board of directors

Non-executive director
(Born: 1957)
BBusSci (Hons) (UCT), CIMA, FCMA, CA(SA)
Gary matriculated in 1975 from the South African College School in Cape Town. After graduating from the University of Cape Town in 1979, he qualified as a chartered accountant (SA) in 1982, an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) in 1983 and as a Fellow Chartered Management Accountant (UK) in 1996. After forging a career in merchant banking, Gary was appointed financial adviser to the African National Congress in the early 1990s.

In 1992, he played an instrumental role in the creation of Thebe Investment Corporation and also served as chief executive officer of Msele Corporate and Merchant Bank, South Africa’s first black-controlled merchant bank. Gary was appointed group chief executive officer of Unihold Limited in 1996, where he led the transformation from an engineering conglomerate holding company to an international IT and telecommunications focused group. Subsequent to leading a management buy-out, Unihold de-listed from the JSE. Gary has served on numerous private and public company boards, including three listed banking groups.

Independent non-executive director
(Born: 1962)
BProc, LLB (WITS)
Jackie is a practising attorney with the law firm Mkhabela Huntley Adekeye Incorporated. She obtained her BProc and LLB degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand and her Management Advance Programme (MAP) at Wits Business School. Jackie joined Gold Fields of South Africa Limited as a legal adviser in the commercial law department. She subsequently joined Nedbank Limited, where she spent four years.

Jackie has extensive experience in commercial and corporate law, including telecommunications law. She also worked extensively with issues pertaining to low cost housing and advised both the Department of Housing and various other institutions in the housing sector on housing policy issues and their legal aspects. Jackie was recently appointed to the board of Telkom.

Non-executive director
(Born: 1958)
BA LLB (WITS)
Neil graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1981 with a BA LLB degree. After completing his articles he was admitted as an attorney in 1983 and as an advocate in 1984. He was appointed as senior counsel by President Mandela in 1998. In 1999 he served as an acting judge. As an advocate Neil specialised in corporate restructures, mergers and acquisitions and was involved in significant corporate reorganisations both locally and internationally. Upon leaving the profession in 2000 he became an executive director of Corpcapital Limited and a member of its corporate finance team.

Neil acted as a corporate finance and strategic legal adviser in a number of local and international transactions. Neil currently advises the boards of directors of a number of listed and non-listed companies on strategic, legal and corporate finance matters. Neil has served on the boards of directors of a number of public and significant non-listed companies.

Independent non-executive director
(Born: 1965)
BCom (Zululand), BCompt Hons/CTA (UNISA), CA(SA)
Joe qualified as a chartered accountant in 1993. After working for KPMG, he joined Nampak Limited in the capacity of group accountant. In 1996, he co-founded Gobodo Incorporated, an accounting practice with eight other partners and it became the biggest black accounting firm in South Africa at the time. In 1999, he led a management buy-out of Gobodo Corporate Finance from the accounting firm and re-branded it as aloeCap (Proprietary) Limited. He currently serves as the executive chairman of aloeCap. He also serves on the board of directors of non-listed companies where aloeCap Private Equity is invested.

Joe was a member of the Independent Regulatory Board of Accountants Education Committee from 2001 until 2007. He is a member of various professional bodies including the Securities Regulation Panel and SAICA.

Non-executive director
(Born: 1970)
BSc (Economics), Minor in Engineering from the University of California, San Diego
Peter began his career at Microsoft in 1995 as a Business and Strategy Analyst for MSN. During this period, he helped transition MSN from an Internet access business to an Internet portal business. He provided analytical and strategic support for several large acquisitions, including Hotmail and WebTV. In 1998, Peter joined the fledgling Windows CE team, where he served as the GPM for Pocket Outlook for the HandheldPC and PocketPC, which would eventually become Windows Mobile. In 2000, Peter left Microsoft to start Sproqit Technologies, where he served as president and CEO for six years. Sproqit’s patented thin-client architecture increased performance and simplified development for mobile applications.

Peter returned to Microsoft in 2006, where, as GM of Strategy and Business Development for the Unlimited Potential Group, he created Microsoft’s emerging markets mobile payment strategy and lead equity investments in Blue Label Telecoms in South Africa and Oxigen Services India in India. Peter currently runs mobile engineering for Microsoft’s emerging market division.