Judges of the 2009 Van Ryn's BBQ Awards

Phuti Malabie
Managing Director, Shanduka Energy

Phuti Malabie joined Cyril Ramaphosa's Shanduka Group in 2004 and today is the managing director of Shanduka Energy, an investment company primarily focused on electricity, oil and gas throughout the African continent.

In spite of the heavy demands of this position she still manages to find the time to be involved in a number of activities with youth and for her work in this area she as nominated Global Young Leader in 2007 by the World Economic Forum.

Her academic qualifications include a BA Economics from Rutgers University in the US and an MBA from De Montfort University in Leicester, UK.

Andile Sangqu
Executive Director, Kagiso Trust Investments

Andile Sangqu is an accountant and tax expert and is currently the Group Executive Director at Kagiso Trust Investments. He has spent 14 years in financial management positions at a number of major South African corporations, including Impala Platinum and Liberty Life.

A seasoned entrepreneur, visionary and well rounded business leader, Andile has been deeply involved in business financial restructuring, financial systems development, implementation, budgeting, strategic planning, organisational transformation and many change management processes.

During his tenure as Deputy Director-General (Finance and Corporate Services) of th Department of Public Works, Andile -- in his capacity as Chief Financial Officer -- was responsible for managing the transition by the department under the new Public Finance Management Act.

He played a pivotal role in driving the strategy programme of transforming the department to a commercially driven state-owned property management operation.

In addition to his accountancy and tax degrees Andile completed the Master of Business Leadership (MBL) degree at UNISA’s Graduate School of Business in 2001 and recently completed an Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD in France.

Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita
CEO, ArcelorMittal SA

She graduated as an electronics engineer from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology with a BSc Honours (Elec Eng), and an MSc (Elec Eng) from the California Institute of Technology.

She also holds an MBA from the Open University Business School (UK). Nku began her career as an engineer at Research Triangle Park, IBM’s premier research and development facility in Raleigh, North Carolina. After a brief stint at IBM’s Dallas office, she joined IBM South Africa in a marketing role and established and managed IBM’s Namibian operation.

She then became chief executive officer of Alliance Capital Management (Pty) Ltd and serves on the boards of arivia.kom, Macsteel International and the Bond Exchange of South Africa, among others. Nku is married to a medical doctor and has two children.

Since joining ArcelorMittal SA Nku has had to handle the economic downturn, a thorough cost-cutting review and a focus on greater efficiencies. She has also emphasised the need for the company to expand its obligations in the areas of the environment, social responsibility and health.

Dr Xolani Mkhwanazi
Chairman, BHP Billiton SA LTD

Dr Xolani Mkhwanazi, chairman of BHP Billiton SA Ltd. Is a former CEO of the National Electricity Regulator of South Africa where he was responsible for rebuilding the organisation into a world-class regulatory authority and for setting up and leading a number of regional and Africa-wide regulatory bodies.

He holds a BSc degree in maths and physics from the University of Botswana and Swaziland and an MSc and PhD in applied physics at the University of Lancaster in the UK. He also completed the Executive Development Program (EDP) at University of the Witwatersrand, in partnership with Harvard University.

Hlonela Lupuwana
CEO, Small Enterprise Development Agency

Hlonela Nelisa Lupuwana, CEO of Seda, is responsible for strategy and policy implementation, financial and risk management, performance management of operations, corporate governance, market positioning and stakeholder management.

Seda -- the Small Enterprise Development Agency of the Department of Trade & Industry -- has a staff complement in excess of 500, a budget of R330million with nine provincial offices and a network of 42 branches and 50 information centres. She was previously the DTI's Chief Operating Officer for Enterprise and Industry Development. This division has an annual budget in excess of one billion rands and employs more than 100 professional staff. She has also acted as Deputy Director General for Group Services (IT, finance, HR, and legal).

After five years of banking experience Hlonela joined Deloitte from November 1998 to September 2003, where she consulted on a wide range of management issues. She holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree from University of Cape Town and an MBA from the University of Pretoria's Graduate School of Management. She joined the DTI in 2003.

Jimmy Manyi
Director General, Department of Labour

Jimmy is the President of the Confederation for Black Business Organisations (CBBO) a newly launched body that brings together virtually all the Black Professional Organisations and some business bodies, and is also President of the Black Management Forum (BMF).

He is a Harvard Alumni who has extensive corporate experience spanning across key sectors of the economy viz: 10 years in mining sector - Anglo American Corporation; 3.5 years in automotive sector - Toyota South Africa; 5 years in banking sector - Barclays Bank PLC, Nedcor, MEEG Bank; >2 years in ICT sector – IBM; 3 years in food and health sector – Tiger Brands (Adcock)

Jimmy’s active participation in transformation dates back to 1996/7 where he represented the BMF at NEDLAC for EE Act negotiations. He also participated in the development of financial sector Charter, ICT Charter and the DTI BBBEE Codes of Good Practice.

Jimmy has actively participated in the various debates regarding the BBBEE Codes of Good Practice in the market place. Jimmy serves on Boards of various companies including Computershare and BMFI and he also Chair’s the Commission for Employment Equity that advises the Minister of Labour.

Alex Mathole
Executive Director & General Counsel, Siemens

Thabiso Tlelai
CEO, Don Group

Thabiso assumed the group leadership in early 2000, following his acquisition of the group’s controlling shareholding.His entrepreneurial background includes business ventures associated with cinemas, a computer company and a restaurant.He has been in the hotel business in excess of 10 years.

Besides his interest in the Don Group, Thabiso is founder and director of Amabubesi Investments (Pty) Ltd and a member of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa. He is a board member of Basil Read Limited.Thabiso has made a vast contribution to tourism and in particular the hotel industry, which had not traditionally attracted Black entrepreneurs.He is South African born and holds a bachelor’s degree from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.

Nolitha Fakude
Executive Director, Sasol Ltd

Nolitha Fakude was appointed executive director at Sasol Limited on 1 October 2005. She is a member of the risk and safety, health and environment committee.

Fakude is responsible for the worldwide Human Resources for the group as well as the group’s brand, corporate affairs, government relations and transformation, including the Black Economic Empowerment portfolio. Before joining Sasol, she was a member of the group executive committee at Nedbank responsible for group strategy and corporate affairs. She previously held director positions at Woolworths Holdings, Harmony Gold and Bigen Africa.Fakude has served as managing director of the Black Management Forum (BMF) from 2001-2003, and non-executive president of BMF from 2003-2006 and appeared in the Financial Mail’s list of the twenty most influential business women in 2004.

Nolitha Fakude was appointed to the Sasol Limited board in 2005 as an executive director, and is a director of several Sasol subsidiaries including Sasol Mining, Sasol Oil and Sasol Solvents.

Kganki Matabane
Executive Director: Transformation, Business Unity South Africa

Kganki is currently Executive Director - Transformation Policy at Business Unity South Africa (Busa) responsible for monitoring transformation in South Africa, internal operations as well as Busa Parliamentary Office. He was previously a Financial Director at the Black Management Forum (BMF), with overall financial management responsibilities for its National Office, 9 Provinces and 23 branches.

He also worked for Gauteng Provincial Legislature/Parliament, City Power, Spoornet, Anglo Platinum, Wits Technikon and Kgalema Senior Secondary School. Kganki is a founder and director of Broad Based BEE Haven Investments Limited. Bee Haven has a stake in True Class Motors Holdings which acquired 40% of Sandown Motor Holdings (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Mercedes Benz South Africa. He is also a member of Institute of Directors of South Africa and represents Busa at Development Chamber of Nedlac (National Economic Development and Labour Council).

He is a board member of Credit Information Ombud’s Council and a member of Sandown Motor Holdings (Pty) Ltd Transformation and Business Development Committee and a Practising Member of the South African Institute of Professional Accountants.

Kganki was highly involved with Mathomo-mayo Youth Club, a registered Non Profit Organisation based in Limpopo which organises Career Guidance sessions and other events targeting impoverished rural youth.He occasionally writes for Sowetan Sunday World and City Press newspapers on both business and socio-economic issues. Kganki is married with two daughters.