The Centre is headed up by Prof Dr Barney Jordaan. He is extraordinary professor at the Stellenbosch University Graduate School of Business (USB) where he has been teaching since 1987. A lawyer by training, he also taught simultaneously at the University's law faculty for 14 years before moving into private practice in 1997, focusing in particular on workplace relations, employment law and dispute resolution. He teaches negotiation at the USB as well as at UCT's Graduate School of Business and heads the ACDS's Advanced Diploma in Dispute Settlement. He is an IMI certified mediator and has been involved in mediating labour, community and commercial disputes since 1988.

Adv Dumisa Ntsebeza SC is extraordinary associate professor with the Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement. A distinguished lawyer, Dumisa was one of South Africa's most prominent political activists during the apartheid era. In 1995 he was appointed as a Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) set-up to investigate apartheid-era human rights violations. He became the head of the Investigative Unit and also of its witness protection programme. He also served occasionally as deputy and acting chair. During 2005, he took silk and on being appointed as Senior Counsel by the President, became the first African advocate in the history of the Cape Bar to be conferred silk status.  As chairman of the Equillore Group, he is a driving force behind the concept and practice of alternative dispute resolutions in South Africa. Dumisa also serves as chairman of the board of the blue chip South African multinational distribution business, Barloworld Limited and on the boards of a number of other corporations and professional bodies, including the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust (of which he is the chair) and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Adv Hendrik Kotze [deputy head] studied law at Stellenbosch University where he completed his LLB and LLM degrees. He also holds a LLM degree from the University of Cambridge. After a year's fellowship with the Legal Resources Centre (a public interest law firm) in 1992, he was in private practice as an advocate and member of the Cape Bar until 1997. He then joined the Equillore Group as a Director, where he obtained extensive experience in specialized in dispute system design and dispute management. He is a qualified mediator with UK accreditation.

Brian Ganson is Senior Fellow with the Center for Emerging Market Enterprises of the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University, where he leads the initiative on Strategy, Operations and Leadership for Emerging and Frontier Economies. He is also Senior Visiting Researcher at the Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement, University of Stellenbosch Business School, with a focus on multistakeholder processes in large-scale investment, as well as on the role of business in peace building. At the Fletcher School, he has taught international negotiation and law & development as an Adjunct Assistant Professor. Mr. Ganson has designed and conducted trainings for diplomats, business executives and attorneys at Harvard Law School and the Fletcher School, as well as for government, business, and community leaders around the globe. He received the Danforth Award for excellence in teaching from Harvard College, and has been nominated for the James L. Paddock Teaching Award at The Fletcher School.

Governing body: The Centre's governing body consists of representatives of the USB and the Faculty of Law at Stellenbosch University, and sponsors.

Advisory board

• Adv Dumisa Ntsebeza SC
  
  
• Prof Eltie Links (previously SA ambassador to the EU)
  
  
• Adv Paul Pretorius SC (a leading senior advocate of the Johannseburg bar)
  
  
• Dr Johan Strumpfer (economist and futurist)
  
  
• Mr John Brand (senior partner with Bowman Gilfillan attorneys and committee member of the IMI)