Powering SMEs Future:
Embracing Digital Enablement
The 2024 Standard Bank SME Summit in partnership with Business Day
About
The 2024 Standard Bank SME Summit proudly entered its 8th year, dedicated to supporting established business owners in South Africa with practical tools to foster business growth. This year, the summit continued in a hybrid format, expanding its reach and impact across diverse audiences. Focused on the unique challenges and opportunities within the South African SME landscape, its aim was to empower business owners with crucial insights and strategies to navigate complexities and propel their enterprises to new heights. Attendees had the opportunity to hear from influential voices and thought leaders, benefiting from their expertise to achieve both personal and professional business goals.
Why tune in?
Gain insights, practical tips and inspiration on how to transform businesses to become more resilient and relevant
Brush up on the latest business trends of the future
Find out what you should look for to spot the next lucrative opportunity
Connect with experts and advisors to help get your business ahead
Learn how to navigate challenges to become more innovative and nimble in a changing world of work
The importance of a strong SME sector
The SME sector has massive opportunities to pursue and seize!
Factors that play in an SMEs favour are:
- SMEs have the advantage of being innovative and incredibly nimble – allowing them to disrupt the bigger players;
- SMEs make fast decisions – a massive advantage when it comes to implementing new technology;
- According to the National Development Plan, 90% of new jobs will be created by SMEs by 2030.
Throughout this series we will give our audience insights into the latest industry intelligence and strategies for the coming months and practical tips from real people and real businesses on how to transform your business to become more resilient and relevant.
What to expect from the Standard Bank SME Summit
The unprecedented times in which we still find ourselves today demand that SMES face the challenges head-on, armed with the right information and tools to adapt and thrive in the future. With so much at stake for our economy – and the investments required to sustain it – it’s imperative for small and medium sized businesses to know exactly how the SME landscape is unfolding, and to be fighting-fit to weather the storms of disruption.
We will continue in a hybrid format, as our expert speakers give insights into the latest industry intelligence, strategies for the coming months and practical tips on how to transform your business to become more resilient and relevant in a new economy.
This year’s pillars include:
- E-Commerce: Accelerating Economic Growth for South African SMEs
- The Way AI Can Deliver Growth for SMEs
- Overcoming barriers to digital enablement for South African SMEs
Past Speakers
Dion Chang
Dion Chang
Dion Chang is a strategic thinker, keynote speaker, a walking ideas bank and professional cage rattler. He is one of South Africa’s most respected trend analysts and founder of Flux Trends, which takes the unique view of “trends as business strategy”. Flux Trends specialises in identifying unexpected business opportunities within shifting trends, and specifically the impact of disruptive technologies – across all industries – ensuring that global trends have relevance when translated for African, and South African businesses. Dion is passionate about assisting companies embrace change and embedding a culture of innovation into corporate operating systems. As a result, he is used as a management consultant for businesses facing disruption and challenged with adapting to a new world order. He lectures Foresight and Innovation Implementation modules for executives and senior management at various business schools, including GIBS, UCT’s Graduate School of Business and Duke CE. He has devised and hosted three trend conferences and published three trend books. Apart from being an information source for cross-industry trends for many journalists, he also writes columns for City Press, Acumen (a C-suite business quarterly for GIBS) and is a regular podcast contributor to eBizRadio. His 20-year experience in the media industry as a journalist and media spokesperson, enables him to provide insights into the ever-changing relationship between brands, consumers and the communication channels that bind them. He has a deep passion for youth trends and subcultures, as well as for innovation for greater good. He is an intrepid traveller, global citizen and proud South African.
Pavlo Phitidis
Pavlo Phitidis
As an entrepreneur and investor, Pavlo offers over 25 years of direct experience in conceptualising and building businesses across four continents. He has developed and brought to market business assets in excess of $350m through a combination of business start-ups, turnarounds, sales and acquisitions.
Through Aurik, he works with established business owners to get their businesses to the next level of growth and value. With around 2 800 businesses that work with Aurik to build Assets of Value, Pavlo brings practical strategies, tactics and mindsets to the tough business of building business.
Pavlo is the author of two books: Sweat Scale $ell, a best-selling playbook on how to build a business into an asset that can be sold, and Reset Rebuild Reignite, which offers practical insights on how to build a business to thrive in any crisis.
Keneilwe Mohapi
Keneilwe Mohapi
Her media career has blossomed and she has grown into a dynamic, young media professional who has made a positive impact in the industry. She has worked extensively in media in South Africa, having been employed at Tuks FM (campus radio station for the University of Pretoria), Yebo Radio (Vodacom telecommunications retail radio), MK (Youth Music TV Channel) as well as commercial radio stations OFM, Capricorn FM and currently Jacaranda FM. She is currently the music compiler at Jacaranda FM and host of the award winning radio Weekends with Kenzy show on Jacaranda FM.
Jonathan Smit
Jonathan Smit
An entrepreneur at heart, Jonathan started PayFast early in his career in 2007 after gaining valuable business experience at global engineering and consulting firms. After personally developing the core PayFast platform, Jonathan has steered PayFast through the last decade, growing the company into a leader in online payment processing in South Africa.
Dominic Gaobepe
Dominic Gaobepe
Dominic is the author of the upcoming book CHANGE YOUR STORY, CHANGE YOUR LIFE: Unlock your full potential & Achieve Real-world success. A dynamic speaker & trainer who presents himself with power and dynamism to his audiences, he performs a number of roles as a Speaker, Business Consultant, Diversity and Inclusion specialist & Voice artist. Dominic received the Ernest Oppenheimer scholarship which enabled him to be the first in his family to obtain a Bachelors degree in Economics from Rhodes University. After graduating, he worked within the Human Resources field for big multinationals (Unilever & South African Breweries) adding value and building expertise in the areas of leadership development, high performing teams & organisational transformation. Dominic now applies his expertise as a professional speaker, trainer, consultant & programme director, covering areas including: Entrepreneurship, leadership development, diversifying leadership for multinationals, diversity and inclusion, nation building and transformation.
Ernest North
Ernest North
Ernest North is a co-founder of Naked, the South African artificial intelligence driven insurance platform. Launched in April 2018, Naked’s award-winning offering is built on three principles: ensure a fair and transparent insurance process, put customers in control of their insurance experience, and use automation to lower costs. Ernest is a fully qualified short-term insurance actuary with more than 14 years’ experience working for leading insurance companies in South Africa. His previous roles include head of pricing at Hannover Reinsurance, consultant to insurance brands across Southern and East Africa, and underwriting & actuarial director at a leading South African car insurer.
Pierre Cassuto
Pierre Cassuto
Pierre Cassuto is a South African business personality with interests in advertising, media, gaming, film production and data technologies. As a ‘creative hiding in a suit’, Pierre fulfils various roles in the businesses he’s involved in, ranging from ‘CEO’ to ‘Geek-in-chief’. Originally from France, his recent pursuits focus primarily on data-driven marketing technology. Pierre’s role as global CMO for Humanz has him driving its ambitious international expansion efforts. Humanz is the world’s leading data and technology company in making influencer marketing as accessible, reliable and trustworthy as other media channels. We make influencer marketing effective, simple and safe. Our core product is a social intelligence tool, geared towards effective influencer campaign planning and management for online merchants, marketers and agencies, looking for reliable data, tools and benchmarks. The technology behind our platform is unique, based on two main sets of proprietary algorithms, providing the most advanced solution on the market for the largest problems faced when dealing with influencer marketing: accurate influencer data, fraud detection and ROI tracking.
Brett StClair
Brett StClair
Brett StClair is a Digital Guru who has previously worked at Google and Barclays Africa building out successful digital revenue streams across the world for the past 25 years. Brett currently the Co-Founder of teraflow.ai an Artificial Intelligence business is passionate about helping businesses understand how best to transform into a modern Digital business powered by their data. His Addrelanin charged Keynotes inspire Audience all over the globe to take action now.
Alishia Seckam
Alishia Seckam
Business news anchor Alishia Seckam has been with BusinessDayTV since its rebranding, from SummitTV, back in 2013. Along with bringing viewers the day’s markets wrap at 6pm, on weekdays, she anchors BusinessLive on the channel every week night at 7pm and is the face of the channel’s weekly show – Africa Inc. She brings viewers analysis on the latest market news and activity, from brokers, analysts, industry experts and economists at the close of the trading day. And, on BusinessLive, delves into news and debate issues that impact investment decisions and investment strategy. At the forefront of “Africa Inc.” is getting into the nitty-gritty of doing business in Africa with CEOs and exploring what makes the investment case they’re putting on the table a compelling one. It’s about tapping the minds of key decision makers so that the viewer gets a better idea of where
Rapelang Rabana
Rapelang Rabana
Internationally renowned technology entrepreneur, Rapelang has amassed 15 years’ experience building innovative technologies. She is the Founder of learning-tech startup Rekindle Learning and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. She is also a Partner at private equity firm, Nisela Capital. BBusSci (Hons Comp. Sci), and M.Sc, University of Cape Town.
Lynette Magasa
Lynette Magasa
As founder and the CEO of Boniswa Corporate Solutions (Pty) and Boniswa Group of Companies – a telecommunication services provider, founded in 2004 – Lynette Magasa is one of the most respected and influential women in the South African telecommunication SME space. Her perseverance in the ensuing 15 years in the engineering and information technology sector has taken the company from a start-up to an internationally-recognised organisation based in the Midrand, Johannesburg, with a staff complement of 200 collaborators and international offices in Botswana, Ghana, Swaziland, Namibia and USA. Company’s success story is based largely on ongoing skills upgrading of the team, many members of which have been with the company since its inception.
Idan Jaan
Idan Jaan
Idan has come from a strong entrepreneurial background and has had very close relations to many SMEs ranging in industries. He was managing a group of 32 small businesses for 4 years and worked hand in hand with them from daily operations to financing, to strategizing. In 2016, he started his own concept, which later grew presence within South Africa, SAIDC the Middle East and currently has grown into a reputable franchised concept. Idan has a strong focus on innovation, growth and sustainability. Co-founded Fundrr alongside Jarred to tackle the SME funding gap in a smart, easy and innovative way.
Katlego Maphai
Katlego Maphai
Katlego is the co-founder and CEO at Yoco. Yoco offers an easy way for SMEs to securely accept card payments at the store or on the go, empowering the growth of entrepreneurial businesses. He drives the company’s expansion, customer experience and org design elements as the venture looks to increase card acceptance amongst SMEs. While having lunch in San Francisco at a small eatery that he assumed would not be able to process a card payment, a mobile card reader was presented to him. This encounter planted the seed that led to Yoco’s start. Yoco launched out of beta in October 2015. The venture has acquired over 6 000 merchants, processing a billion rand in annualised transactions. Katlego’s previous work involved venture development at Rocket Internet, setting up Jumia.com in Nigeria, where he met co-founder Bradley Wattrus. The majority of Katlego’s career was in telecoms, media & technology management consulting at Accenture and Delta Partners. Katlego met co-founder, Carl Wazen at Delta Partners. Katlego studied Business Science Information Systems at the University of Cape; this is where he met co-founder Lungisa Matshoba.
Steven Cohen
Steven Cohen
As former Head of Sage One International, Steven Cohen oversaw the growth and development of Sage’s cloud-based accounting and payroll solutions in Africa, Australia, Middle East and Asia. Prior to this, Cohen dedicated his 25-year career to Sage Pastel, the innovative business software company he founded with partners Ivan Epstein and Alan Osrin in 1989.During this time, Steven has held several management positions in the company, including financial director, chief operating officer, managing director and Head of Sage One AAMEA. He has played a central role in the company’s growth from a start-up to a part of the JSE-listed Softline Group, right up to its present incarnation as part of Sage plc, a FTSE 100 company. A charted accountant by qualification, Steven has driven Sage Pastel’s approach to keeping accounting at the cutting edge of technology and turning accounting software into a business management tool.
Roslyn Lavery
Roslyn Lavery
Roslyn is the Head of Business Development at PayFast and runs the Startups Portfolio on the Silicon Cape Community Council. She has degrees in both Software Development and Financial Analysis, and extensive experience working in and with SMMEs. With combined knowledge of money and tech, she is uniquely positioned to understand, navigate and shape the exploding startup space in South Africa. She presents on e-commerce and entrepreneurship at conferences and workshops around the country, including Wordcamp, Tech4Africa, Sparkup and Seedstars World.
Allon Raiz
Allon Raiz
Allon Raiz is regarded both locally and globally as a pioneer and maverick in the business incubation industry. He is the founder and CEO of Raizcorp, the only privately held, unfunded, profitable business incubator on the African continent, currently supporting in excess of 500 businesses. Allon is the author of two bestselling entrepreneurial books – Lose the Business Plan and What to Do When You Want to Give Up. He is the co-founder of the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation South Africa and Rural Roots, and sits on the advisory and judging boards of numerous local and international NGOs and entrepreneurial awards. Allon’s passion and focus on the development of entrepreneurs attracted the attention of the World Economic Forum (WEF) which, on 11 March 2008, awarded Allon as a Young Global Leader. In 2013, Allon received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Oliver Transformation and Empowerment Awards. The following year, he was recognised as the country winner, regional winner and continental winner of the Titan Award for Building Nations.
Charles Nortje
Charles Nortje
Charles has held the position of Chief Executive Officer of CGIC since 2013. He is a qualified chartered accountant with over 24 years international experience in corporate risk and insurance. Charles started his insurance career at Alexander Forbes Risk Services and also served as marketing director at Guardrisk. Prior to joining CGIC, Charles was Managing Director of the Risk Management Practice at Marsh Africa. CGIC is the leading trade credit insurance company in South Africa, insuring R200 billion in global trade conducted by South African policyholders into more than 140 countries, with CGIC underwriting the credit risk of more than 150,000 counterparties.
Vika Mpisane
Vika Mpisane
Mr Vika Mpisane is the CEO of .ZA Domain Name Authority, and has been with ZADNA since 2006. He graduated with a B. Proc degree in 1997 and LLB (Honours Law Degree) in 1998 from University of Kwazulu Natal (UKZN). He has extensive experience in the Internet services, policy and regulation especially in the domain name industry. He also has extensive policy development development and implementation experience in trade and industry, economic policy, labour, education and ICT development. Since 2006 he has served in the Board of Directors (Excom) of Africa Top Level Domains (AfTLD) – the association of African ccTLDs. Between 2009 and 2012 he served as the AfTLD’s President/Chairman. He was elected into the council of the ICANN country code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO) in 2009 and continued as a ccNSO councillor until 2015.
Mark Forrester
Mark Forrester
Mark started his entrepreneurial journey as a student at the University of Cape Town. Having earned just enough money to buy sound equipment he offered DJing services for weddings and birthday parties. With a degree in Information Systems and a passion for web design Mark has since been involved in, and invested in, a few internet based startups. Most notably Mark co-founded WooThemes – the makers of WooCommerce. Their platform now powers over one million online stores around the world. Supported by a completely remote team spanning the globe. In 2015, WooThemes sold to Automattic, the makers of WordPress.com, with a quest to democratise commerce.
Arthur Goldstuck
Arthur Goldstuck
Goldstuck is an award-winning writer, analyst and technology commentator. A winner of SA’s Distinguished Service in ICT Award, he is author of 19 books and editor-in-chief of South Africa’s longest-running online consumer technology magazine, Gadget.co.za. His weekly gadgets column is the most widely syndicated technology column in South Africa and he writes a weekly trends column for the Sunday Times. He is founder of World Wide Worx, leading groundbreaking market research, and presents his insights to audiences across the globe.
Graham Mitchell
Graham Mitchell
Graham Mitchell founded GROW as a leading business coaching firm with a team of six coaches who are working with over 85 business each month across South Africa. He is a Gazelles Certified Coach and is the Regional Advocate for Gazelles International Coaches in Sub-Saharan Africa. Before starting GROW, Graham was recognised as the number one coach in South Africa for a global coaching firm. Graham quickly made a name for himself and was recognised as and ranked in their top 50 coaches worldwide. He is now a senior coach within the Gazelles International Coaching Community. He also held the position of Chief Operating Officer for Houses for Africa, a newly formed pan-African housing developer. He was responsible for securing $55 million of funding to establish a large-scale housing project in Lusaka, Zambia and for expanding the company’s operations into Abuja, Nigeria.
Louw Barnardt
Louw Barnardt
Louw Barnardt CA (SA) is the co-founder and managing director of Outsourced CFO, a multi award-winning financial consultancy that specialises in CFO and cloud accounting services for scaling tech and innovation companies. A voice for entrepreneurship and finance, Louw drives multiple conversations around the use of technology, raising of capital and scaling up of business ventures across multiple platforms. The current Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year, a top 35 under 35 Chartered Accountant and a young business leader in South Africa, Louw speaks, writes, records and promotes entrepreneurship as a catalyst for social change while championing one of the most exciting scale-up companies in the finance industry today.
Khosi Tyobeka
Khosi Tyobeka
Khosi Tyobeka, the founder and CEO of Zimasa Travel Pty Ltd which is a 100% black female owned entity focusing on travel management and conferencing based in Rustenburg, North West. Khosi has 7 years marketing experience which has ignited her passion for tourism. Khosi has a Bachelor of Administration Degree & Diploma in Project Management, which has taught her a lot about business skills, marketing and finances which she implements now in her current business. She saw the need to utilise the expertise to grow Zimasa Travel to be a full functional entity, so she acquires a domestic fares and ticketing as well as reservations certificate to ensure that, as founder, she had the technical ability to fulfil the core function of the business. Through her leadership, Zimasa Travel won the best performing SMME fo SAICA/JP Morgan flagship program 2018, special MEC award at provincial Lilizela Awards 2018, ETEYA Provincial Finalist- Lilizela Awards 2018
Vishen Pillay
Vishen Pillay
Vishen Pillay is a partner in the patent department of Adams & Adams Attorneys, the largest intellectual property (IP) law firms in the South Africa. He has a background in electronic engineering (UKZN) and is an admitted attorney as well as a qualified patent attorney. Vishen has approximately 14 years of experience in IP and specialises in assisting his clients to protect their inventions in the fields of electronics, software, artificial intelligence, quantum communication, quantum computing, telecommunications, mechanical engineering, electro-mechanical engineering, and bio-medical engineering. In particular, he deals with all matters relating to filing and prosecution of patent and design applications in South Africa and abroad, as well as IP strategy. Vishen has drafted and prosecuted patent and design applications on behalf of many South African Universities, Science Councils, US Fortune 500, and South African Top 100 companies.
Nicholas Haralambous
Nicholas Haralambous
Nic is the founder of the popular style company, NicHarry.com. Nic was the CEO and co-founder of Motribe, the mobile community platform, before the company was successfully acquired in 2012. He also founded ForeFront Africa consulting firm before selling the business to Imperial Holdings. His entrepreneurial career proudly includes at least 10 failed startups. Nic started his first business at 16 and recently published his business biography: DO. FAIL. LEARN. REPEAT. Nic is also a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Nic has put his time in at some of the largest media and telco companies in Africa including Mail & Guardian, Financial Mail, 702 and Vodacom.
Phumi Mashigo
Phumi Mashigo
Phumi champions a new way of brand building, where the community takes the centre-stage. She has worked on various brands including King Korn of Tiger Brands. Since inception Ignitive has led successful campaigns for the likes of Tshwane Open, AFCON and Albany. She started her advertising career at Net#work BBDO as a TV producer and started her own production company, Blender. Phumi joined TBWAHuntLascaris as Talent Development Manager focussing on transformation of the agency. Phumi hosts Womandla show on online radio station CliffCentral.com and is executive producer of the documentary series South Africa’s Promise.
Beauty Apleni
Beauty Apleni
Beauty has over 19 years of ICT industry experience. Currently responsible for leading the Mobile, Telkom ISP network and IT service delivery technical teams. Responsible to the Telkom Mobile network strategy, architecture, planning and deployment.
Herman Mashaba
Herman Mashaba
Born in 1959, Herman Mashaba’s academic dream was shattered in 1980 in his second year of a B.A. at the University of The North when the University was shut down due to political unrests. When the University was reopened after two months, he decided not to go back. Strong promises to send him out of the country for military training. In February 1985 the first bottle of ‘Black Like Me’ products hit the South African market. Business started with three other partners and his wife with a R30 000 loan, in 200sm SBDC units in Ga-Rankuwa, in the then homeland of Bophuthatswana. He now runs his own investment company, Lephatsi Investments (Pty) Ltd with investments in various sectors of the South African economy; real estate, financial services, insurance brokerage, bullet proof materials, private security, fuel distribution, global cleaning services, facilities management and construction aggregates. On 12 March 2013, Herman was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration by Central University of Technology, Free State
Jenine Zachar
Jenine Zachar
With Honours Degrees in Education and Human Resource Management, along with professional certificates such as a Lean Six Sigma green belt, her academic background is as diverse as the fortune of having been able to change career paths multiple times.
Her background spans teaching (which she maintains she was terrible at), comms, change management, management consulting, process engineering/optimisation, systems thinking, design thinking, and building digital solutions – in a rapid and “failing fast & cheap” manner. Using all her skills, she loves nothing better today than finding solutions to solve customer problems, particularly for small business owners finding it difficult to break into the market and work their way up from ground 0. She is passionate about mentorship and coaching and the role that it plays within growing women in business and leadership, by adding the skills, sound-boarding, and bravery that no one person achieves on their own. Covid-19 has shown her just how quickly one can draw on the expertise of others to solve problems and turnaround solutions that would otherwise have taken months, if not years, to deploy
Si Fu Marco
Si Fu Marco
Marco has been training martial arts since he was 9 years old and opened his first Chinese martial arts centre at just 19.
He achieved his South African colours in 1989 and has travelled and competed extensively internationally, as well as training the South African team who have brought home numerous trophies under his tutelage.
Since 1999 his focus has shifted from competition to deepening his understanding of the traditions of traditional Chinese Martial Arts, Kung Fu, Tai chi and Chi Gung systems, and passing on these teachings to students both in South Africa and abroad. He has travelled extensively to Taiwan over the years to train with his teacher Master Chen, whose books he is translating from Chinese into English for the benefit of English speaking students around the world.
More recently he has set up Martial arts seminars and focused on technical and cultural exchanges with his and Master Chen senior students. This has helped strengthen the students’ martial arts understanding and helped foster relations between South Africa and China.
Dr. Joubert Viljoen
Dr Joubert Viljoen
Joubert was born to be a vet and ran a thriving practice in Joburg for many years. In 2002 he was involved in a motor vehicle accident which impaired his use of one hand – effectively ending his career as a practicing vet. Not one to dwell on what has been lost, Joubert reskilled himself to service a need he saw for web services for vets, and is successfully running that business while staying involved in the management of his practices.
Zipho Sikhakhane
Zipho Sikhakhane
Zipho Sikhakhane is a global speaker and business strategist. She has held positions in industry leading corporations worldwide and is the first black South African to complete an MBA at the top-ranked Stanford University in the USA. In 2016, she received the Outstanding Young Achiever Award from the UNESCO Center for Global Education.
In the last 15 years, she has presented in four continents, including a TEDx Talk in the USA on Africa’s potential. She delivers inspiring keynotes and facilitated interventions on leadership, change management and Africa’s potential. She has been featured in numerous publications worldwide and is published as a contributing author in Singapore in a book on inspirational women.
From being raised by a single parent in a poor township in northern KwaZulu Natal to overcoming the challenges faced by individuals from disadvantaged communities, Zipho’s journey has been one of consistently breaking barriers. She uses her inspiring life story to help individuals and businesses unleash their true potential.
Adam Gottlich
Adam Gottlich
Adam is a speaker and Behavioural Scientist whose focus centres around customer behaviour, human irrationality, digitisation, and the strategic application of Behavioural Economics and Behavioural Science within the corporate sector.
Adam has a Master’s Degree from Leiden University in the Netherlands in Behavioural Science and is an international award-winning Project Manager. Adam currently heads up Behavioural Science for Standard Bank in Client Solutions where his focus is on solving for staff and customers by practically applying Behavioural Science in a way that actionable, sustainable and contextually relevant across multiple consumer touch points.
Danny Pillay
Danny Pillay
Danny was the last general secretary of the Transvaal Darts Association and the first General Secretary of the Gauteng Darts Association. I have held the Tournament Director post for 2 years and I am the current President of the Gauteng Darts Federation. This would be the 10th year that he was in this post.
Danny runs his own accounting and auditing practice and showcases aspects of Accounting, auditing, tax and human resources.
Mapaseka Mokwele
Mapaseka Mokwele
Keith Govender
Keith Govender
Keith has gone on to a successful career in business, with a maritime focus, culminating in his current role as executive director of Anchora Enterprises Group of Companies.
Bruce Turner
Bruce Turner
Bruce is a visionary who was audacious enough to take on Chinese manufacturers and an effective monopoly in the hotel supply chain, in the highly commoditised space of hospitality cosmetics and amenities.
The Bespoke Amenities Company manufactures a wide range of quality soaps, cosmetics and amenities which are stocked extensively in South African hotels, lodges and bnbs.
Trinity Mohlamme
Trinity Mohlamme
As Covid hit, Trinity contributed to leading The Media Connection’s dramatic shift in business model, which has seen the business achieve record growth in the last year..
Robyn Zinman
Robyn Zinman
Robyn is an active board member of the Dental Wellness Foundation (DWF) which recruits unemployed women in Mfuleni and Khayelitsha, who teach hundreds of children the Live Smart tooth brushing program. She is also involved in sustainable food gardens in these communities.
Naiema Abrahams
Naiema Abrahams
Her personal achievements include completing both the Comrades and 2 Oceans Ultra Marathon.
Saskia Hill
Saskia Hill
Dr Tirhani Mabunda
Dr Tirhani Mabunda
Dr Tirhani Mabunda is an academic, educator, and serial entrepreneur. He is a 1st generation growth entrepreneur who believes in building businesses from the ground up. Dr Mabunda has been involved in the establishment of more than 60 businesses across diverse industries in a business career spanning over 30 years. More than 20 of these businesses are still trading, and Dr Mabunda continues to be actively involved in their strategic leadership and operational management. Dr Mabunda is also a professional auctioneer with more than 19 years of bid calling experience. Dr Mabunda holds more than half a dozen academic and professional qualifications, the highest of which is a PhD conferred by Da Vinci Institute in 2017 with a thesis entitled “Enterpriseneurship as a catalyst for enterprise development”.
Gaurav Nair
Gaurav Nair
Gaurav has extensive experience in financial services, which includes: asset management, domestic and international corporate and project finance, capital structuring and raising, hedging various financial risks and managing investments. He has brought valuable insight to Jaltech and has been crucial in allowing Jaltech to provide a customer centric service offering.
Bernadette Colborne
Bernadette Colborne
Commenced my career as:
• In trade processing a trade officer in a processing environment to check clerk, to
• First Trade Consultant in Standard Bank Int Trade – looking after clients, speaking at conferences and workshops on trade
• Trade Sales managing client relationships in trade
• Global Markets – short term trade finance
• Head of Trade Sales – Nationally
• Head of iTrade: Implemented a trade front end many years back
• Head Global Financial Institutions Cash and Trade Finance
• Head Trade Product and Client Experience – Financial Institutions
• Head Trade and Supply Chain Finance current role
Passion – my family which is the most valuable part of my life and I am Pilates Instructor part time as this contributes to good health and movement.
Naledzani Mosomane
Naledzani Mosomane
Naledzani Mosomane is the Head of Enterprise Development at Standard Bank South Africa. She is a Chartered Accountant with a Masters in Development Finance (cum laude) from the University of Stellenbosch Business School.
Her experience spans across multiple disciplines including operations, risk and governance, finance, and strategy development and implementation. She has worked across the continent and is passionate about creating sustainable solutions to improve economic development particularly through enterprise development. Her mom is an entrepreneur and therefore she fully understands the challenges that come with owning and sustaining a business and the role that SMEs have in contributing to the development of their communities.
She is a mom to a very busy 5 year old and in her personal capacity volunteers her time by advising small businesses on financial management. She loves spending time with her family and exploring new places and adventures.
Bronwyn Williams
Bronwyn Williams
Economics (University of London), Foresight (University of Manchester), and Future Studies (University of Stellenbosch). She is currently completing a Masters in Applied Economics from the University of Bath.
Today, as a partner at Flux Trends, Bronwyn’s research focuses on how macro socio-economic trends and emerging technologies will impact businesses, industries, and nations in the near and long term future. Part economist, part strategist, Bronwyn’s particular areas of expertise includes fintech trends, alternative economic models, and sustainable future design.
Bronwyn’s clients include Top 40 JSE listed companies, The South African Reserve Bank, African government departments, and global business leaders. She also guest lectures for leading business schools, such as Duke, GIBS, UCT, and the University of Johannesburg. Bronwyn is also the co-author of The Future Starts Now, published by Bloomsbury UK, and a well- known media commentator on future trends and economic trajectories for network channels including CNBC Africa and ENCA News. She is also a member of the Association of Professional Futurists.
Tumelo Mojapelo
Tumelo Mojapelo
Zandile Keebine
Zandile Keebine
Zandile is also the founder of EmpowerXx, a women in STEM focused tech recruitment startup focused on accelerating women in leadership positions within tech companies.
Zandile has been recognized as a Mail and Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans in 2020. In 2021, she was awarded Social entrepreneur of the year by the Santam Women of the Year Awards. In her personal capacity, she has been a mentor to young aspiring women in tech and female entrepreneurs. Zandile believes in creating opportunities that impact both the social and economic status for women as well as the progress and development of technology companies who are currently still predominantly white male dominated.
Moshima Shongwe
Moshima Shongwe
Moshima believes that, “through collaborative digital connections we can collectively foster positive impact and contribute towards meaningful growth for Africa and its people”. Thus, her ongoing mission is to constantly unlock the opportunities that technology provides; while also striving to understand and eliminate barriers to adoption, scaling and commercialisation of digital solutions.
Dr Adriana Marais
Dr Adriana Marais
Adriana is currently a Director at the Foundation for Space Development Africa, developing Africa’s first mission to the Moon, the Africa2Moon Project. She is Scientific Moderator on Space Resources with the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator, and Chair of Space Sciences at Tod’Aérs Aeronautics and Space Research. She is also Faculty at the Singularity University and Duke Corporate Education.
In 2019, Adriana founded Proudly Human, and she is currently leading the organisation’s Off-World Project: a series of off-grid habitation experiments in the most extreme environments on the planet, in preparation for life on the Moon, Mars and beyond, as well as a sustainable future on Earth.
Msizi James
Msizi James
Arye Kellman
Arye Kellman
Tandiwe Njobe
Tandiwe Njobe
Berrie de Jager
Berrie de Jager
Zanele Njapha
Zanele Njapha
She has been a speaker at the BCX XCITE21 virtual event in 2021 and focused on the rapid expansion of the gig economy not only as a response to the pandemic, but a reflection of a shift in working models, which corporations must embrace.
Sarah Collins
Sarah Collins
The Wonderbag is a powerless, heat-retention cooker. Using insulation, it allows food that has been brought to boil to continue cooking for up to 12 hours, without using additional energy.
Matthew Cruise
Matthew Cruise
He is the Head of Business Intelligence and Public Relations at Hohm Energy, which is South Africa’s solar fintech marketplace that has quickly become SA’s market-leader in providing solar installations.
He is also the face of Hohm Energy, which involves regular media engagements
In 2018 he completed a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) dissertation titled: Eskom, Too Big To Fail, or Necessitated Change?
In his capacity as an Energy Expert, he is on the radio and TV news on a weekly basis, providing insights and commentary regarding recent news within the energy sector.
Alan Gie
Alan Gie
Throughout his career at Arion Power, Alan has actively pursued collaborations and partnerships to ensure the successful implementation of Arion Powers solutions. He has worked closely with SMME owners and individuals, understanding their pain points and crafting tailored solutions to enhance their resilience in the face of load-shedding.
Brian Gadisi
Brian Gadisi
Brian also Works with the United Nation International Telecommunications Union ITU and was a speaker at the 2022 ITU World Telecommunications Development conference held in Kigali Rwanda, developing strategies to bridge the digital divide amongst the African youth.
Makgosi Mabaso
Makgosi Mabaso
Notably, she served as Chief of Staff at Telkom Group, offering strategic counsel to the GCEO and currently as Managing Executive for Telkom Business and Home Solutions. Makgosi remains dedicated to fostering leadership and empowering women through coaching and mentorship, leveraging her extensive corporate insights.
Norman Nyawo
Norman Nyawo
Yaeesh Moosa
Yaeesh Moosa
Tshepo Magoma
Tshepo Magoma
Talifhani Banks
Talifhani Banks
In 2017, Talifhani started Analytics Advertising with the aim of helping large entities manage Cloud, Data, and Software. In 2020, Talifhani saw an opportunity to develop a platform that would connect communities through their own cuisines, grocery products, and fresh produce.
After conducting research and development for Spaza Eats, the company launched in 2023. It has now been a year since the launch, and they are growing rapidly.
They are currently operating in Gauteng, Cape Town, Durban, and key areas in Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Free State, and Northwest.
Talifhani likes to think of himself as innovative, strategic, and analytical in his decision-making.
Nazareen Ebrahim
Nazareen Ebrahim
Nomsa Nteleko
Nomsa Nteleko
Gregory Lee
Gregory Lee
Aside from digital business, Greg has written seminal books on the topic of analytics in HRM (HR Metrics: Strategic and Quantitative Tools for People Management, Knowledge Resources), business analytics and data (Business Statistics Made Easy in SAS, SAS Institute), and organisational design, development and people management (Designing Organisations for People-Led Sustainable Competitiveness, Silk Route Press).
Greg has founded the run several entrepreneurial ventures including an analytics firm specialising in workforce analytics, an ecommerce venture and a technology consultancy focusing on automation.
He has published in top academic journals such as Human Resource Management Journal, the European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of HRM, & many others.
Palesa Nombula
Palesa Nombula
Gugulethu Mfuphi
Gugulethu Mfuphi
Past partners
Standard Bank
Credit Guarantee
SAICA
Telkom South Africa
Grow Business Coaching
BDO
W&RSETA
Adams & Adams
PayFast
Liberty Group
Office of the Tax Ombud
Santam
Endeavour
Monash South Africa
Contact Us
General Enquiries and Partnership Opportunities
Zandi Nhlapo
NhlapoZ@arena.africa
011 340 9465