South Africa

Werner Opperman has a BCom (Law) degree from Stellenbosch, MCom (Financial Management) from the University of Cape Town and is a CAIA Charter holder. He works as an Investment Professional with over 14 years of broad experience in financial markets. Currently a senior member of the 27four Investment Committee overseeing close to R70 billion, with… read more »

Tendai is passionate about supporting the proliferation of high-growth businesses and their innovations across the African continent. This entails understanding the challenges faced by enterprise support organisations as well as the entrepreneurs and innovators within their programmes. His professional experience spans over 12 years, with seven organisations in multiple roles. He also has additional entrepreneurial… read more »

Rania Toukebri is a Tunisian Based in Germany Space Engineer working on the design, verification and integration of spacecrafts. She has been part of several European Space Agency projects for earth observation, planetary defence and space exploration. She is conducting research on quantum technology and data security. She is Top 10 under 30 space experts… read more »

Marko Saarinen is working as Counsellor for Development Cooperation at the Embassy of Finland in Pretoria since 2019. He is responsible for Finland’s regional development cooperation programme in Southern Africa, and oversees the implementation of the Southern Africa Innovation Support Programme (SAIS 2). He has worked with private sector development programmes for the Ministry for… read more »

Ashraf Garda is the founding champion of Champion South Africa, a nation-building project with a singular powerful vision to build South Africa Into a Champion Nation. This is done by embarking on strategic connections with people and organisations that he describes as Champion Connections, it’s connecting the networks of people drawn to a common vision.Champion… read more »

Martyna is an accomplished scientist with a PhD degree in immunology and infectious diseases. Born in Poland, she completed her studies in South Africa and spent 10 years studying and working in various countries abroad including Netherlands, Germany, and South Africa. Her travels and educational experiences in each country have made her aware of the… read more »

Janusha is a GIS Practitioner and the NED of ZASPACE and  Owner of Wanscan Consulting a Geospatial and Data Services company that celebrates 20 years of delivering services of data excellence.   Her motto ‘ a picture speaks a thousand words ‘ drives her passion to grow the Geospatial industry to take a step forward and… read more »

Jacyntha Twynam is currently the Head: Strategic Projects at Wesgro, heading up the Strategic Projects Unit at Wesgro – which is houses projects such as the Cape Health Technology Initiative, Cape Town Air Access, Cruise Cape Town, and previously, the Atlantis Special Economic Zone. She has over 14 years of experience working within the public… read more »

Polo Leteka is a highly accomplished and experienced entrepreneur and private equity investor. She is the Chairman and Founder of IDF Capital – a South African based entrepreneurial financier and advisory firm. Through IDF Capital, Polo has contributed towards changeling investments into women-owned SMEs across South Africa. In 2015, she co-founded AlitheiaIDF to continue investing… read more »

Sir Richard Roberts is a British biochemist and molecular biologist. He was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Phillip Allen Sharp for the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing. The realisation that individual genes could exist as separate, disconnected segments within longer strands of DNA first arose in the study of adenovirus, one of the viruses responsible for causing the… read more »

Zukiswa holds the position of Director: Organisational Effectiveness and Innovation at the City of Cape Town. She started her career in the City of Cape Town as an Environmental Health Practitioner in 1997, on the 4th year an opportunity to be part of an organisational renewal programme became available, she jumped at the opportunity and… read more »

Magdeleen is the Research and Policy Officer at the South African National Seed Industry (SANSOR). She coordinates industry-related research to ensure a proactive response to industry hurdles as well as supporting the seed industry in Intellectual Property and Biotechnology policy matters. She received her PhD in Biotechnology in 2017 with a thesis title of ”The… read more »

Celeste Sirin is the founder and MD of Employer Branding Africa, a leading employer branding consulting agency, renowned in the SA Market, and making steady inroads into Africa. The company offers solutions to SME’s, nationals and multinationals who have representation in African regions. Employer Branding Africa caters for emerging markets and new entrants into the… read more »

Jane Moors has over 25 years of experience in recruitment, coaching and training, and she is privileged to partner with leaders, talent acquisition specialists and candidates all over the world to develop the confidence and skills they need for successful talent engagement. Her reward is in seeing their teams thrive and receiving feedback for learning… read more »

Arthur heads the OECD Development Centre’s Unit for Africa, Middle East and Europe. The unit produces Africa’s Development Dynamics and Revenue Statistics in Africa, in partnership with the African Union, and Quality Infrastructure in 21st Century Africa with ACET. As a lead economist, Arthur led the themes of the African Economic Outlooks (AEO), a partnership with… read more »