Cobus van der Merwe is a former army man who has managed to carve out an impressive second career in defence technology. He’s an experienced negotiation team leader in both partnership establishment and contract closure in land warfare and aviation systems. He is currently a senior executive specialising in electronic warfare at Saab Grintek Defense, based in Centurion, South Africa. Cobus has extensive experience in leading defence-level operational test and evaluation teams and performing cust...
Apr 28, 2017•1 hr 8 min
Back in 2012, Musa Kalenga was voted as one of the Top 200 Young South Africans by the Mail & Guardian, and for good reason. Musa is a talented digital specialist, marketing maven, author, former Group Head of Digital Marketing at Nedbank, former Africa Client Partner at Facebook, current Head of Brand at IAB South Africa, and Founder and CEO of a new adtech startup called Microtising. His professional business experience spans over twelve years and includes building his first company from z...
Apr 06, 2017•54 min
Simon Carpenter is Chief Technology Officer at SAP Africa. In his rather long and varied career at SAP he has been a massive proponent of Digital Transformation and its role in enabling self-sufficiency, inclusiveness and sustainable economic growth on the continent. Simon’s also passionate about helping executives understand how SAP can help them drive their innovation and digital transformation agendas. Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission. Additional music by Kevin MacLeod (incom...
Jan 09, 2017•1 hr 3 min
Chad Larson is one of the three founders of the Kenyan solar power start-up M-KOPA Solar. He serves as the company’s Finance Director and Chief Credit Officer and has lived in Nairobi with his wife and three boys since the company launched in 2011. Chad is a qualified CFA and an Oxford MBA who previously served as the CFO of the Africap Microfinance Investment Fund, based in Johannesburg, and prior to that, he spent 10 years in the investment banking division of Bank of America in Sydney and New...
Dec 30, 2016•1 hr 7 min
Eline Blaauboer is Managing Partner at both TBL Mirror Fund and Safaricom Spark Venture Fund. She’s worked in the venture capital and private equity sector in both Europe and Africa for last 14 years— gaining loads of experience with new investments and portfolio management, negotiation and structuring of investment rounds and deal flow generation. Her latest undertaking is something called 'Africa Tech Ventures' - a fund focussed on investing in and accelerating the growth of disruptive tech-en...
Dec 23, 2016•1 hr 12 min
Ethiopian-born, Solomon Assefa is the Director of IBM Research in Africa. He is responsible for IBM’s research labs in Kenya and South Africa, and oversees the development of technologies that aim to transform key industries and address the continent’s grand challenges. As a Research Scientist, Solomon has spent a lot of time at IBM working on nanophotonics technology. His research contributions include high-speed optical detectors, nano-structured platforms for bio-sensing, and quantum informat...
Dec 16, 2016•1 hr
Tomi Davies is a Nigerian investor, author and tech evangelist who is widely considered the God-father of Africa’s angel investment scene. He is also the founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN), as well as the founding President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN). He lives and works mostly in the UK, and he’s spent much of the last decade investing, mentoring, and advising start-up founders, angel investors, venture capitalists and a good number of public and private institutions. As ...
Sep 05, 2016•58 min
Riaan Badenhorst’s worst disappointment as a young man has led to a fairly successful career in IT security. There’s no doubt that the folks at Kaspersky Lab— currently the world’s fourth largest antivirus vendor, are rather pleased that Riaan’s childhood dreams didn’t come true. Today, Riaan heads up operations for Kaspersky Lab’s Africa Business— a position he’s occupied since late 2012. In his executive role, Riaan oversees Kaspersky Lab's operations in more than 40 countries across the sub-S...
Aug 22, 2016•53 min
Brendan Horan is a chartered accountant who has served as Managing Director of Mix Telematics Africa since June 2014 when the firm’s fleet and consumer businesses on the continent were merged into one business. Founded in 1996, Mix Telematics has grown into a leading global provider of fleet and mobile asset management solutions, and is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange. Using a Software-as-a-Service delivery model, MiX Telematics delivers solution...
Aug 07, 2016•58 min
Frank Schutte, is formerly the Managing Director for Retail Product & Marketing for South Africa’s largest life insurer— Liberty. In a gutsy move, he left his cushy gig there to found a startup called MobiLife, which is "Africa’s first 100% mobile insurance offering" that aims to transform micro-insurance in South Africa. In this conversation Frank chats about what would possess him to take on the massive incumbents who currently dominate South Africa’s fiercely competitive multi-billion dol...
Jul 24, 2016•45 min
Gareth Cliff is not only a controversial South African Radio DJ and a judge on DSTV’s hugely popular Idols South Africa, but also the Co-founder & President of Africa’s largest podcast producer, CliffCentral.com. His colourful journey within broadcasting led him to quit one of South Africa’s most lucrative radio gigs to launch a platform that now boasts over 40 podcast titles and garners over 100,000 downloads per week. In this conversation, Gareth unpacks the values that motivated his evolu...
Jul 11, 2016•1 hr 7 min
Maya Horgan Famodu is a consummate eclectic who wears the beautiful complexity of her Nigerian-Swedish-American heritage with pride. Maya is the Founder and Managing Director of Ingressive, a firm dedicated to guiding global capital to African entrepreneurs through a 2,000 member angel database, and semi-annual investor tours. Alongside her serious commitment to promoting entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa, Maya takes time out to write for Inc., the Huffington Post, and several other leading...
Jul 04, 2016•1 hr 14 min
It’s fair to say that the Nigerian-born Toro Orero is a live wire that’s all the way lit. He serves as Managing Partner at DraperDarkFlow— a Silicon Valley VC Fund backed by the illustrious Tim Draper, who’s investment portfolio at DFJ features everything from Tesla and Solarcity to Skype and Twitter. DraperDarkFlow is dedicated to investing in African startups run by "delusional" founders intent on changing the world. Toro also curates SpeedUPAfrica, which is one of the continent’s leading star...
Jul 04, 2016•1 hr 19 min
Oliver Fortuin heads up BT’s (formerly British Telecoms) operations in Sub-Saharan Africa, where he is tasked with leading the charge for a legacy ICT institution (that is nearly two centuries old) in some of the world’s most promising developing markets. Prior to joining BT, Oliver held executive positions at i1 Solutions, HP and IBM, and earned an MBA from the Open University, UK. In addition to chatting about his upbringing and his journey up the corporate ladder, the conversation touches on ...
Jun 27, 2016•1 hr
Ben White is exceedingly well-travelled, and his love for building new businesses has taken him all around the world and seen him collaborate with like-minded individuals pretty much anywhere he spends three hours or more. As the founder of what is widely considered Africa’s leading platform for startup funding, VC4A (Venture Capital for Africa)— Ben leads a team that brings together thousands of business professionals from 159 countries who are dedicated to building game-changing startups on th...
Jun 20, 2016•1 hr 16 min
By his own admission, Matthew Lee would not have been voted most likely to become an executive at a leading software multi-national by his classmates at the trade school where he trained to be a plumber. Years after he first left plumbing to try his hand at networking, Matthew worked his way up the corporate ladder at Comztek and Novell. While based in Johannesburg, he now oversees African operations at the German open source software firm, SUSE. Among many other things, Matthew chats to Andile ...
Jun 14, 2016•33 min
Stephen van Coller is the Chief Executive for Corporate and Investment Banking at Barclays Africa He is a Chartered Accountant who worked for Ernst & Young in South Africa and the UK for many years, before leaving the professional accounting industry to join Deutsche Bank— where he served as head of coverage and corporate advisory. Since joining Barclays in 2006, Stephen has held the positions of Deputy Chief Executive and Head of Investment Banking at Absa Capital and was appointed to his c...
May 29, 2016•51 min
Our final guest on Season Two of African Tech Conversations is the “unemployable”, disruptive force that is Alan Knott-Craig Jr. It’s natural to assume that Alan Knott-Craig Sr paved the way for his son and namesake, Alan Jr to become one of the most well-recognised personalities on South Africa’s tech scene. And while it’s impossible to disregard the advantages of having such an experienced and well-connected man for a father, Alan Jr has long proved his mettle as a startup founder and gone on ...
Dec 09, 2015•51 min
There’s no doubt about it. WiFi is the new black. California-based, NYSE-listed wireless systems company Ruckus Wireless is betting that the rate of WiFi infrastructure development Africa will continue to rise. And you can be sure that they’re doing what they can to help service the millions of Africans coming online year on year— profitably, of course. In the latest instalment of African Tech Conversations, Andile Masuku chats with the adrenaline-junkie that is Michael Fletcher— who has oversee...
Dec 02, 2015•52 min
There are many who aspire to the title of “activist”, but few walk the tweet. But Cameroonian-born Rebecca Enonchong is the real deal. Rebecca’s technical and leadership track record at the highest level has led to her being widely considered one of the most credible ambassadors for Africa’s burgeoning tech scene. We can at least vouch for this: Rebecca is not afraid of the truth. Her commitment to helping emerging entrepreneurs on the continent by sharing openly the details of the challenges, f...
Nov 25, 2015•1 hr 16 min
Anyone who's ever heard Gys Kappers speak will know how passionately he advocates for organisations to be super-intentional about systematically tapping every single employee— from the top to the very bottom of their structures, for game-changing insights and wisdom that can otherwise easily go ignored. In the latest episode of African Tech Conversations, Gys shares an incredible story of how an idea put forward by an entry-level factory worker helped the concrete masonry business he had a hand ...
Nov 18, 2015•1 hr
This week’s chat on African Tech Conversations is with a globe-trotting Brit who has spent the last 20 years working in retail, investment and corporate banking in no less than four continents. Before Ashley Veasey’s current gig as Chief Information Officer at Barclays Africa Group, he served in senior leadership positions at corporate giants like Citi Group and JP Morgan. Prior to joining Barclays, however, Ashley worked for Standard Chartered Bank as CIO in Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong, w...
Nov 11, 2015•56 min
Brandon Bekker is Managing Director for Africa and the Middle East at email security firm, Mimecast. This former pro rugby player and lawyer-turned-tech salesman has come a long way from his humble entry level position at Internet Solutions. Prior to joining Mimecast in 2008, Brandon spent 10 years within the Dimension Data Group, and ended up serving in executive positions at both Internet Solutions and Dimension Data. At Mimecast, Brandon’s credited for contributing significantly to the compan...
Nov 04, 2015•46 min
After being at the helm of Africa’s largest Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) sector focused fund manager for nearly a decade, Brandon Doyle seems to have thoroughly shed any visible traces of his punk rock past. Since co-founding Convergence Partners in 2006, Brandon and his team (many of whom are Charted Accountant types) have built an impressive track record of developing new investment opportunities and adding value to existing investments across the entire life cycle of ICT as...
Aug 05, 2015•55 min
Many of us can relate to being let down, or at least disillusioned with our careers when we were in our early twenties. In the latest instalment of African Tech Conversations, Dominique Collett-Antolik chats to Andile Masuku about experiencing a complete meltdown based on her disappointment with how little she had achieved in life at the age of 23. By her standards, her gig at that age— investment banking at Standard Bank, was simply not good enough. After all, the dolls she played with as a chi...
Jul 29, 2015•43 min
By her own admission, Matsi Modise, does not look a day over 25. But you would do well not to underestimate this 30 year-20old executive who has recently been appointed Managing Director of SiMODiSA-- a South African industry-led initiative launched to address the hurdles faced by small and medium-sized enterprises and startups. Formerly the National Executive Director of the South African Black Entrepreneurs Forum, Matsi is an avid entrepreneurship activist and a successful entrepreneur in her ...
Jul 22, 2015•41 min
Oresti Patricios co-founded Ornico Group in 1984, aka the year I was born. While incredibly disruptive in its time, the video reel production business Oresti operated back then is a far cry from the media conglomerate he runs today. Ornico Group has made a solid name for itself in Africa’s leading markets, boasting a client list which includes the likes of MultiChoice, Old Mutual and Woolworths. Oresti, who is undoubtedly a thought-leader in the sphere of African media and brand intelligence, re...
Jun 30, 2015•18 min
Mteto Nyati is no stranger to playing ball at the highest level in Africa’s corporate scene. His resume is pretty impressive. Studying at Yale, executive posts and directorships at companies like IBM, Enablis and Blue Label-- to name some, and even being MD of Microsoft South Africa for several years makes him anything but your average corporate animal. In his current role as CEO (Chief Enterprise Officer) for the MTN Group, Mteto continues to live up to his totem-- Nyati, which is Xhosa for “bu...
Jun 23, 2015•37 min
What do you get when a Microsoft geek and an IBM nerd fall in love and make a baby? Justin Spratt, that's what. Discover how Justin (Quirk MD Africa) went from being a curious, ten-year-old “hacker” in Australia, to rocking a suit at Morgan Stanley in London– then later becoming a tech-loving digital agency exec and start-up investor right here in Africa. We asked Justin what it’s like running what's widely considered to be the fastest-growing digital agency in Africa, and got him to share his i...
Jun 09, 2015•31 min
A short while ago, we sat Trevor Wolfe down for a quiet chat. Trevor is Managing Director of crowdsourcing company Springleap. We find out how this achievement-oriented, American millennial has managed to pack an huge amount of valuable business experience into the last decade or so-- often shunning lucrative employment opportunities with established big name firms in favour of the more difficult, less-travelled road of entrepreneurship. In this, the first of our African Tech Conversations serie...
Jun 03, 2015•48 min
