Ms. Ayanda Noah is a seasoned professional with 26 years’ experience in the energy sector. She started her career as an engineer-in-training at Eskom in 1992 where she worked her way up to occupy various middle to senior management positions. Before her resignation from Eskom in 2018, she headed up the Distribution and Customer Services Divisions for 15 years, wherein she was accountable for an asset base worth over R250bn, 18 000 employees, over 6 million customers, a budget totaling R20bn (Opex and Capex) and a revenue of R185bn. Ms Noah has strong business acumen that earned her respect in the broader energy sector.

Her expertise were validated by her active role as a non-executive director, with vast experience in corporate governance at the Eskom Rotek Industries SOC (ERI), South African Energy Association (SANEA), CSIR and Energy Access Partnership (EAP), which is a multinational vehicle formed to advance electrification in the developing world. She is currently serves as an Audit Committee member and Chair of Performance Committee at Lesedi Local Municipality. She holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, an MBA from the International Management Centre, an Executive Development Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand as well as an Advanced Management Program from the Harvard Business School. Currently, she is a director of her own engineering consulting firm, AN Duke Solutions (Pty) Ltd and Chairperson of CEF Group of companies.

Dr. Nompumelelo Siswana’s career has been mainly in the oil and gas business sector for about 25 years. She is also experienced in international business through her direct involvement in the marketing, sales and trading of crude oil, fuel and petrochemicals as the then Vice President for Supply, Trading and Logistics at PetroSA. In her previous role as PetroSA’s Divisional Head of New Ventures, Strategy and Planning, her focus was in establishing relations and business opportunities in some of the African countries and in project managing the construction of the semi commercial plant in Mossel Bay refinery. She has also worked at BP, Engen and Calulo Investments in positions which covered almost the entire oil and gas downstream business both at strategic and operational levels.

Her corporate governance experience includes serving as a chairperson of the SAPIA, an Executive Director in the boards of PetroSA and also a non-executive director of SFF and Sentech. Her educational achievements include a PhD awarded by the School of Chemical Engineering & Industrial Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney and an MSc degree (Chemistry) from the University of Wollongong, also in Australia. She has also attended the Executive Leadership program at Stanford University, California, USA.

Ms. Dudu Hlatshwayo has a solid business management background that spans over 25 years of experience. Her extensive experience in the corporate sector has seen her hold many powerful positions – as a Partner at Ernst & Young, Director in the Corporate Finance Division of Andisa Capital, a subsidiary of Standard Bank, and Product Manager at both ABSA Bank and Telkom SA. As a Group Executive at Transnet, Ms Hlatshwayo headed up the Restructuring, Mergers and Acquisitions Portfolio. She has skills in Corporate Finance, Business Process Re-Engineering, Organisational Design, Corporate Strategy Development and Business Planning, Change Management, as well as Programme and Project Management. Her engagements include being a member of the Boards of Public Investment Corporation, a state-owned enterprise with R2 trillion in assets and Pareto, one of the biggest black-owned property companies in South Africa.

She is also a Board Member at the Land Bank of South Africa as well as Airports Company South Africa (ACSA. Ms. Hlatshwayo has always believed that success, and the ability to drive yourself to your full potential lie within as a function of personal mastery. She encourages and teaches self-mastery and self-belief to a group of children under 12 years old, in her birth province of KZN. Beside sitting on various Boards, Ms. Hlatshwayo is also the CEO of a company that she founded in 2006 called Change EQ, an advisory firm that provides strategic advice to corporate organisations in South Africa. She holds Bachelor of Social Science (Honors) from the UCT, a Diploma in Marketing Management from Executive Education, a Certificate in Product Strategy and Brand Management from the Wits Business School and a Senior Executive Leadership Development Programme from Wits/Harvard Business School and an MBA from UNISA.

Ms. Makgola Makololo is qualified professional Engineer, currently working as a Managing Director and Sales Executive at ALSTOM Rolling Stock South Africa. In the last fifteen years, she has gained extensive experience in the energy sector including utility operations, policy formulation, and regulation through her work as the Deputy Director-General for Energy in the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) with shareholder oversight on Eskom (energy), Safcol (forestry), and Alexkor (mining). She also worked as an Electrical System Engineer and in various management roles for Eskom, and a Senior Reliability Engineer for gas giant Sasol. Ms. Makololo has served as a non-executive director on the board of Zenzele Technology center, an incubator of SEDA and was also co-opted onto the board of the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA). She has an MBA (Corporate Finance & Strategy) from University of Pretoria, Technology Leadership Program from Eskom/DaVinci Institute, Programme in Financial Management from Unisa and a BSc. Electrical Engineering from the University of Natal.

Ms. Unati Figlan is a professional engineer with over 18 years of experience which spans engineering management, infrastructure project management, power utility, railways, and executive leadership. She runs Hlonela Engineering Solutions (Pty) LTD and is also a member of a farming and educational Co-operations called Punqa Pty Ltd and X-squared Pty Ltd. Ms Figlan has chaired and sat on several committees at her previous employment of Eskom distribution where she was responsible to manage risk, and its tasks, including but not limited to oversight and approval of the enterprise risk management framework including responsibilities on behalf of the board.

She has also served an Executive Director of PowerTech Transformers, Dorper, Wind Farm IPP Power Matla renewables and Empower a Thousand Holdings. She holds a BSc Electrical Engineering at the University of Cape Town and MOP from Gordon institute of Business Science (GIBS).