Prof. Joseph Sekhampu is the Chief Director of North-West University Business School, where he provides academic leadership and strategic direction to ensure the School’s overall success and growth.

Before joining North-West University Business School, he served as Chief Operating Officer & Executive Head at Milpark Education. He oversaw the company strategy’s operationalisation and managed the business’s operational units there. Previously, he was the Dean of the School of Commerce at the same institution where he provided academic leadership and managed all programmes offered by the school, focussing on quality assurance, planning, and execution of deliverables.

His earlier career in the banking sector included various roles such as Team Leader for Customer Consultants, Trainee Branch Manager, CRM Manager, and Product Analyst, providing a comprehensive experience in banking operations and management.

He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and has conducted extensive research on poverty and socioeconomic issues. In addition to his academic and administrative roles, he writes about leadership, drawing on his extensive experience and African communal culture’s influence. His leadership philosophy emphasizes collective responsibility and the pursuit of the common good. He is committed to academic excellence, research, and transforming lives and communities through the power of education.

Follow him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephsekhampu/.

Prof Parsons is the chairperson of the Advisory board, he studied economics at the Universities of Cape Town, Oxford and Copenhagen, before playing a leading role in organized business in SA for many years.  Professor Parsons was the Overall Business Convenor at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) until 2010, which is the major social dialogue institution in South Africa. He is a former Director-General of the SA Chamber of Business. In 2017 ESSA conferred honorary life membership on him in recognition of his distinguished contribution to the economics profession in SA. He was also a director of the SA Mint.

CEO in professional sports administration for 20 year. Director at ASK4 Online. Training platform for Practitioners Communities. Associate Professor at North West University Business school.

Consultant in stakeholder relationship management.PhD, LLM & MBA degrees. Founding member CEOs in Sport. Qualified mediator

Ms Charlotte Mokoena is the Executive Vice-President for Human Resources and Corporate Affairs at SASOL. She is responsible for the design of global strategies, policies and frameworks that enable the organisation to attract, develop and retain key talent. Her remarkable career has transcended industries, portfolios and traditional silos that often lead to a disconnect between employees, stakeholders, culture and business objectives. Charlotte’s deep and wide experience spans over 25 years, in Strategic HR, Organisational Capability Development, Leadership Development, Stakeholder Relations, Corporate Reputation Management, Customer Experience Management, Corporate Social Impact (CSI), and Management Consulting.

Kgosi Moshe Mage is the chairperson of the North West House of Traditional Leaders. He is no stranger to serving in important roles. He has been elected for three consecutive terms as the chairperson of the North West Provincial House of Traditional Leaders. His leadership stretches over 20 years as Kgosi of Batlhako Ba Matutu in Mabeskraal. He has served as a member of the Invest North West board and was chairperson of the North West Provincial Heritage Agency for three years.

Prof Babs Surujlal is currently the Executive Dean in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the North-West University. He completed an Education Diploma at the Springfield College of Education, majoring in English and Afrikaans. He went on to complete his BCom degree at Unisa, majoring in Accounting and Economics. He completed an Advanced University Diploma in Public Administration and a Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Durban-Westville (now University of KwaZulu-Natal). Thereafter, he completed his PhD in Sport Management at the Rand Afrikaans University.

Dewald Oliver holds an LLB degree and Higher Diploma in Import & Export and an MBA (Cum Laude) from the NWU Business School. He is the current president of the Alumni of MBA’s at the NWU Business School. He is also a Member of the Institute of Directors and serves as director and trustee on several boards and trusts. Dewald was admitted as an attorney and later transitioned to the agriculture industry as legal advisor. After serving as Chief Operations Officer for a company, he started his own consulting and advisory business focussing on assisting small and medium businesses in agriculture to comply with the regulatory and non-regulatory traceability.

Prof Linda du Plessis recently served as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the North-West University. After starting her career in Information Technology as a programmer, she left the industry to teach in the higher education sector. She obtained her Master’s degree in Information Technology and completed her PhD at the then PU for CHE, and a second Doctorate at the University of Bath (UK). She made history by being the first-ever female vice-rector at the NWU’s campus in Vanderbijlpark. She has contributed to various national and international publications and is well known for her dedication and focus when overseeing high-level projects.

Stavros Nicolaou is the Aspen Pharmacare Group’s Senior Executive responsible for Strategic Trade Development. Aspen is one of South Africa’s most globalised multinational companies with 26 manufacturing facilities across 6 continents. He has over 30 years’ experience in the South African and International Pharmaceutical Industry and has won SA Institute of Marketing Management (IMM) Health Care Marketer of the year Award. He also received the Monte Rubenstein Award for proficiency in Pharmaceutics from the Wits University Pharmacy Faculty. He has been inducted as a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa (PSSA), and was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science in Medicine from Wits University.