South Africa Advisory Board

Mike Leeming, serves as a Non Executive Director and Committee member of JSE listed companies: AECI, Allied Electronics, Imperial Holdings, Real Africa and Woolworths.  Mike is also the Chairman of Safripol Group and sits on the Board of Belgravia Convent and St Augustine College. He retired in 2002 after serving 15 years in the South African  Motor Manufacturing and Textile Industry and 25 years with Nedbank.  During his time at Nedbank, Mike served at various times as executive responsible for all the main business units, Chief Operating Officer and an Executive Director. He has a BCOM (Rhodes), MCOM(Wits), FCMA and FIBSA and has attended the Harvard University AMP.

Allen Morgan, is an electrical engineer and former CEO of Eskom, South Africa’s public electricity utility. He is also a former chairman of the South African National Energy Association (SANEA) and served as a non-executive director of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). He currently serves as the Interim Chairman of Kumba Iron Ore, the Chairman of BioTherm Energy and as non –executive director of AECI. Allen is a Fellow of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers and a Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineers.

Brand Pretorius, is the recently retired Chief Executive Officer of McCarthy Holdings, the largest auto retailer in South Africa. He currently serves as a non-executive director on the boards of the ABSA Group, ABSA Bank Limited, Reunert, RGT Smart and Eliance.  Brand is also a member of the Motor Industry Ombudsman of South Africa. An honorary professorship in Business Management was conferred on him in May 1991 by the University of the Free State and in May 2001, by the University of Johannesburg, as well.  He was appointed a Fellow at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in November 2007.  Brand is a member of the main board of the National Business Initiative, the READ Educational Trust Board of Trustees, the advisory board of the University of Stellenbosch Business School and is the immediate past president of the South African Retail Motor Industry Organisation.  National awards attained by Mr. Pretorius include Best Boss (1994), Automobile Man of the Year, Profiles International identified him as one of the top 5 “high integrity” business leaders in South Africa.  Brand has been voted most admired leader in the Motor Industry.  In May 2002 he received a certificate of excellence from the READ Educational Trust for his remarkable commitment to the cause of building a literate nation through the Rally to Read project, a national social investment project he initiated in 1998.  He obtained his M.Com degree in Business Economics at the University of the Free State in 1972.

Bernard Swanepoel, former managing director of Harmony, part of Randgold.  An early career with Gengold preceded his 13 years as Harmony’s head, where he managed a series of acquisitions to achieve the company’s growth ambitions.  More recently Bernard established To The Point Growth Specialists (Pty) Ltd which operates in the resources and resources-related space and specializes in formulating, assisting with and in some cases delivering growth solutions for clients.  He serves as a director of ARM Limited, Sanlam Limited, Simmers and Jack and Village Main Reef Gold Mining Company (1934) Limited. 

Peter Watt, former President of SEIFSA and a founding member of SACOB and the Consultative Business Forum (1990). Currently retired from active business after serving 25 years on public company boards either as CEO or Chairman. He is the Chairman of Dialogue Group Holdings, I-TEC Holdings and Continental China.  He also operates a business consulting practice.  His interests have always been in the manufacturing industry, along with time spent in the food and beverage, telecommunications, power, electrical, automotive and IT industries.  The past 10 years in IT encompassed all aspects of hardware, software and outsourcing of client applications. He holds a BSc (Chem) from Witwatersrand University and a MBL from UNISA.