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Item: 
Industrialisation and transformation through procurement: The Eskom experience
Speakers: 
Henk Langenhoven
Day: 
Order: 
2
Time: 
12:00

Jorge Maia

Head of the Research and Information Department of the Industrial Development Corporation

Biography

IDC

 

Maia holds a Master of Arts degree in economics from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.  This was preceded by a Bachelor of Economic Science with Honours from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Maia joined the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited (the IDC) in 1995 as a manager in the Department of Economic Research and Development. He was mainly responsible for the department’s macroeconomic and international economics sections, as well as for policy-related research pertaining to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. 

In mid-1999, Maia was appointed to the position of Senior Project Manager in the IDC’s newly created SADC Department and, approximately one year later, to head of this department.  Early in 2003, the department was renamed Africa Unit.

In January 2004, Maia was seconded to Dynasty Textiles (Pty) Ltd, a cotton spinning operation based in Cape Town, to implement a merger between this company and Prilla 2000 (Pty) Ltd, a major cotton spinning company based in Pietermaritzburg.  Subsequent to the successful merger of these companies, Maia returned to the IDC in September 2004 as Head of the Risk Management Department, a position which he held until 31 April 2005.

In May 2005, Maia was appointed Head of the Research and Information Department of the IDC. This department plays a key supportive role to the IDC by: analysing trends and forecasting movements in key macro-economic variables and in specific sectors of economic activity; undertaking sector/industry specific analysis; identifying development areas and financing/investment opportunities for the IDC in South Africa and in the rest of the African continent; providing strategic research support to the South African government; and, among others, assessing country risk, particularly with respect to African countries.

Jaco Botha

Senior Product Manager

Biography

Parsec

 

Botha holds an Honours degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pretoria and started his career in process control at Eskom before joining Nanoteq in 1989. He has extensive experience in the design, development and product management of information security products for networks, personal computers and embedded environments.

In 2000, Botha founded Trispen Technologies, a developer of secure virtual private networking products. He then joined XipLink, a Canadian developer of advanced wireless network optimization products as Chief Technology Officer in 2008.

At XipLink, Botha was responsible for leading the development team that designed ground-breaking multi-link ground-to-air and satellite link optimisation systems, deployed on hundreds of commercial aircraft in the USA.

Botha joined Parsec, a subsidiary of the JSE-listed group Ansys, as Senior Product Manager in 2016. He is passionate about combining the principles of Lean Start-up (business-hypothesis driven iteration and validated learning) and Design Thinking (human centred approach to solving problems) into the product development and product management process.

 

Ruben Janse van Rensburg

Head of Sustainability for Africa: Hewlett-Packard Company

Biography

 

Janse van Rensburg has been at Hewlett-Packard Company for over 10 years and is responsible for product market access and sales support. He conducts research on emerging recycling industries and advocates for the implementation of extended producer responsibility mechanisms throughout Africa. Janse van Rensburg is passionate about the establishment of a sustainable recycling eco-system throughout Africa by applying sound social, environmental and economic principles.

His educational background includes a B-Tech degree and he holds various environmental management qualifications and industry related certifications.

Dr Thulani Dlamini

CSIR Chief Executive Officer

Biography

 

Dr Thulani Dlamini has been appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) effective from 1 February 2017. He is no stranger to the CSIR, having served the organisation with distinction for many years.

He joined the CSIR in 2005 as the head of the National Laser Centre and in 2008 he was appointed to the position of Group Executive for Research and Development (R&D), a position he held until 2011 when he left the CSIR to join Sasol. At Sasol he was the Executive Manager: Research and Development and later became Vice-President for Strategic Research and Technology.

Dr Dlamini holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Master’s in Business Leadership from the University of South Africa. He has also completed advanced courses in several aspects of technology management in the chemical industry offered by institutions such as the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

He was instrumental in the establishment of the Photonics Initiative of South Africa and the development of a national strategy for photonics research, development and innovation (RD&I). He is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAF). Furthermore, he has served on numerous boards including the Sasol Pension Fund, Automotive Industry Development Centre, Sasol Technology UK and Netherlands.

Lizeka Matshekga

IDC Divisional Executive

Biography

IDC

 

Matshekga is the divisional executive responsible for the infrastructure, agro-processing and agriculture, as well as  new industries at the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited (IDC). She has 23 years of experience in the financial services sector, more than half of that in development finance institutions. Matshekga has a Master’s in development finance from Stellenbosch University, a BCom (Honours) from the University of Cape Town and a BCom from the University of the Western Cape. She sits on numerous boards of the IDC’s investee companies.

Prof. Thokozani Majozi

CSIR Board Chairperson

Biography

 

Majozi is a full professor at the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering of the University of the Witwatersrand, where he also holds a National Research Foundation (NRFs)/Department of Science and Technology Chair in Sustainable Process Engineering. To date, his major contributions to research are the development of a continuous time framework for the synthesis of batch plants, a novel technique for near-zero effluent batch chemical facilities and a process integration technique for integrated water and membrane network systems. All these contributions have been adopted by industry. Prior to joining the University of the Witwatersrand in 2013, he was a professor at the University of Pretoria for almost 10 years and an associate professor in computer science at the University of Pannonia in Hungary, from 2005 to 2009. A chemical engineer by profession, Majozi completed his PhD in process integration at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in the United Kingdom. He is a member of various international scientific committees and a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa, Academy of Engineering of South Africa, Water Institute of Southern Africa and African Academy of Sciences. He spent the early years of his career working for Unilever, Dow AgroSciences and Sasol Technology.

Majozi has received numerous awards for his research including the Zdenek Burianec Memorial Award (Italy, 2005). He has been a recipient of the National Science and Technology Forum Award (2006, 2011 and 2016) and a recipient of the National Research Foundation President’s Award (2007 and 2008). In 2009, he won the prestigious S2A3 British Association Medal (Silver) and in 2010 was awarded the South African Institution of Chemical Engineers Bill Neal-May Gold Medal. Recently, he received the AU-TWAS Award in Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation (2012) and ORSSA Category III Award. Majozi is an author and co-author of more than 150 scientific publications, including a book titled Batch Chemical Process Integration published by Springer in January 2010, Synthesis, Design and Resources Optimization, published by CRC Press/Taylor and Francis in 2015 and a book titled Understanding Batch Chemical Processes, also published by CRC Press/Taylor and Francis in 2017. Majozi is also an NRF B1 rated researcher.

Prof. Bob Scholes

Biography

 

Scholes is a distinguished professor of systems ecology at the Global Change Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand. He is among the top 1% of environmental scientists worldwide based on citation. He has led several high-profile studies, such as the Assessment of Elephant Management, Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change and Strategic Assessment of Shale Gas Development, as well as large research campaigns, such as the SAFARI 2000 and Southern African Millennium Assessment. Scholes is the author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, third, fourth and fifth assessments. He has been on the boards of the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, the South African National Parks and South African National Space Agency. He is a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, fellow of the CSIR and the Royal Society of South Africa, a member of the South African Academy, a research associate of the CSIR, a National Research Foundation A-rated scientist and a winner of the National Science and Technology Forum Lifetime Contribution to Science Award.