Her main research interest is the analysis of institutional failure in the public sector, on the basis that the study of failure provides better insights into causality than does the study of so-called best practice. Her work is based mainly in local government and focuses on developing new theoretical frameworks with which we can interpret institutional outcomes. She is particularly interested in the relationship between exogenous legislative innovation and endogenous institutional factors, and how the latter undermine the former.

Charles has been involved in development management and planning for over 20
years, both as a civil servant and consultant. He has focused on strategy and
planning, organisational and institutional support, as well as programme and
project conceptualisation in the areas of economic development, the informal
economy, town revitalisation, human settlement development, and communitybased
development. In his current role, he supports municipalities in
conceptualising their economic development role and mandate, reviewing their
strategy and approach to economic development, improving organisational
design and coordination of the economic development function across the
municipality as a whole. Recently his work has focussed on town development
within in the regional economic context.

Ntsieni studied for structured programming and design at Luso Zakheni Computer College. He also did a course in HR Management and Computer Systems Engineering. Ntsieni is a motivated achiever who guides organizations in applying technology to business settings. He has extensive software development experience and knowledge, designing and developing solutions for the automotive, engineering, direct sales and other sectors. Ntsieni is now using his analytical skills he has gained to uplift the community that he comes from through inspiring a culture of entrepreneurship. He is one of the founder members and current Chairman of Thulamela Business Forum (TBF).

Sanele is currently the Acting Executive for SMMEs and VAT Strategy within the SARS Taxpayer Strategy division. His role includes research, benchmarking of the SMME best practices on how to better serve and reduce cost of compliance for SMMEs. He recently conducted benchmarking studies with other revenue agencies such as Italy, Ghana, Tanzania and UK. His team was highly involved in the designing and implementation of the SARS small business desks. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics, Industrial Psychology and Public Administration, an MBA and is a recent
graduate at Henley business school on Executive Management Development Programme.

Adamou is the IFC Country Manager for South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia. Adamou joined the IFC in 1998 as an Investment Officer for Central Africa region based in Douala. He subsequently worked from IFC offices in Abidjan, Johannesburg and Dakar across infrastructure, financial markets, agribusiness, manufacturing and services. He was also the Resident Representative for the DRC. Most recently, he was the Country Manager responsible for Ethiopia, Djibouti, DRC, Eritrea and Somalia. Prior to joining the IFC, he spent a decade working for commercial banks. Adamou holds an MBA from Henley Management College (England) and a Masters in Economic Sciences from the University of Yaounde (Cameroon).

John has held his current position since 2008. The successes to date include an extensive network of twenty support centres for small businesses across the province and the establishment of South Africa’s first Red Tape Reduction unit that focusses on improving the regulatory environment for small business. He was the first Western Cape Provincial Manager for the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA). He holds a B.Com (Hons) degree in Economics and a M.Com degree in Management.

Theo served articles at PwC but returned to the family farm in 1987 when his father passed away. He went into property broking in 1994 and became involved in issues of corporate governance from 2002, with his first investment in the Sage Group. Theo is generally seen as the leading shareholder activist in South Africa, constantly pressing corporates for more transparency and good corporate governance. His approach to such matters has been hailed as both fair and rigorous. He has been involved in the CRISA (Code for Responsible Investing in South Africa) initiative since inception. Theo holds a B.Compt (Hons).