Webinar

Why is foresight in the private sector so challenging? What is the role of visionary strategic leadership in the public sector? Join our special Alumni Webinar, as senior futurists Dr Njeri Mwagiru and Doris Viljoen, each from the Institute for Futures Research (IFR), share a bit of theory, accompanied by many stories and lessons learned from their recent projects.

Date:               Friday, 2 October 2020

Time:              12:45 CAT (GMT +2)

Enquiries:        Lizelle Kannemeyer | USBAlumni@usb.ac.za

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dr Njeri Mwagiru
Senior Futurist: Institute For Futures Research (IFR)

Njeri is a Senior Futurist at the Institute for Futures Research (IFR), University of Stellenbosch Business School, and leads the African Futures portfolio.

Her work focuses on strengthening capabilities of individuals, organisations and countries in Africa, to navigate complexity and uncertainty, to realise long-term goals and visions. Her research interests include leadership, organisational performance, knowledge, gender and diversity, inclusivity and transformation. Her vocation is to support knowledge sharing and exchange, to facilitate integrated strategic planning, and enhance evidence-based decision making and high performance to achieve desired futures.

Doris Viljoen

Senior Futurist: Institute For Futures Research (IFR)

Doris Viljoen is a senior futurist at Stellenbosch University’s Institute for Futures Research (IFR) where she endeavours to interpret global as well as local trends and assess their relevance for South Africa and Africa. Doris lectures on the master’s degree programme in Futures Studies at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB). She has specialised skills in environmental scanning, the application of foresight methodology, scenario planning as well as strategy development. Her research towards a PhD in Futures Studies looks at the future of work, specifically focusing on non-conventional employment engagements.

Despite increased regulations and compliance with Integrated Reporting, recent corporate failures highlights the gap that still exists between the ideals of corporate governance and its outcomes. Merely ticking boxes on an annual basis is not sufficient. The goal should be to align corporate governance with the purpose, strategy and decision-making in the business.

Join Brett Hamilton, Barrie Jack and Jonathan Rens as they discuss how to move beyond the box-ticking connected with Integrated Reporting and how trust-based Integrated Thinking can provide a practical approach for corporate governance in any organisation.

Date:               Friday, 11 September 2020

Time:              10:00 CAT (GMT +2)

Enquiries:        Lizelle Kannemeyer | USBAlumni@usb.ac.za

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Brett Hamilton
Director at First River Capital

Brett is a visiting faculty member at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB), where he teaches Corporate Finance on the MBA programme. He has gained extensive experience in media, FMCG, agriculture and property development. He is a director of First River Capital, a boutique firm that specialises in strategy, corporate finance, mergers, acquisitions, buy-outs and private equity.

Barrie Jack
Chartered Accountant and Co-founder at Katanoe

Barrie is a Chartered Accountant (SA) and Chartered Director with a Higher Diploma in Taxation Law. He has extensive business experience in the South African corporate sector, having held positions as Financial Director to Independent Non-Executive Director at a number of companies in South Africa, as well as having been a Partner of KPMG. In recent years he has served as the Chairman of the Audit Committee Forum’s Working Groups of the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa, and also facilitates director development programmes for the Institute of Directors in South African. He has co-founded Katanoe with Jonathan Rens.

Jonathan Rens
Quantity Surveyor and Co-founder at Katanoe

Jonathan qualified as a professional Quantity Surveyor, and after time in the profession, moved into the property space. He was one of the founding executive directors of the Acucap Properties Limited, which listed on the JSE in March 2002, and then grew exponentially until it was bought by Growthpoint Properties Limited in 2015. He is currently connected to IT and solar start-ups and has co-founded Katanoe with Barrie Jack.

What is the best way to respond to drastic change? Do we prioritise swift action over careful strategic consideration? Or do we simply adapt as things happen?

Join Kait Dinunzio as she helps us understand the change curve, as it relates to adapting quickly, and also explores the pillars of resilience to guide us in navigating change in the current environment.

Date:               Wednesday, 9 September 2020

Time:              17:00 CAT (GMT +2)

Enquiries:        Lizelle Kannemeyer | USBAlumni@usb.ac.za

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Kait Dinunzio

Senior Partner and Chief Change Officer, Helios Consulting

Kait is a creative and passionate organizational change management and communications specialist, with extensive experience as a leadership coach.

Her practice focuses on training, coaching and supporting business owners and corporate leaders in the area of change management, communications, organisational design/effectiveness, process improvement, resilient leadership and team development.

Kait is known for her unique change management strategies that help assess business readiness and encourage a willingness to adopt new processes, technologies or behaviours. Her strength in connecting with and caring for people helps her anticipate and respond to stakeholder expectations during change.

FACILITATOR

Theunis van der Linde

USB MBA alumnus and Partner, Helios Consulting

Theunis is an experienced and seasoned business and operations leader.

The public sector faces ever increasing competing needs, calling for a sharper focus on the provision of public goods, at a time when the private sector is yearning for growth in a true free market environment.

Traditionally, the state enterprise has played a critical role in bridging the gap between the state and the private sector, but left unchecked, the role could potentially become toxic. Should the state consciously diminish the sheer size of the state enterprise sector?

Join Standard Chartered Bank Botswana CFO, Dr Mbako Mbo, as he explores solutions in our special Alumni Webinar.

Date:               Thursday, 13 August 2020

Time:              18:00 (CAT)

Enquiries:        Lizelle Kannemeyer | USBAlumni@usb.ac.za

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr Mbako Mbo

Chief Financial Officer at Standard Chartered Bank Botswana

 Dr. Mbako Mbo graduated from USB with a PhD (Business Management and Administration) in March 2017. His research interests are in State Owned Enterprises, with a focus on the developing world. He has published several articles with international journals and conference proceedings on the subject.

Dr Mbo is also a Chartered Accountant, and has spent the greater part of his career working for State Owned Enterprises in and outside Botswana, specialising in Finance, fiduciary work as well as Investment Risk. He also previously taught at undergraduate level at the University of Botswana. Currently, he is the CFO of Standard Chartered Bank in Botswana.

Right now, the economic hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa are being addressed. However, we also need to prepare for what is to come in the aftermath. Join Prof Meshach Aziakpono and host Emma Rono of the East Africa Chapter as they assess Africa’s options in overcoming these challenges.

Date:              Thursday, 3 September 2020
Time:              12:00 CAT (GMT +2)
Enquiries:    Lizelle Kannemeyer | USBAlumni@usb.ac.za

Prof Meshach Aziakpono
Meshach Aziakpono (PhD) is a Professor of Development Finance and until April 2013 was the Head of Development Finance Programmes at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB). He obtained a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Economics and Statistics with a Second Class Hons Upper Division in 1994 at the University of Benin; a Master of Science degree in Economics in 1998 at the University of Ibadan, and a PhD in Economics in 2008 at the University of the Free State. His research has focused on the broad areas of financial integration and financial sector development and monetary policy issues in Africa with strong emphasis in applied econometrics.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is set to reshape the world, and the current COVID-19 crises only accelerated the digitalisation of many business processes and even products and customer value.

However, the 4IR is more than digitisation it includes the creation of cyber-physical systems and the reshaping of the economic structure and society at large. Will Africa, like the previous industrial revolutions, again be a late consumer that at times reluctantly is shaped by the 4IR, or do we have a contribution to make?

Date:               Friday, 28 August 2020
Time:              12:00 CAT (GMT +2)
Enquiries:        Lizelle Kannemeyer | USBAlumni@usb.ac.za

Prof Martin Butler

Martin Butler is an Associate Professor at the Stellenbosch University Business School (USB) and a Research Associated at the Institute for Future Studies (IFR). He holds an Electronic Engineering degree from the University of Pretoria, an MBA (Cum Laude) and a PhD from the USB. Martin heads up the USB’s Teaching and Learning that oversees the delivery of the USB full academic portfolio of 13 graduate programmes.

There is a significant infrastructure finance gap in Africa that is likely to widen due to COVID-19 unless countries consider alternative financing techniques. Join this Alumni Webinar with Dr Ashenafi Fanta and host Shayo Imologome of the West Africa Chapter in their search for solutions to these issues.

Date:               Friday, 21 August 2020
Time:              12:00 CAT (GMT +2)
Enquiries:     Lizelle Kannemeyer | USBAlumni@usb.ac.za

Dr Ashenafi Fanta

Dr Ashenafi Beyene Fanta is a Senior Lecturer of Development Finance at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. Prior to joining Stellenbosch University, Dr Fanta worked as Data Analysis and Segmentation Expert at FinMark Trust where he was involved in developing segmentation models and wrote policy research papers on topics including financial inclusion of women, financial literacy, mobile money, over-indebtedness and SME financing.

Join us for this Alumni Webinar, facilitated by Dr Xolani Nocanda, USB Alumni KwaZulu-Natal Chapter, where USB’s Prof Arnold Smit and Mr Maarten Ackerman help us deal with our losses and capitalise on opportunities that have come from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dealing with grief and loss at work – Prof Arnold Smit (USB)

We are surrounded by various manifestations of loss and grief resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic. Many people have lost loved ones and friends. Organisations have lost income, customers, suppliers, and even employees. How do we come to terms with these losses? How can we make meaning of it? How do we lead others in such a situation?

The world after COVID: opportunities, winners and losers – Mr Maarten Ackerman (Citadel Wealth Management)

How long will the COVID-19 economic recovery be and what will be the implications for your business and investment portfolio? Will South Africa avoid a debt trap and will we see the reforms needed to turn the economy around? In this new world, there will be many opportunities and risks with some industries winning and others losing. It is important to identify these now.

Date:               Thursday, 23 July 2020
Time:              18h30 – 20h00 (CAT)
Enquiries:        Lizelle Kannemeyer | USBAlumni@usb.ac.za

About the speakers

Prof Arnold Smit

Arnold Smit is Associate Professor of Business in Society at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. His academic work is focused on the integration of ethics, responsibility and sustainability in management education and organisational practice. He also facilitates training programmes on values-driven leadership, sustainability management and director development.

Prof Smit holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy and a Doctor’s Degree in Theology from Stellenbosch University. He is also a non-executive director of The Ethics Institute, a trustee of SEED Educational Trust and the immediate past President of the Business Ethics Network of Africa.

Mr Maarten Ackerman

Maarten Ackerman joined Citadel in October 2003 and is part of the advisory and asset management teams. He is responsible for global and local economic strategy and global portfolio construction, and manages the Citadel range of Global Objective Matching Portfolios.

Maarten is an advisor to a number of Citadel’s ultra-high net worth clients. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments in London and a faculty member at the University of Stellenbosch Business School – Executive Development.

He holds a Master’s degree in Econometrics from the University of Pretoria, and lectured at the University of Pretoria and the University Stellenbosch before joining the Bureau for Economic Research in 1998, where he focused on macro-econometric forecasting. Prior to joining Citadel he was a portfolio manager at Peregrine Quant from 1999 to 2003.

Take part in this insightful Alumni Webinar where Dr Stewart Southey and Dr Mehran Zarrebini, Chairperson of the UK Chapter, discuss Blockchain for Supply Chains in Pharma.

Date:               Tuesday, 30 June 2020

Time:              13h00 (CAT)

RSVP:             Monday, 29 June 2020

Enquiries:        Lizelle Kannemeyer | USBAlumni@usb.ac.za

About the speakers

Dr Stewart Southey
Stewart Southey is an NHS Anaesthetist with 20 years’ experience in clinical medicine. He was awarded his MBBCh at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) in 1998, FRCA (Fellowship of Royal College of Anaesthetists, UK) in 2005 and admitted to the GMC Specialist register in 2008.

Whilst working as a Consultant, Stewart completed an MBA (Open University) and led many management/transformation initiatives in Poole Hospital. He has worked with Candesic (a leading London Healthcare Strategy Consulting Firm) and has subsequently focused his expertise into emerging technologies in healthcare – with a special interest in Blockchain. In 2019 Stewart graduated with MSc in Blockchain and Digital Currencies.

Dr Mehran Zarrebini
Mehran Zarrebini is the CEO of PFE International Inc, a diversified group of companies in South and Southern Africa. He earned a BEng (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from Loughborough University, a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge and an MBA (Cum Laude) from the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB).

His research at USB focused on carbon footprint management utilising multiple decision criteria to evaluate the trade-off between carbon, cost and profit in sustainable manufacturing. In 2019, Mehran graduated with an MSc in Blockchain and Digital Currency from the University of Nicosia and is a Senior Partner at Catena Consulting.