Committee
Interim Steering Committe
The initiative has been driven to date by the interim steering committee, made up of the original founders and associates, including Justin Stanford, Vinny Lingham, Erik van Vlaanderen (interim chairman), Laurie Olivier and Andrew Thomas-Woolf.
Elections for the inaugural community Steering Committee
An electronic, online community vote commencing 1 December 2009 will decide the 10-seat inaugural steering committee, charged with taking over the initiative from the founders and representing the community.
Candidates
The candidates who have either volunteered or been nominated by the community and have consented to stand are as follows:
| Candidate | Bio/Motivation | Volunteered By |
| Justin Stanford | Justin is an international entrepreneur and investor from Cape Town, South Africa. He is founder, CEO, director, advisor, or investor to numerous companies, mostly in the technology startup space. Since leaving high-school early, and subsequently setting about founding his first startup at age 18, Justin has been involved in entrepreneurial endeavours. He is now the co-founder and CEO of diversified investment holding company 4D Innovations Group (4DI Group), which manages all joint business interests with long time partner Erik van Vlaanderen, including the likes of ESET Southern Africa <http://www.eset.co.za/>; and FireID <http://www.fireid.com/>; . Deepening their involvement in the venture investing space after seeing the emergence of many other passionate entrepreneurs struggling to find the support they needed, Justin and Erik were recently co-founders of 4Di Capital, a new early-stage “nurture capital” investment company that seeks to attract and invest foreign capital in IP opportunities emerging in South Africa. As co-founder of the Silicon Cape Initiative <http://www.siliconcape.com/>; , Justin fully believes in South Africa’s potential as a global technology innovation hub. | Janine Rix, Andre Van Kets, Tony Mallam, Justin Spratt, Seton Vermark, Justin Hartman |
| Vinny Lingham | Vinny is the CEO of San Francisco based startup, Yola.com. Yola (previously known as SynthaSite) was established in 2007 and raised $25m in funding from Johann Rupert’s LXE & JSE listed Reinet Fund. Yola is the world’s leading easy-to-use, browser based, website development software for SME’s and groups, and currently has over 2m users worldwide. Vinny is the recipient of numerous awards, including Top Young ICT Entrepreneur in Africa (2006) & was also a finalist for Men’s Health Best Man (2009) & ICT Personality of the Year in South Africa (2008). He also previously founded Clicks2Customers, which also won the Top Technology Company award in South Africa in 2006, for it’s revolutionary search engine marketing software and services – servicing world class clients such as Walmart. Vinny has previously served on marketing advisory boards for Nasdaq listed Valueclick & Yahoo, was also selected as an Endeavor “High Impact Entrepreneur” in 2006. Vinny studied a B.Com (Information Systems) at the University of Cape Town, but his entrepreneurial blood saved him from graduation in his final year of studies. He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife, Charlene and he always enjoys a good round of golf or a game of chess or poker. | Janine Rix, Tony Mallam, Llew Claasen, Justin Spratt, Seton Vermark, Justin Hartman |
| Erik van Vlaanderen | Co-founder and Executive Chairman - 4D Innovations Group (4DI Group) Co-founded with Justin Stanford, the 4DI Group has interests in 4Di Capital (IT start-up nurture capital, evergreen venture capital funding), ESET Southern Africa (exclusive distributor for NOD32 Antivirus and ESET Smart Security), FireID (mobile 2F authentication), Meaka Group International (Fruit Export and Business Advisory), Newbie Bowls (events management), and Scott Drilling Services Group (mineral sample drilling operation). Serve as chairman of 4DI Group, 4Di Capital South Africa, FireID, Meaka Group and Newbie Bowls. Serve as a director on the board of 4D Innovative Capital International (Jersey) and as alternate director of Scott Drilling Services (Botswana) and Bonview trading as South African Drilling Services. Chairman – Silicon Cape Initiative Interim Steering Committee In this capacity, assisted Justin Stanford and Vinny Lingham with the launch of the Silicon Cape Initiative with specific responsibility for obtaining sponsorships for the launch and raising awareness among the key local and provincial government, parastatal, private institutions and the WC universities. Also involved in meetings with important luminaries such as Minister Pandor (Science and Technology), WC Premier Helen Zille and other key leaders in the national, provincial and local government, education and private sectors to gain their support for the SC Initiative. Motivation to serve on the Silicon Cape Steering Committee: As a former partner of Deloitte, and with over 25 years of business experience in the interim, my interest lies in continuing the great start made to the acceptance of the concept of an eco-system to support the Silicon Cape Initiative to become the Silicon Valley of Africa. The opportunity is real and the timing is now! | Justin Stanford, Seton Vermark |
| Laurie Olivier | During the past 20 years I have been involved in venture capital activities all over the globe, including the US, Israel, Europe, South Africa and East Asia (several countries). A major portion of this experience has been with Veritas Venture Partners, the oldest Israeli VC firm, who played a leading role in pioneering the transatlantic venture capital model between Israel and US, whereby Israeli start-ups globalized through a strong customer facing presence in the US. It is thus not difficult for me to draw some parallels on how this model could be adapted for South African start-ups. During this period of 20 years I also have had the privilege to be part of the creation and acceleration of the VC industries in a few of these countries, notably including Israel. This experience would be helpful to compare the changes made in the regulatory environments and the incentives introduced in these countries with those we need to do in South Africa. I am looking forward to contributing to a successful VC environment in SA, and to the prosperous Silicon Cape initiative. More info on my VC career and experience can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/in/laurieolivier | Janine Rix, Seton Vermark, Justin Stanford, Vinny Lingham |
| Andrew Thomas-Woolf | Andrew is an existing interim member of the provisional Silicon Cape steering committee and currently forms part of the 4Di Capital investment team, focusing on economic analyses and deal structuring and execution. Andrew has an undergraduate in Information Systems from UCT and spent the late 90's and early 00's working in technology start-ups, including the iTouch/IOL joint venture iCue/MyWealth and Internet-technology focused development house eye2eye, consulting on information security matters and lecturing on web development. Andrew subsequently qualified as a Chartered Accountant, working in middle-market corporate finance with a focus on cross-border transactions and the technology industry, and has recently become a Chartered Financial Analyst designation-holding member of the CFA Institute. Andrew has a well-developed understanding of technology and finance issues, a reasonable understanding of developmental economics and a strong awareness of legal aspects of financing transactions and technology venture-related arrangements and has previously been invited to provide input on legal policy development in multiple jurisdictions. His intention is to use this cross-disciplinary knowledge and experience to facilitate interactions with and between a multitude of the role-players in the developing Silicon Cape ecosystem and to help collate these views to develop shared understanding and objectives for the creation of an appropriate enabling environment. | Justin Stanford, Liesje De Vries, Erik van Vlaanderen |
| Justin Spratt | GM of VoIS Mobile and Wi-Fi HotSpot businesses at Internet Solutions, Division of Dimension Data Co-founder ISLabs internet start-up incubator Early member of web start-up Vottle.com Speaker and writer on issues where technology and economics intersect Written for TechCentral, ITWeb and Brainstorm Education: BCom (Finance; Deans List) Honours (Cum Laude); MBA (GIBS) www.twitter.com/justinspratt <http://www.twitter.com/justinspratt>; www.sandboxsavant.com <http://www.sandboxsavant.com>; http://labs.is.co.za Motivation: Passionate about upliftment of all South Africans through technology entrepreneurship. I like getting stuff done! | Guy Taylor, Seton Vermark |
| Guy Taylor | I am Johannesburg based entrepreneur, and have worked in start-ups since I was 18. My areas of strength are in affecting cultural and systemic change within organisations and cultures. My background is a mix of behavioural and cognitive psychology and information technology (particularly in the open source arena). I founded Telamenta (my third company), a local web application development company (specialising in behind the firewall applications) in 2007, and spend a time consulting to talent management firm Cycan. I am currently chairing the Johannesburg Drupal users group, and various fixed-term community projects (via Telamenta) such as geekretreat and geekmeat. My greatest passion is understand how people relate to themselves and to others in order to make their dreams reality, both individually, and within groups. | Guy Taylor |
| Patrick Lawson | Patrick Lawson is a serial entrepreneur. He launched the first e-commerce site for Pam Golding - which went on the sell the first house online. In 2000, he went on to co-found Clickatell, the global messaging provider, where he served as Chief Technical Officer and general manager of the South African operations. He has recently entered the start-up fray again, and is in the process of launching Mobiflock, a parental control device for mobile phones. He has also spent time consulting to the mobile industry in South Africa and abroad. Patrick has an detailed understanding of both the technical and business challenges and opportunities in the global ICT arena. His past record of navigating the South African start-up landscape, as well as his current ventures, make him an ideal candidate for the Silicon Cape Initiative Steering Committee. | Vanessa Clark, Geoff Hainebach |
| Matthew Buckland | Matthew founded and presently heads 20FourLabs (www.20fourlabs.com <http://www.20fourlabs.com>; ), an incubation, innovation unit at 24.com <http://24.com>; , the country’s largest online publishing operation. He previously headed up South African online news publisher Mail & Guardian Online as its GM for seven years (www.mg.co.za <http://www.mg.co.za/>; ). Matthew has been involved in the online medium in various capacities, almost since its inception in this country. He worked for the BBC's commercial website division in London (beeb.com <http://beeb.com>; ) just before “the crash”, South African portal iafrica.com <http://iafrica.com>; , M-Net's Carte Blanche and Avusa (formerly Johncom) Publishing. He is a former chair of the local Online Publishers Association (www.opa.org.za <http://www.opa.org.za/>; ) and a director of Creative Commons, South Africa. He co-founded award-winning editorial blog Thought Leader (a 2008 Webby Honoree) and blog aggregator amatomu.com <http://amatomu.com>; . Matthew also blogs at www.matthewbuckland.com <http://www.matthewbuckland.com/>; . One of his proudest moments was when some of the world's biggest blogs -- including Techcrunch, Mashable, his favourite site, Wired.com, and technology site Techmeme -- tried to break his servers by linking to his blog. His next proudest moment was when his blog scooped "best business blog" at the 2008 SA blog awards. He was also proud to share the stage with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in a talk on “Future Web Trends” in 2007. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rhodes University, with three majors in journalism, philosophy and history. | Janine Rix, Seton Vermark, Llew Claasen, Kate Wolters, Justin Spratt, Justin Stanford |
| Jonathan Hitchcock | After graduating with a Masters in Computer Science (with Philosophy on the side) from Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape, Jonathan tried a variety of job/location combinations, before settling on "Cape Town startup" when he joined Yola's offices in Gardens. Having had the experience of a company in startup-mode, he is unsure if he could ever go back to the normal drudgery of non-startup life, but he's pretty sure he could never leave Cape Town either, so he's relying on Silicon Cape to make sure that's not a problem. He also helps to organize the Cape Town GeekDinners, and occasionally attends 27Dinners and the like (but only in a purely ironic capacity). | Janine Rix |
| Liesje de Vries | Graduated from UCT in 2002 after having studied business, politics, philosophy and economics. I decided to pursue a law degree and four years later I joined Deneys Reitz Inc for articles. While being a student I travelled some of the Transkei and found various opportunities to teach. While I pursued law, teaching pursued me and I was enriched by both. I recently completed articles in law at Deneys Reitz Inc Cape Town, where I have studied and worked with Professor Surtees in the area of tax law and been in involved in tax, exchange control and FAIS legislative interpretation. During this time, I formed relationships with members of the legal and auditing professions. With the assistance and enthusiasm of 4Di, I have also gained some insight into the challenges that the Silicon Initiative seeks to overcome. My studies and skills base place me in the area of the tax and regulatory challenges but my interests are diverse and my involvement need not be exclusively in these areas. I read a lot, love chocolate and sushi, am game for most forms of outdoor activity and am happy to be in Cape Town! | Liesje De Vries, Andrew Thomas-Woolf |
| Tomas Van den Berckt | I studied engineering in Belgium and started off working as a programmer at an investment bank before moving permanently to SA in 2003. I've been working at Clicks2customers, a search engine marketing company for the last six years and did an MBA at UCT in the mean time. I volunteer at TSIBA as a part time lecturer in management and entrepreneurship and am an angel investor in a few Cape Town based technology companies. As for my motivation to be part of Silicon Cape: I am truly passionate about technology and South Africa and choose to live here despite having traveled (and lived) in many other parts of the world. I'm am sure there are many individuals who have the experience and skills to drive this initiative and I would feel privileged to a be a part of it. My greatest value would be in the fact that i have a very low tolerance for empty words and place a high emphasis on action, which i think is what the Silicon Cape needs to be successful. | Janine Rix, Justin Stanford, Vinny Lingham |
| Rob Yates | I have been working the IT world for 11 years, playing various roles from desktop support techie, to Microsoft MCP helpdesk, to marketing manager, to sales, licensing, SAM consulting. I have a great high level understanding of the role of IT within business and of the different levels of IT considerations from an ITIL perspective. | Rob Yates |
| Rob Stokes | Rob Stokes is the founder and Group CEO of Quirk eMarketing, Africa’s largest full service online marketing agency. Quirk was founded in 1999 as Rob was nearing the end of his Marketing Honours Degree at the University of Cape Town. Today, he is the guiding force in an ever growing agency with a loyal client Base that includes big names like Google, BMW and FNB. Quirk is headquartered in Cape Town, with offices in Johannesburg and London. Rob is driven by his love of technology and constant search for innovative and fresh ideas. A regular local and international speaker, Rob has entertained audiences in many countries, sharing his knowledge and expertise on a wide array of eMarketing topics. He is also the co-author of the Quirk textbook – eMarketing: the essential guide to online marketing. Licensed under the Creative Commons, the textbook is used by marketing students at universities all over the world. To download a free copy of the book, visit www.quirk.biz/emarketingtextbook. | Andre Van Kets, Justin Hartman, Tony Mallam, Kate Wolters |
| Mark Tomlinson | Mark Tomlinson is Creative Director and co-founder of HelloComputer, and as a specialist in digital design. Mark has successfully led his company to a number of awards for the world’s leading brand, including Axe, Alfa Romeo, Samsung, YDE, Jack Daniels, and SAB. His success in leading the creative digital space has led to him being part of the The Loerie Awards digital judging panel for a third year running. He is passionate about progressive design and communications in the digital arena and is constantly evolving the relationship between technology and people, with a drive towards making computers more human. | Andre Van Kets |
| Dirk Tolken | Bio: Dirk Tolken completed his National Diploma in Information Technology at the Cape Technikon in 1998 after which he embarked on the path of MCSE qualifications and a short stint in London. Arriving back in Cape Town towards the end of 1999, he worked for several .com startups and eventually joined PERONii in 2001. He took over the reigns in 2004 and have since built the brand/company up to a top quality web development and online marketing agency. Dirk has been a keen interest in entrepreneurship and keenly follows the local scene for new opportunities of collaboration and industry growth. He is a firm believer in market education as this is also a key element in growing the industry. Value adds: "I believe that through strategic partnerships with Government and local industry we can build Cape Town (Silicon Cape) up to a world class IT Hub to create a breeding ground for better local and foreign investment. Through my company's online marketing capabilities we can add value in helping to manage social networks, handle online marketing campaigns and brand reputation management. I'm looking forward to get more involved in industry events and help making the Silicon Cape dream come true." | Dirk Tolken |
| Fred Roed | Fred is currently the CEO of digital marketing agency World Wide Creative, and is also the co-founder of HeavyChef.com, which educates audiences about Marketing & Technology. Fred is also the co-founder and editor of South African business blog Ideate, which aims to inspire South African entrepreneurs to “think big and change the world”. Fred is brand obsessed - with side habits of pizza, Hawaiian shirts, movies, Danish beer and fine wine. Fred also happens to do a mean version of ‘Angie’ by the Rolling Stones at 3am in any randomly selected Korean karaoke joint. Web: www.worldwidecreative.co.za <http://www.worldwidecreative.co.za/>; Blogs: www.heavychef.com <http://www.heavychef.com/>; www.ideate.co.za <http://www.ideate.co.za/>; | Fred Roed |
| Mike Perk | Mike is both the Managing Director and Web Marketing Director at digital marketing agency World Wide Creative <http://www.worldwidecreative.co.za/>; . Mike co-founded The Heavy Chef Project <http://www.heavychef.com/>; , the focus of which is on learning more about digital marketing. He loves anything to do with Spurs and co-hosts the popular football video blog: Free-Kick.tv <http://www.free-kick.tv/>; . A fan of Johnny Cash and Puerto Rican music with a claim to fame that he wore Gordon Gekko shirts before Gordon Gekko. Mike also happens to know a fair amount about web marketing, presenting on SEO, Usability and Analytics at digital conferences and marketing courses in the UK and Africa. Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikperk <http://twitter.com/mikeperk>; Website: www.worldwidecreative.co.za <http://www.worldwidecreative.co.za/>; Blog: www.heavychef.com <http://www.heavychef.com/>; Email: mike@worldwidecreative.co.za Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeperk <http://www.twitter.com/mikeperk>; | Fred Roed |
| Andrea Boehmert | Driven by a passion for entrepreneurship, Andrea combines academic theory and practical experience in her quest to identify and support South African technology entrepreneurs. Andrea has a business degree in Marketing and Technology & Innovation Management from the Technical University of Aachen, Germany, and an MBA from Henley Management College. Her experience as Head of the Strategic Planning Department for Siemens Southern Africa and Manager of the Software Division for Dimension Data gave her the practical experience and insight into the IT industry to do what she had grown most passionate about, helping local IT businesses penetrate the global marketplace. Andrea left the corporate world to join forces with two partners and co-founded Cape Venture Partners, a specialist advisory services company to technology companies. Her German background, local experience and business savvy have made her the ideal choice to launch Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa <http://www.hp-ventures.co.za>; , a Venture Capital Fund founded by Professor Hasso Plattner <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasso_Plattner>; , co-founder of global leader in ERP software, SAP <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_AG>; . Referred by some as “one tough cookie” and having recently been told by Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Zille>; , that she had provided her with a cold shower, a reality check on some of the challenges facing South Africa, Andrea pulls no punches when it comes to business. Her directness and no nonsense attitude are the “tough love” she gives entrepreneurs looking for guidance and support in launching their businesses and succeeding in today’s highly competitive IT environment. Andrea is Chairperson of the Cape IT Initiative <http://www.citi.org.za/>; , the Western Cape Umbrella organisation that represents the IT Cluster, and also serves as a Director on the Board of the IT business incubator, the Bandwidth Barn <http://www.bandwidthbarn.org>; . In addition, she serves on the Advisory Board of the SAP Meraka Unit for Technology Development <http://www.meraka.org.za>; , and the Department of Computer Science at University of Cape Town. Andrea believes that Silicon Cape is an ideal platform for South African / Western Cape entrepreneurs to engage as well as present a more united front to those stakeholders influencing the framework South African entrepreneurs have to operate within. With a reputation for identifying the challenges but not shy away from addressing them, Andrea would be excited to be part of the Silicon Cape Steering Committee. | Tony Mallam, Justin Spratt |
| Julia Fourie | Julia Fourie has been with HBD since it was established in September 2000 and, as a founding member, supported in the setting up of the organisation. She is the CEO of HBD Venture Capital, is a member of HBD's investment committee and is a non-executive director on a number of HBD's investments. Julia’s career has spanned a number of industries including hospitality, financial services and human resources. It was during this time that Julia discovered a true passion for IT which led her to study for a B. Tech in Information Technology. Julia also has an Honours Degree in Financial Analysis and Portfolio Management from UCT. After completing this she took up the role of leading the development team at Thawte - a digital certification authority. During her time at Thawte, Julia established the WOT (web of trust) concept, assisted in building the architecture for the system, brought structured project management and facilitation between development and marketing departments and acted as a notary (a role she still performs today). After the sale of Thawte to a US consortium, Verisign, Julia supported in the set up of HBD Venture Capital, establishing it as one of the few venture capital companies focused on funding early stage businesses in South Africa. She initially played a key role on the investment team of HBD’s first venture capital fund, HBD Fund1, which focussed on start up businesses. She was then promoted to CEO of HBD in 2006 and led the company’s strategic shift from start up to early stage companies through the launch of HBD Fund2. Julia leads a dynamic and driven team which counts among its key successes, the profitable sale of one of HBD’s investments, Red Five Labs, as well as discovering and investing in a range of exceptional early stage South African businesses. These include moyo, a contemporary African hospitality brand, OrderTalk, developers of sophisticated online ordering software, EDH, radar tracking technology pioneers and Csense, the creators of highly sensitive trouble-shooting software. HBD has also been instrumental in pioneering the venture capital concept in South Africa. Julia’s passion remains information technology, but she has expanded her business expertise to include developing business strategies, negotiation, mentoring of entrepreneurs as well as general and financial management. In addition, Julia launched concepts such as the Big Idea, and is a trustee of the Shuttleworth Foundation, a non-profit organisation that supports innovation in education in South Africa and a director of BSquare Communications, which, through the Hip2b2 brand, aims to inspire young South Africans to embrace their education, specifically in maths, science and technology. Julia is passionate about her family and friends. She has a wide range of interests that keep her energised. | Tony Mallam, Steven Sollinger |
| Brett Commaille | As the CEO of Invenfin Venture Capital, based in Stellenbosch, I spend my days meeting entrepreneurs, looking for great concepts based on sound intellectual property with the potential and the ambition to be taken global. My background is in finance and consulting. I’ve been a radio DJ, teacher and an entrepreneur. I’ve been both sides of the table, providing and seeking finance, and know what it takes to work through the challenges. My work, in various parts of the world, has given me exposure to the inner workings of almost every kind of business imaginable. My real passion though, is to work with entrepreneurs as they create and grow their own businesses. I have a mountain bike that looks too new and laptop that looks over-used. With a young family, I love life in the Cape and find that the energy, enthusiasm and self-belief exhibited by the entrepreneurs make it the perfect place for an initiative like Silicon Cape. Our fund has made several investments in seed-stage start-ups, 2 of which are Cape based tech firms you may encounter at Silicon Cape. I get excited spending time with the MD’s of ChessCube and Ad Dynamo, two formidable entrepreneurs, with whom we work closely. By adding our international networks, resources and experience to their talent, skills and passion, we aim to assist their businesses to reach their full potential. My belief in Silicon Cape is supported by our fund’s financial backing and my commitment to ensuring the momentum is maintained and entrepreneurs have an initiative that delivers on their requirements. I wholeheartedly support Silicon Cape and cannot wait for it to grow from being an “initiative” to a destination synonymous with global innovation, sustainable start-ups and successful entrepreneurs. | Tony Mallam, Justin Stanford |
| David Murray | David Murray is one of the 4 partners at Cape Venture Partners (CVP, www.cvp.co.za ), based in Cape Town. CVP provides specialist advisory services to technology entrepreneurs. The CVP team consists of highly skilled professionals with extensive business and entrepreneurial experience. Over the last 5 years CVP has built a strong track record in the following service areas: � Fund raising for high-potential technology businesses � Transactional advisory and deal-making � Strategic consulting � Mentorship � Interim management CVP looks for opportunities that are innovative, technology driven, and have strong growth potential. The approach is highly collaborative, aimed at developing long-term business partnerships with clients, typically as shareholders. CVP’s client list includes a number of notable successes, including Clickatell, Psitek, Cybercellar, Miningmx, Skyrove, Rocketseed and Sunspace. CVP clients also include a number of successful Bandwidth Barn tenants, including Bizcommunity, Uninet, Redbutton and Yeigo. CVP is also involved in incubating a number of early stage technology ventures which have significant growth potential. CVP has recently led a management buyout of Psitek (www.psitek.com); Psitek develops solutions using cellular and wireless technology to provide access to voice, data and information services to customers in under serviced areas. CVP has enjoyed a long term relationship with both the Bandwidth Barn and CITI, and have been responsible for delivering the successful VeloCITI programme for the last 4 years and the MyMentor programme for the last 2 years. CVP partner Geoff Hainebach was the founder Chairperson of CITI and the Bandwidth Barn, and Andrea Bohmert (a past CVP partner, currently Director of Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa) currently serves on both boards. Before joining CVP, David was employed by Dimension Data for 3 years, firstly as Managing Director of SPL Cape, Dimension Data’s software division, and latterly as MD of Automate, an automotive software business with 70 % market share in the automotive retail sector in South Africa. Prior to that, David was a Principal with Gemini Consulting for 7 years, working closely with a range of blue chip clients such as South African Breweries, African Explosives, Mondi, Siemens and Dow Chemicals. David rose to become head of the Operations discipline for Gemini South Africa, which included the Sales and Marketing, Manufacturing, and Logistics divisions. Prior to Gemini, David was employed by Anglo American Corporation for 5 years as a Senior Geologist, following his receipt of an Anglo American scholarship which paid for his university tuition. David holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town, where he is still actively involved as an external examiner and mentor on a number of programmes. Additionally, David is member of Endeavor’s venture corps, and is a committee member of the Cape Town SAVCA (South African Venture Capital Association) committee. David is also an adjudicator on the TT100 (Technology Top 100 awards). David also owns and runs a successful e-commerce venture, www.leopardantiques.com, which has become one of the leading antique silver online stores globally. Academic qualifications: B.Sc – University of Natal, 1983 B.Sc Honours – Rhodes University, 1984 G.D.E. (Graduate Diploma in Engineering) – Wits University, 1989 C.P.I.M. – Certificate in Production and Inventory Planning, SAPICS (South African Production and Inventory Control Society) - 1995 M.B.A. – Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, 1992 | Tony Mallam, Geoff Hainebach |
| Piet Barnard | Piet joined UCT in 1999 as a Research Contracts Manager and was appointed as Director of Research Contracts & Intellectual Property Services in 2006. Before joining UCT he worked in industry, in a number of technology development and research & project management roles. Piet has a broad background with a B.Sc in physical science, M.Sc in Chemistry and a MBA. Research Contracts and Intellectual Property Services (RCIPS) supports UCT’s research activities by centrally managing, authorising and negotiating research contracts entered into with our wide variety of funders. Intellectual property in the knowledge economy in which we operate is central to many of these contracts and the group strives to protect UCT’s interests from the outset. We also assist with protection of the intellectual property flowing from our world-class research, often via patenting. RCIPS seeks to stimulate the growth of the South African economy by fostering small business development and/or the creation of jobs through the commercialisation and implementation of UCT’s intellectual property, transforming society and leading to social and commercial benefit. I'm very enthusiastic about the Silicon Cape Initiative, and especially enthusiastic about the energy, commitment and experience of the initiators of this venture. I'm also glad to see the support it has received from the provincial government (Helen Zilla) and central government (Maledi Pandor). An initiative like this can only work with the buy-in of government and a close relationship between industry, government and the Higher Education institutions in this region. It is therefor important to have representatives from these various spheres on the committee. I also think it is important not to only have representation from the academic community, but also from the research administration at the HEIs. I am not saying I'm the right person, but I would urge you include at least one representative from the Institutes of Higher Education's research admin, when you select your team. | Tony Mallam |
| Catherine Lueckhoff | Catherine Lückhoff is orchestrating a quiet revolution in the South African communications and PR industry. Taking tried and tested methods, adding new ways of reaching an audience, and unconventional concepts, Catherine creates exceptional strategies to meet defined business communication and publicity requirements. Catherine’s entrepreneurial spirit saw her founding MANGO-OMC soon after graduating. Using print, broadcast media, social media, mobile and the web, Catherine fashions together exactly the right ingredients for effective brand activation and communication strategies. Her business savvy and ability to get under the skin of a company is matched by her skill at pulling together a best-of-breed tactical team and collaboration partners to successfully implement a cutting edge communications plan. She has, amongst others, worked with Rocking the Daisies Music Festival - for whom she directed one of South Africa’s largest integrated outreach campaigns; Redbull RADAR; DStv Online including The African Film Library, VUZU.tv and KuduClub; Cape Town Routes Unlimited; getclosure!; Woolworths Financial Services; and Shake Interactive. | Tony Mallam, Kate Wolters, Maximillian Kaizen |
| Sarah Rice | Sarah Rice founded Sentient Communications with a partner in 2003. She became the sole member of the company in 2004 and has since grown her leadership role from managing just herself as the single employee of a small technology focused PR business, to managing a team of fourteen to now managing a more recession resistant team of six PR consultants. Prior to opening Sentient, Sarah’s work life was an eclectic mix of industries. Sarah did a stint in theatre where she learnt about egos, the resilience of props in the hands of enthused actors and how there is no money in theatre. She moved into the film industry for a few years where she learnt about egos, office politics and why film is not as glamorous as one would think. After this she decided to get a serious job and moved to an interactive marketing agency called Group Africa. Her job title was ‘creative’ and her role was to develop theatre skits and games to be performed on the back of trucks in the townships. In this job she learnt about the cultural differences between all South Africans, about brands such as Borstol, Scott’s Emulsion and Eno as well as why one good idea (let’s do road shows in the townships) does not make a business. At this point the universe smiled on Sarah and against all odds she landed a job at IT PR agency Text 100 in Johannesburg. It turned out that Sarah could really DO public relations. She loved it. After two wonderful years in PR in Johannesburg, her husband decided to move the family to Cape Town. She duly followed and joined the Cape Town office of Text 100. Unfortunately the office closed a few months later. Sarah discovered her retrenchment on the same day as she found out she was pregnant and did the only logical thing – started her own business. Almost seven years later she has a business and an overdraft. Sentient is a technology focused business-to-business PR agency which a social media or digital division. It has worked with the likes of Gartner, Clickatell, Cape IT Initiative, Quirk, Mimecast, MXit, Global Vision, Storm Telecom, IS Labs, Fundamo, Altech Technology Concepts, Old Mutual and a range other others. Some remain clients, some do not but Sentient remains on good terms with most (not all admittedly – but most) of the people and businesses that cross its path. Sarah has a BA degree in English and Drama from University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg and honours degree in Educational drama from University of Cape Town. Both of which are a lot less useful than one would think. Even in PR. | Tony Mallam, Kate Wolters, Maximillian Kaizen, Justin Spratt |
| Julian Diaz | American by birth, South African by choice, Julian Diaz has made Cape Town his home for the past 12 years. Having worked in Germany for 4 years prior to his move, Julian brings overseas experience and a deep appreciation for the opportunities and challenges in South Africa. His marketing experience includes developing and implementing the Internet Marketing strategy for one of Europe’s largest software companies, and launching e-commerce and online shopping in South Africa during his 3 years at MWEB where he developed the SafeShop brand for MWEB’s e-commerce engine and the Genesis brand for MWEB’s template based website development offering. His passion for technology and all things South African led him to a local e-learning company, STT (now Kaplan IT Learning) wanting to “go global” back in 2002. The combination of Julian’s branding experience and understanding of international marketing and cultures enabled him to re-develop the company’s brand and successfully launch it in Europe and the US. Over the course of 3 short years, Julian turned the STT Trainer brand from an industry unknown into one of the global top 3 industry leaders, culminating in the acquisition of STT by Kaplan, Inc – the world’s largest private education company. Julian is now set to repeat this feat with local CRM software and services company, Global Vision (www.gloviz.com), as he takes the company’s marketing automation software, Eureka, and re-launches it as “Adora” to fulfill the company’s vision of becoming one of the global top 5 marketing automation leaders. Having been raised in a Colombian household, Julian is fluent in Spanish and has a knack for picking up other languages, including French and German. When he’s not building local brands for the global marketplace, Julian enjoys spending time on Cape Town’s coastal roads cycling or running, or enjoying the city’s fine restaurants, bars and local music scene. Julian’s extensive experience in technology and B2B marketing, combined with his experience building brands for the global marketplace, his experience living and working in Europe and the US, passion for South Africa, and his ingrained “ ‘n boer maak ‘n plan” attitude make him an ideal addition to the Silicon Cape Steering Committee. For more details on Julian’s experience and background, please visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/julian247 | Julian Diaz |
| Llew Claasen | Llew is the Vice President – Online Marketing & Products at Clickatell.com, a mobile network aggregator and SMS gateway covering 819 mobile networks in 222 countries. He’s responsible for the strategic direction of Clickatell’s Online business, as well as the company’s overall Online Marketing, web sales channel and product functions. Before Clickatell, Llew was CEO and co-Founder of KeyJam.net, a boutique web and mobile business consultancy, as well as co-Founder and Head of Online Marketing at incuBeta.com (now Clicks2Customers.com), a leading Online marketing agency on 3 continents. Llew is a member of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council Advisory Board for Africa (http://www.cmocouncil.org/africa/board.asp <http://www.cmocouncil.org/africa/board.asp>; ), which includes CMOs from some of the largest and most influential companies in South Africa. He is a also member of the global Advisory Boards to the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME) (http://www.fameforusers.org/advisory-board.php <http://www.fameforusers.org/advisory-board.php>; ), and the Customer Experience Board (http://www.customerexperienceboard.org/corporate.php ), along with a select group of CMO-level executives from global Fortune 500 companies. Llew is also a member of the Research and Metrics Committee of the international Mobile Marketing Association (http://www.mmaglobal.com) . Llew occasionally writes for Readwriteweb.com (approx 150,000 RSS subscribers) and the Mail & Guardian Online on Online technology matters. | Llew Claasen |
| Candice Holgate | Funk that! Think.Inspire.Create. is a creative consultancy owned by Candice Holgate that focuses on creative strategy, looking holistically at marketing strategies for clients from a consumers perspective. Candice saw a gap in the market in 2006 to consult and bridge the gap that often exists between the creative process and the overall business requirements. Running on the basic pretence that an idea is just an idea until its implemented, only then is it considered innovation. Candice is able to think creatively, yet also understand how to feed that creativity into broad business requirements, strategies and structures, ensuring correct planning and implementation. Over the last 3 years the company has become more involved in online & social media strategies along with the other more traditional marketing tools. Candice has Masters in Business Leadership and a background in design and marketing. She grew up in a service industry and has a passion for business strategy, in particular new thinking and innovation. By default the web is the 'new' frontier so she tends to spend a lot of time in that space. She has an interest in SME development and in creating a more innovative South Africa. “The success of marketing in the future really depends on how well we are able to innovate in an ever changing, challenging world. We need to utilise the tools at hand to holistically integrate authentic business communication at all levels, really hearing and responding to our customers.” | Candice, Carole Day |
| Dave Duarte | Dave Duarte is a internet and mobile marketing specialist, and holds several senior positions in the academic, commercial, and non-profit sectors. He is founder and programme director of two Executive Education courses: Nomadic Marketing and Mobile Marketing at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Graduate School of Business. He also lectures on the Executive MBA programme at UCT GSB. He is MD and Partner at Huddlemind Labs. The company consults to numerous multinational corporations to provide education and research as well as collaborative online learning platforms. Dave’s non-profit appointments include: Dean of the Digital Media Faculty at The Maharishi Institute of Management (a free university founded by Taddy Blecher, and endorsed by international icons such as Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson and the Dalai Lama) He is Public Lead for Creative Commons (CC) South Africa (CC is a non-profit that offers a set of free customizable digital licenses that have been applied more than 200 million times globally) His other projects include: Co-founder of the 27dinner (a free monthly event that runs nationally on the 27th of every month) Co-owner of Muti.co.za (Africa’s most popular online social bookmarking application) Dave won the “Best Business Blog” category at the 2009 SA Blog Awards. He was runner up for Innovator of the Year in the 2007 African ICT Achiever Awards. He is rated as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Media and Advertising people in South Africa by Jeremy Maggs in “The Annual“. | Kate Wolters, Maximillian Kaizen, Justin Hartman, Llew Claasen |
| Arthur Goldstuck | Arthur is an award-winning writer, analyst and commentator on Internet, mobile and business and consumer technologies. He heads the World Wide Worx research organisation, leading groundbreaking research into how change is affecting businesses large and small. Clients of the research include South Africa’s major corporations, Government departments and international organisations. Key annual research projects he heads up include Internet Access in South Africa, Online Media in South Africa, Online Retail in South Africa and the annual Mobility and SME research surveys. Arthur is author of 17 books, including South Africa’s best-selling IT book yet, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet", and the new guide to mobilising the workplace, “The Mobile Office”. Through Penguin Books, he has also published five books on urban legends, with the next due to appear in 2010. For his work in uncovering technology trends, Arthur was a finalist in the science and technology category of the Men’s Health Man of the Year awards in 2009. He has led the campaign for transparency in cellphone charges in South Africa and the reduction of the interconnect rates on cellphone calls since 2005. Arthur is a regular speaker at conferences, universities and corporate events and has presented his insights to audiences across the world. | Kate Wolters |
| Jarred Cinman | Jarred Cinman (born 24 January 1973 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a web entrepreneur, blogger, podcaster and writer, currently co-founder and Director of Cambrient, one of South Africa's most prominent web development and content management agencies. Previous to founding Cambrient in 2001, Jarred was a co-founder and Director of VWV Interactive, a major creative web agency during the 1990's. Jarred has been an influential personality in the South African Internet world since 1995 when he founded one of Johannesburg's first web development agencies, and went onto play a leading role in the industry during the 90's. He has written extensively for industry and business publications, contributes blog posts to Thought Leader, and can be heard on The Digital Edge -- a weekly podcast show sponsored by his company. He is married and lives in Craighall Park, Johannesburg. I have been an Internet entrepreneur for 15 years, having founded one of SA’s first web businesses, and have spent my entire career building businesses in this industry. I have a good knowledge of the industry and what it takes to make a business work in it, and I think I could add value in this kind of forum as a result. | Kater Wolters |
| Justin Hartman | I am the CEO of Afrigator, a startup which I co-founded in April 2007 and later sold a stake to MIH Print Africa - a division of Naspers Limited. Prior to moving to Cape Town I was the Digital Innovation Manager of Avusa Media’s innovation hub called the iLab and I previously held the title of New Media Strategist at The Times newspaper. I have been fortunate enough to work in both the Media and Internet space since early 1997 and I bring with me a wealth of knowledge and experience. I'm extremely passionate about SA and the opportunities that exist online and being voted onto the Silicon Cape steering committee would be huge honour for me. Having been involved in three startups I realise the pitfalls and problems that exist for entrepreneurs and I hope that my experience and insight can help shape and cultivate the industry in a new light. | Steven Chester |
| Danny Le Roux | I have been in the IT & Telecommunications industry for 13 years. I have worked for various medium to large corporate companies in various capacities. I started off on the technical side and then moved into the sales arena. I worked my way up from a junior sales position, to senior sales and then into Key Account Management, managing several large corporate accounts. From Key Account Management, I moved into a management position. Two years ago I branched out on my own and I currently own an IT & Telecommunications company specialising in IT & Telecommunications Turnkey Solutions for existing and new businesses. I am motivated and committed to the vision of the Silicon Cape Initiative and believe it will be a powerful and valuable organization in the years ahead. | Danny Le Roux, Michael Kemp, Lilly Le Roux |
| Mark Levitt | · 2007 to 2009: Founder/CEO of ChessCube.com o Raised $1.25m in funding from InvenFin Limited o Over 750,000 registered users · 2002 to 2007: o Invested in www.CityGuideSA.com <http://www.cityguidesa.com/>; – a web-based inbound South African travel company. Designed early systems. Successfully exited in 2008. o 2002 to 2005: Joined TEIM Investments as a co-investor. Successfully exited both TEIM (2005) and Clicks2Customers (2006). § 2004 to 2005: Investor/CIO of <http://www.incubeta.com/>; www.Clicks2Customers.com <http://www.clicks2customers.com/>; – early funder & later introduced this investment to TEIM Investments. § 2005: Inventor of web-based site building system, SynthaSite, which was later spun out of Clicks2Customers as www.yola.com <http://www.yola.com/>; . § 2002 to 2004: CIO of Saicom <http://www.saicom.com/>; – a mobile payphone company. Designed and set up innovative web-based back-office systems. · 2001 to 2002: Invested in, and later exited, a successful SMS wholesale business with innovative technology that routed messages inexpensively via African gateways. · 1999 to 2001: Founded www.SalesBid.com <http://www.salesbid.com/>; – an online auction company, with large VC investment. Worldwide acclaim of technology, but the service was disbanded in 2001 during the dotcom meltdown. · 1997 to 1998: Developed comprehensive Internet Chess service for British Telecom’s www.GamePlay.com <http://www.gameplay.com/>; service. System was launched by world champion Garry Kasparov. · 1992 to 1997: o Set up Chess Book publishing services for UK Chess publishing houses o Developed Mail-order system and magazine subscription management for Chess & Bridge Ltd <http://www.chess.co.uk/>; · 1990 to 1992: Founded Chess in Southern Africa Magazine – developed world first technology to simplify Chess layout and design process. Successfully exited end 1992. | Michael Leeman |
| Henk Kleynhans | I am a Computer Scientist and Internet Junkie turned Social Entrepreneur. I realised that if I could incentivize thousands of small entrepreneurs to set up Wi-Fi internet hotspots, it would soon lead to a dramatic increase in broadband penetration in South Africa. I thus founded Skyrove, which enables anyone earn an income by sharing their internet access with their neighbours. In 2006 Skyrove received the prestigious Technology Top 100 award for 'Most Promising Emerging Enterprise' and more recently, I was named by the Mail & Guardian as one of "200 Young South Africans You Must Take To Lunch" Motivation: The internet today is the world's biggest marketplace, yet South Africans are to a large extent prohibited from trading on it. In the most of the rest of the world, a 19-year old student could easily start selling goods on the internet in a multitude of different currencies. This is next to impossible in South Africa. Although education and infrastructure are important elements in a Knowledge Economy, it does not help unless South Africans are allowed, enabled and encouraged to sell their services online. I wish to direct my passion, commitment, understanding of the issues as well as communications skills and experience in public speaking to tackle these issues head-on. | Michael Leeman, Justin Spratt, Justin Hartman, Allister Kreft, Elodie Kleynhans |
| Sheraan Amod | Sheraan Amod is a 24 year old techno-marketer entrepreneur and social networking evangelist based in Cape Town. He is the co-founder and CEO of Personera (www.personera.com <http://www.personera.com>; ), a web to print technology startup that launched internationally from the Silicon Cape in November 2009, after acquiring investment from Vinny Lingham and winning the FNB Enablis Business Launchpad- the biggest small business competition in Africa. Sheraan has previously worked in diverse roles at companies such as Immedia (the first African company to launch at iPhone application) and Unilever, and founded his first startup- Trafik Student Networks- when he was 18. His experience with global NGOs includes representing DiploFoundation at the UN Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro (2007), and facilitating at the International Youth Leadership Conference in Prague (2008). Sheraan holds a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Cape Town, and is an alumnus of the Brightest Young Minds leadership project. Find out more about him by visiting www.sheraanamod.com <http://www.sheraanamod.com>; . I am pleased to stand for a position on the Silicon Cape steering committee, and if elected, I would do all that I can to advance the interests of technology startups from South Africa. I believe that I am uniquely qualified for a position on this committee for a 3 key reasons, viz.: First-hand knowledge of entrepreneurial challenges: As the co-founder and CEO of Personera.com, a globally innovative and fast growing startup funded by Vinny Lingham and first to launch under the banner of the Silicon Cape Initiative in November 2009, I have practical, useful and ongoing experience with the challenges that internationally focused startups operating from Cape Town face. NGO and government dealings in tech space: I have worked for numerous NGOs both in South Africa and abroad, including amongst others DiploFoundation, Civic Concepts International and IEEE. As an international representative for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), I attended global United Nations (UN) events to lobby for recognition of the agenda of young people as well as emerging nations in the technology space (e.g. at the 2nd UN Internet Governance Forum in Rio, 2007). Member of Generation Y, stakeholder in our future: As a member of the group of people classified as "youth" (I recently turned 24), I have a keen understanding of issues, both technological and social, that face this generation. I believe that young people are the ones who stand to inherit policy decisions made in the present, and as such I would take very seriously my duties as a young leader and representative of this broad segment of society. I have a strong passion for the cause of the technology startup industry in South Africa, and agree strongly with the positions of the Silicon Cape Initiative. I know that joining the Silicon Cape steering committee will allow me to deploy myself to valuable projects with enthusiasm and vigour, and in doing so make a solid contribution to our industry. | Michael Leeman |
| Irfaan Mentoor | I currently study towards my B.Comm Hon and work as a Senior Investment Consultant, Managing the New Business Department, at one of the biggest Privately owned Venture Capital Company in South Africa. One of our Projects was the First Umbilical Stemcell Company in Africa, name Lazaron Biotechnologies S.A Ltd. I also am the Member of S.A Strategic Investments, a young and start – up Company. I have 9 years experience in the Finance Field, working for Companies like Old Mutual and Standard Bank. I hope to write a thesis in Venture Capital. Serving on the Steering Committee would help me achieve that goal through the activities and responsibilities to carry out our duty as a Steering Committee Member, by learning more of other Services and Industries. Venture Capital forms an intrigue Part of a growing Developing Economy, and there is little knowledge of the potential in VC Projects. I believe in sowing seeds in the Economy of our Country, seeds that would unlock values, and create opportunities, for Business Communities and the greater Public at large. I commend the Silicone Initiative to choose the subject of Regulatory obstacles as one of the Steering Committee’s mandate. As an Importer, I have experienced my disappointment in both Tax and Regulatory issues. My competitive Skills would add great value to the Steering Committee, both as a Team Player and Leader. One of my biggest goals is to establish a World Trade Centre in Cape Town. | Irfaan Mentoor |
| Jenny McKinnel | Jenny McKinnell was an entrepreneur in the first wave of the Internet revolution in the mid to late 1990s. She left advertising and marketing (Ogilvy & Mather) in 1995 to establish her own information and research business, Infobeagle. This company evolved into a joint venture Internet research company called Webchek, which was established together with Research Surveys (now TNS Research Surveys) in 1998. Webchek conducted the first market research studies of the emerging Internet market in South Africa. Jenny was also the Cape Town co-coordinator of First Tuesday, an initiative that aimed to bring Internet entrepreneurs together with venture capitalists. After Webchek was merged into Research Surveys, Jenny worked as a research consultant to a number of Internet ventures including M-Web, before taking time out to start a family. She was recently appointed the Executive Director of the Cape IT Initiative, a non-profit organization established in 1998 to develop and support an IT cluster in the Western Cape. Jenny loves the Internet and social networking and she is passionate about fostering collaboration, cooperation and information sharing between all stakeholders in the ICT sector in the Western Cape – including startups, established ICT companies of all sizes, academia, government, civil society and venture capitalists – with an end goal of strong, sustainable growth that benefits all communities within the province. Jenny is a graduate from the University of Cape Town (BA Honours in English). Her hobbies include organic vegetable and herb gardening and she has two worm farms. | Andrea Boehmert, Chris Vemeulen |
| Guy Lundi | Guy Lundy is the CEO of Accelerate Cape Town, a business organisation representing 35 major corporations that brings together key stakeholders in the Cape region to develop and implement a long-term vision for sustainable, inclusive economic growth. He is also a Director of several organisations, including Cape Town Tourism and Wesgro. Guy previously ran his own corporate strategy consultancy, helping large companies develop foresight and an understanding of future trends. He has also worked for international firms such as Ernst & Young, Oracle, the London Stock Exchange and Dimension Data, during several years of living on four continents. Guy was born and raised in Cape Town. He completed his Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in Economics at UCT and his Masters in Futures Studies at Stellenbosch University. He is the author of two books about South Africa and its future, namely “South Africa: Reasons to Believe” and “South Africa 2014: The Story of our Future”. He was recently listed by Business Day as one of the ‘Top 100 Thinkers in South Africa’. | Andrea Boehmert, Maximillian Kaizen |
| Jaco Delport | I have been described as a serial entrepreneur. I am the co-owner of Pangea (based in the Bandwidth Barn) – a 5 year old business providing live fully interactive online English second language conversation classes to a global audience on an outsourced basis to a client based in China. I am also a partner in Celerity Trading (also based in Cape Town), that provides an online trading platform for the trading of futures and options on the JSE. As one of the first tenants to occupy the Bandwidth Barn, and counting the then CEO of CITI as both mentor and eventual shareholder, I have lived through the early heady days of dotcom and the policy and technology challenges of helping to build a Silicon Cape. I subsequently actively shared my experiences - the value of mentoring, the trials and tribulations of raising capital, and the challenges of entrepreneurship – by running the My Mentor programme in partnership with CITI in the Bandwidth Barn to assist early stage entrepreneurs, and remain involved in the Bandwidth Barn’s development programmes. I’m currently using my experiences and leveraging my existing companies and networks to pilot a technology enabled agricultural extension service company for small scale farmers in Africa, as well as establish a User Centric Design consultancy. With a background working as an Economist at Sanlam and Investec providing me with a deep understanding of markets and policy, combined with my hands-on entrepreneurial experience in the ITC space in Cape Town, a demonstrable record of giving back and a well established network, I believe I will add considerable value to the Silicon Cape Initiative. | Andrea Boehmert |
| Chummy Visser | I am an IT professional with 20+ experience in the Telecoms and Media industries. During this time I have managed several large IT projects and held positions in research, architecture and long range planning. I see the future of South Africa relying on a strong community of entrepreneurs that can create much needed employment in order to create a stable and prosperous society. I would be honored to participate in an initiative that could fulfill this dream. | Chummy Visser |
| Zulfiq Isaacs | Zulfiq is a forward thinking entrepreneur that has earned a reputation as an innovative, dynamic business person in the ICT community in SA over the past 10 years. As a graduate from the University of Cape Town, he holds a Bachelor of Business Science degree with Information Systems Honours. Specialties Strategy, New Business Development, Product Development, Marketing Experience Founder & Director at Investors in Africa June 2006 - Present (3 years 3 months) Founder & MD at Liquid Thought May 2001 - Present (8 years 4 months) 3 recommendations available upon request Business Analyst at Dimension Data (PLC) January 2001 - August 2001 (8 months) Education University of Cape Town Business Science, Information Systems, Statistics, Finance & Strategy, 1996 - 2000 Honors and Awards Top 300 BEE Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Top ICT Companies in SA (2003,4,5,6) SA's Most Promising Young Companies Interests New Tech, Networking, Sport (Tennis, Soccer, Rugby), Travelling | Chummy Visser, Alyssa Buettgen |
| Jonty Fisher | Jonty Fisher is a marketing strategist, entrepreneur, and joint-founder of Traffic Integrated and Mediaweb. Traffic provides strategy-led creative marketing solutions to best of breed clients in South Africa and abroad, merging creativity and intelligence across above- and below-the-line creative, public relations, events and brand experiences, and digital marketing solutions. Mediaweb allows companies with relevant industry news to connect with South Africa's largest opt-in media database, consisting of about 6 000 journalists. With Traffic being as marketing partners to 4Di Capital and the launch phase of Silicon Cape, Jonty has been heavily involved in the crafting of the launch and communication strategy behind the Silicon Cape initiative. Connect with Jonty on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/jontyfisher) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/jontyfisher). | Justin Stanford, Justin Spratt, Seton Vermark |
| Marc Ashton | Marc Ashton is a financial journalist with Fin24.com as well as a small business owner. His business Rival Industrial owns a number of startup niche market online titles including Bundublog.com (a major South African free blogging platform), ManufacturingHub.co.za, Ferronews.com and RemSpecED. In 2009 Marc won the Sanlam Best Newcomer Financial Journalist award and was nominated in various categories at the Citadel journalism awards in 2009. He has an active interest in small business and entrepreneurship and actively follows the South African venture capital scene. As a sideline Marc recently launched the Rival Pioneers initiative aimed at educating small business owners and ultimately developing a platform which will help small business owners and business financiers from all backgrounds meet. Through his journalist credentials Marc Ashton has access to a number of key individuals in banking, insurance, government bodies as well as a number of small business mentors, investment analysts and asset managers. | Mark Ashton, Justin Stanford |
| Elan Lohman | Elan Lohmann has been a local online pioneer and professional for the past 10 yrs holding many key corporate and industry positions over this time. He led News24.com, SA’s leading website, as publisher over a 3 year period where the site became the first and still is the only SA site to pass 1 million domestic users and the unit also became profitable over this time. Additionally he started up many news businesses for the 24.com group including Sport24, Netads24, 24.com Social Media and more recently took charge of the Property24 rebuild. He also spent a period managing the Blueworld investment for 24.com. Then moving within the group to Naspers’s MIH Internet Africa to head up Mobile social communication platforms for the African market. Elan was a founding member of the Online Publishing Association (OPA) and spent 2 years on the exco has Head of Monitoring. In Nov 2007 he was also invited to chair the IFRA: Beyond the Printed Word Conference in Dublin where 450 top digital execs from around the world were in attendance. In Aug 2009 Elan returned to his publishing roots at the Sunday Times to head up Digital for AVUSA Media (previously Johncom). His portfolio includes Times Live, Sowetan Sunday World and other print titles in the group. Elan has established himself as a no nonsense internet professional with a reputation for getting things done. He is passionate about growing the local industry and helping talent youth come through the ranks. Most importantly he is passionate about the Cape and #SiliconCape - so much so that he is currently commuting weekly to JHB for his job Mon-Thurs but comes home religiously to the amazing Cape every weekend. His dream is to work full-time in the Cape once again when the right project comes along. He believes #Siliconcape will go along way to helping realise this dream. | Justin Spratt, Elodie Kleynhans |
| Geoff Hainebach | Geoff Hainebach - Founding Partner, Cape Venture Partners Having retired as joint MD of Siemens Ltd / CEO of Siemens Telecoms in South Africa, Geoff currently holds a number of positions within high-profile local TMT companies alongside his role within CVP; Geoff was founding Chairman of Clickatell, is chairman of Grand Battery Technologies, and a Director of Psitek, Elprom and Elmer Communications. In an accomplished career, Geoff has served as an ICT advisor to the South African Minister of Trade and Industry, was president of the Electronic Industries Federation of South Africa, a board member of UNISA’s School of Business Leadership as well as a member of the faculty advisory committees of the University of Stellenbosch and University of Pretoria Engineering faculties. Previously Geoff was with the CSIR, CEO of TUV Rheinland SA, founding CEO of SAMES (South African Microelectronics Systems). He was also the first Chairman of the Cape IT Initiative and its subsidiary Bandwidth Barn. Geoff has an M. Sc (E. Eng) and MBL and is a Fellow of the SAIEE and a Pr Ing. | Geoff Hainebach |
| Charl Norman | Currently I head up operations and tech related stuff for Blueworld Communities (BWCOM), a company I founded with partners. BWCOM operates online communities in South Africa and was acquired by Media24 in a land mark local internet deal early in 2008. BWCOM’s stable includes leading locally owned social network Blueworld and Zoopedup, a motoring enthusiast network which boasts high user engagement metrics. BWCOM’s internet technology also powers internet properties within 24.com such as Speakerbox.co.za. I blog on my personal onlinCe presence and own a blog network including titles such as Carblog which is consistently ranked in the top 3 blogs in South African (stats) and a tech blog, BandwidthBlog, which was nominated for Best Technology Blog in the 2007 and 2008 SA Blog Awards. I have 10 years of online publishing experience and started my first website while still in high school. I was also runner up for ICT Young Entrepreneur of Africa 2008 and nominated for Top 30 entrepreneurs under 30 in Africa. In my spare time I guest lecture at the UCT Graduate School of Business and CPUT, do public speaking on internet strategy and write technology focused articles for Leadership Magazine, Intelligence magazine and TechLeader.co.za | Justin Hartman |
| Theo Hendrickse | Theo Hendrickse is the former Chief Executive Officer of Parmalat Africa Limited and Parmalat South Africa (Pty) Ltd. He left Parmalat on 30 June 2009 after many years with the company in order to take a brief sabbatical. On 1 October 2009 he joined the Cape Chamber of Commerce as the incoming Chief Executive Officer. Apart from his new role, in a representative capacity as CEO of the Cape Chamber of Commerce (representing business in the Western Cape), Theo has a range of qualifications and a wealth of diverse experience which equips him to play a valuable role on the Steering Committee of Silicon Cape. After an academic career in the Science faculty at UWC (during which time he completed a law degree part-time), he joined the legal profession to practice as an attorney (with a special interest in intellectual Property). He joined the business sector 15 years ago. Theo understands the highly competitive dynamics of the business environment and is also acutely aware of the challenges facing businesses in our country. He holds several qualifications: An M.Sc. (with distinction) from the University of Cape Town; a B. Proc (cum laude) from the University of the Western Cape; (He is a qualified attorney); a post-graduate qualification in Intellectual Property and Competition Law from the University of London. He has also completed a number executive training courses at leading business schools both locally and overseas. Theo is a past member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Intellectual Property and Chairman of the Patent Examination Board. He has represented government on a number of occasions between 1996 and 1998 at the World Intellectual Property Organisation Forums in Geneva, Switzerland. . Theo is a South African Citizen (designated group) who wants to be part of the ongoing process of building South Africa as a successful democracy in whatever role he plays. | Shaamela De Kock |
| Karl Smith | I help people (entrepreneurs, business developers, financial advisors, leaders and managers) and companies to leverage networking, relationship building, referrals and personal branding to increase personal efficiency, productively and ultimately profitability. What is equally important, and highly gratifying, is that I bring out the very best in my personal and business clients in terms of rapid personal development, self-actualization and achievement. I play an instrumental role in cultivating leadership. Your personal and professional success depends on the diversity and quality of your interpersonal relationships. Yet most of us don't spend enough time building, nurturing and quantifying the key personal, functional, and strategic relationships we need to achieve success. That's where Karl Smith the founder of Business Networking South Africa® and author of Beyond The Business Handshake: Dare To Build High-Trust Business Relationships comes into play. He is an internationally recognised leader in helping people to increase personal efficiency, performance and self-mastery in business networking, high-trust business relationship building, referrals and personal branding. His message about tapping into the philosophy - People do business with people they KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST - may sound like good old positive thinking. You will come to the conclusion that the teaching here goes deeper than just “appearance, handshake or business cards.” It’s about learning how to win with yourself, so that you can win with others. It's about learning how to invest in people for an extraordinary return. It's about increasing individual effectiveness to positively impact the speed and cost of business through integrity, honesty, accountability and credibility. It's about business problem solving with Relationship Capital because your network and relationships determine your Net Worth! To engage and influence others, often without authority is both an art and a science. | Johan Oosthuizen |
| Allister Kreft | The entrepreneurial bug bit for me during a marketing degree at UCT when I joined Henk Kleynhans to found Skyrove. Since then I have shifted most of my focus from the communications sector to wine, and founded undertheinfluence.co.za <http://undertheinfluence.co.za>; , a wine community and e-tailer based in the Cape with global ambitions. I would really like to get involved in growing the Silicon Cape community, through networking and mentoring events. I also believe that technology is the great enabler for all businesses, and want to create more cross industry interactions. I.e. let's get geeks from all industries talking to each other, to really create powerful synergies. | Allister Kreft, Elodie Kleynhans |
| Lucas Verwey | I am an investment manager at Remgro Limited, responsible for investigating investment opportunities for the group. I’m a qualified Chartered Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst. I’m also an entrepreneur at hart and prior to Remgro owned a small retail and distribution company. The combination of my entrepreneurial and corporate experience will serve well in tackling the issues facing Silicon Cape. Away from work my family, tennis and kite surfing keeps me out of trouble. | Lucas Verwey, Justin Stanford, Erik van Vlaanderen |
| Gerjo Hoffman | Motivation My management experience and working abroad has given me a solid grasp on how to manage different operations efficiently. My mission is to use this experience, in conjunction with my passion for innovation, to create value in innovative and intelligent ways. I’ve served as deputy secretary on the Asia Pacific South African Chamber of Commerce while stationed in Beijing and Hanoi leveraging opportunities for business and government in the region. I’ve also advised and assisted local government and non governmental institutions in entering Asian Markets. I see that I could add value to Silicon Cape by creating funding opportunities that will thus make this initiative sustainable. Short Bio Current position: New Business Manager at MIH Internet Africa: Ecommerce division Previous positions: Media24: Innovation Manager MIH Print Media (China & Vietnam): Business Development Manager Media24: Marketing Manager: Eastern Cape Newspapers Die Burger: Publicity Manager Die Burger: Jounalist | Charl Norman, Gerjo Hoffman |
| Jonathan Foster-Pedley | Jonathan Foster-Pedley is committed to the development of South Africa’s potential through education, innovation and entrepreneurship and is a strong supporter of the Silicon Cape vision. He is co-owner and co-founder with Dave Duarte of Huddlemind Labs, the social networking education community, owner of Foster-Pedley Learning, which specialises in innovation and creativity education. He is experienced in start-ups and incubation. Jon set up and ran the Southern Innovation Centre in New Zealand, was on the advisory board of the New Zealand Centre for Innovation, is on the advisory board of the new Namibian Business Innovation Centre and was responsible for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in Southern New Zealand. He is a visiting professor in strategy, creativity and innovation. He is an academic, educator and consultant, specialising in innovation, strategy, creativity and international business. He the faculty member for strategy at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (GSB) for the MBA and other programmes, where he was designer and launch director of the GSB Executive MBA and head of Executive and Management Education. He is an active social entrepreneur, bringing international executives to South Africa to provide free consulting help to NGO’s. He is a former airline captain, senior executive in the European aerospace industry and has over 30 years of global business experience. www.huddlemind.net and www.creategist.com | Jonathan Foster-Pedley |
| Tim Harris | Tim Harris is a Member of Parliament with the Democratic Alliance. His constituency is the City Bowl and the Atlantic Seaboard and he sits on the Select Committee for Finance. Because his seat is in the National Council of Provinces he represents the Western Cape at National level and also has a seat in the Provincial Parliament. This means he's well placed to drive the critical regulatory and legislative reforms required to establish Silicon Cape - both at provincial and national level. Tim has a Masters in Economics from UCT, is an unashamed Apple fanboy, and in his spare time loves surfing and travelling in Africa. He is the founder of www.africansurfer.com <http://www.africansurfer.com>; (voted SA's second best travel blog in the 2008 Blog Awards) and, in 2007, led the first surf trip from Cape Town to London by the west coast route. You can follow him at www.twitter.com/timharris <http://www.twitter.com/timharris>; . | Liesje De Vries, Justin Stanford |
| Christine Da Silva | I am very passionate about the South African ICT industry and would bring a wealth of business and online marketing skills and experience to the committee. I would strive to assist with the further building and establishment of the Silicon Cape as a known entity to take pride in. I am the founder of, and currently manage a well respected ICT related company called AlterSage. I enjoy being involved in and driving projects and initiatives of this caliber. I was recently a participant at the first GeekRetreat and also am currently driving an online concept that hopes to explore, drive and develop a supportive community project for social change - all of which would tie in very effectively as a steering committee member for Silicon Cape. For further details about me, please refer to AlterSage.com | Elodie Kleynhans |
| Kerry-Anne Giloway | I head up August Sun Projects, a copywriting agency focusing primarily on web content. I'm also the founder of the Red Balloon Craft Junction, which was the very first online resource for the South African crafting industry. In 2007 my husband and I started the country's first City Daily Photo blog, Cape Town Daily Photo, to give foreigners a glimpse of life in our gorgeous city. I've been involved in organising the Cape Town GeekDinners since early 2008, and I feel just as at home among this group of super-smart developers and computer science graduates as I do among the energetic marketers and entrepreneurs that make up the 27Dinner crowd. I'm deeply optimistic about our nation's future, and I don't believe that we should simply rely on those in power to fix things – it's up to each of us to build right where we are, and to encourage others to do the same. | Elodie Kleynhans |
| Sarah Blake | Sarah studied a B.Sc. Mathematics and English at the University of Cape Town. She went to London instead of studying Law, and worked for Firebox.com (www.firebox.com), a successful London-based online startup. After two years in London, she returned to South Africa and worked for Firebox.com from the Skyrove (www.skyrove.com) offices. Sarah has worked for and with several prominent Cape Town startups, including Clicks2Customers (paid search giant - www.clicks2customers.com), Quirk (eMarketing gurus - www.quirk.biz) and ChessCube (online chess platform with recent VC funding - www.chesscube.com). She also worked with Breadline Africa (www.breadlineafrica.org), a southern African NGO. Sarah has a strong interest in education, and collaborated with Quirk on Quirk's eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Online Marketing, which is available as a free download (www.quirk.biz/emarketingtextbook) and is used in agencies and educational institutions (including UCT and UCLA) around the world. She was part of a team that adapted Kotler's Principles of Marketing for South Africa. She also lectures part-time at UCT and CPUT in eMarketing. Together with Max Kaizen and Nikki Friedman, Sarah has organised several informal Girl Geek get-togethers in Cape Town. Sarah is passionate about technology, food, tea, innovation and education. Silicon Cape Profile: http://www.siliconcape.com/profile/SarahBlake | Elodie Kleynhans |
| Joe Botha | Joe Botha (32). Alpha geek, maverick, imagineer, blogger, speaker and all round hacker for good. He is a start-up junkie and an old dog of telecoms and open source. Joe studied Industrial Engineering and Computer Science at Stellenbosch University. He worked as developer and senior systems engineer for IOL.co.za and Amazon.com. Joe is a founder of Frogfoot Networks (Internet Service Provider), Amobia Communications (Wireless Infrastructure Provider), Teraco Data Environments (Vendor Neutral Datacentres) and is busy building a new business called TrustFabric. On the NPO front Joe founded the new original GeekDinner movement, he is the chair of the Wireless Access Providers' Association, he helped start the Open Spectrum Alliance, he chaired the ISPA PR working group in 2009 and he's been a Western Cape Linux User Group committee member since forever. His passions include: technology, photography, social media, guerilla networking, lifestyle design, decentralisation and democratisation. He likes walks on Lions Head, running, Linux, tea, cocktails, design and taking his gorgeous 3.5 year old daughter swimming. Joe strives to be a high impact entrepreneur and is always looking for the next big idea. More info: www.swimgeek.com | Elodie Kleynhans |
| Chris Rawlinson | For the past several years I have been one of the Stormhoek <http://www.stormhoek.com/>; marketing chaps helping plan all our ground breaking online social media marketing with the legend Hugh MacLeod <http://www.gapingvoid.com/>; . For the last year I have also been working with Huddlemind <http://huddlemind.net/>; and my close dear friend; Dave Duarte <http://daveduarte.co.za/>; . We currently educate corporates, agencies and individuals on the web and mobile media marketing space, helping change the world & Silicon Cape for the better. I also currently run the The South African Blog Awards <http://www.sablogawards.com/2009/>; securing no less than 28 sponsors for last years event in a three week time period using my cunning networking skills. In addition to this I have helped organise the Cape Town 27 Dinners <http://www.27dinner.com/>; since their conception over 2 years ago. It would be my honour to help grow the Silicon cape initiative, I would endeavour to use all the resources I have access to both here and abroad to ensure it continues to be the success it so rightly deserves to be. | Chris Rawlinson |
| Paul Cartmel | I have twelve years of commercial IT experience. I have completed a Masters Degree in Engineering from UCT. I then went to London and worked for Transworld International Interactive (parent company is IMG) on web sites such as Manchester United, Brasilfutbol.com, Wimbledon.org, BritishOpenGolf.com – still to this day some of the most viewed sites in the world. We managed the online stores and monetised the websites. I have also worked for the elite rail consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton as a software architect – I wrote the software to commissioning of the South London Tramlink. In 2005 I co-founded a company called Silverminute.com, on our largest contract we provided services to the Transportation Ticketing Authority in Australia. I acted as technical architect for a five-hundred-million Australian dollar - 18 month - smart card, ticketing and micro-payments system for the State of Victoria in Australia. Silverminute was sold to the Altron Group in Dec 2007. I have been developing software for twenty years - if you count writing games for the commodore 64 and zx spectrum as far back as 1986. In Jan 2008 I founded New Media Labs. New Media Labs is a software architecture and development company enabling social media through: • Niche Social Networks/Enterprise 2.0 • Content Management System (Integrated into the Business Model) • Mapping - we integrate into ESRI maps, Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth. • Mashups - we have experience and interface libraries for the most popular Web2.0 application programming interfaces (http://www.programmableweb.com/apis) • Mobile - we have developed web based mobi and standalone applications for Symbian, iPhone and Windows Mobile. We have a specialist team of software architects, data architects and software developers. NML are in the process of launching a number of start-ups using Intellectual Property that we have developed over the past 2 years | Paul Cartmel |
| Yusuf Mahomedy | Yusuf Mahomedy (CA(SA), AdvTax) is the founder of Worksucks – Make Work, Work. He is passionate about the war for talent, technology & start ups. He has a column, “Rattling the Cage” in HR Future (www.hrfuture.net) & an occasional career column in Financial Mail Campus (www.fmcampus.co.za). He has published two books, the latest being Smart Reward Strategies – Authentically Attract and Retain Talent. He lectures strategic HR, on the MBA programme at Mancosa. He has contributed dozens of articles in the media, has been interviewed on radio and regularly speaks at conferences. He also runs a SME network with the City of Johannesburg/Libraries for start ups. He is the founder of a national talent project at four universities, (including University of Cape Town Black Management Forum, University of Western Cape and Cape Peninsula University of Technology) to assist students manage their careers & explore entrepreneurship. He is registered with SAICA, SAIPA, SARA and SARS. Connect www.worksucks.co.za yusuf.mahomedy@gmail.com www.linkedin.com/in/yusufmahomedy www.twitter.com/yusuf_mahomedy | Ismail Dhorat |
| Adrian Hewlett | Adrian Hewlett is a graduate of UCT and the chairman of South Africa's Online Publishers Association (OPA). His day job consists of running the Habari Group, South Africa's leading new media sales house and below the line promotions agency, as well as the newly launched advertising agency, Big Wednesday. Habari Media exclusively represents MSN's network, Sharenet and Careerjunction to name a few, and runs offices in all major SA centres, including Lagos, Dakar and Nairobi. The Below the line business – Habari Direct – has developed a unique offering in the South African market which allows brands to execute promotional activity rewarding high volume winners with high value lifestyle experiences through multiple channels including print, web, mobile and more. Big Wednesday, a fully integrated through-the-line agency, has expanded the Group’s service offering. Adrian Founded Habari in his spare bedroom in Feb 2004. The business now employs over 65 people in multiple offices across Africa. | Vinny Lingham |
| Stephan Woltering | Stephan has worked for the past 24 years in Software & IT consulting (esp. CMS, Internet & Portal Technologies, CRM). Over a period of 7 years, Stephan initiated and structured the successful development of various medium-sized enterprises as a Managing, Sales or Marketing Director/Executive. Today, Stephan works as an Interim Manager with his own company Veneo. Motivation for Silicon Cape Initiative steering committee I know the Western Cape from several long term travels and I am willing to move here. I would like to bring in my international experiences to the initiative, because I believe in the potential of the people living in this part of SA. If the Silicon Cape Initiate can inspire the government and the economy to invest in intellectual property, make infrastructure and economical environment a perfect fit to the ICT industry (esp. Start-Ups), then Cape Town will attract high potentials, companies, money and will create attractive jobs. I will support this. | Stephan Woltering |
| Nicole Capper | Biography: Nicole Capper believes in the utilization of communications to affect and effect change. Her razor-sharp strategic mind allows her to get to the heart of an issue quickly and succinctly; while her innate understanding of the traditional and new media landscape has resulted in a strong network of long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships. She cut her teeth in branding and marketing, and successfully navigated the early days of complementary healthcare communications in South Africa. Not afraid to get her hands dirty, Nicole has the ability to shift seamlessly from high level strategic thinking, to grass-roots PR implementation, and back again. Sustainability and collaboration are what make her tick. Attention to detail and excellent organizational abilities are how she gets things done. Nicole has successfully conceptualised and forged some of the most creative third party joint marketing alliances for MANGO-OMC’s clients. Motivation: As a partner in MANGO-OMC, Nicole plays a pivotal role in the utilization of new media and mobile technologies to assist Corporate Social Investments clients (such as The Foschini Group) to amplify their CSI initiatives and to support non-profit organizations involved in campaigns to effectively communicate via these platforms. Nicole’s implementation strengths result in very strong and sustainable new media and mobile partnerships in cutting edge contexts. Her insight into NPO’s has proven valuable and effective. | Tony Mallam |
© 2010 Created by Justin Stanford
