About us
Board members
Vusi Khanyile(Independent non-executive chairman and member of the Governance and Nominations Committee and the Human Resources and Compensation Committee)
B.Com (Hons) (University of Birmingham), Fellowship in Development Finance (Princeton University), Honorary Doctor of Commerce (Walter Sisulu University)
Date of appointment: 10 December 2009
Vusi Khanyile started his working career in the finance division of Anglo American Corporation and later founded his own finance company. He was deeply involved in community struggles for democracy. He took an appointment as Special Assistant to the Vice Chancellor at the University of Cape Town, where he later became Deputy Registrar. Vusi was Head of Finance in the African National Congress from 1990 to 1992 when he started Thebe Investment Corporation. He is the Executive Chairman of Thebe.
(Independent non-executive deputy chairman, chair of the Investment Committee and a member of the Governance and Nomination Committee)
BSc (Mining Engineering); B.Com (Hons)
Date of appointment: 01 February 2010
Bernard Swanepoel started his career with Gengold in 1983, culminating in his appointment as General Manager of Beatrix Mines in 1993. He joined Randgold in 1995 as Managing Director of the Harmony mine. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Harmony in 1997. In August 2007 he left Harmony to start To-the-Point Growth Specialists. Bernard is a Non-executive board member of Sanlam Limited and African Rainbow Minerals. He is also a member of the Wits Business School Advisory Board and UP Mining Department Advisory Council.
(Independent non-executive director and chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee
B. Com (UCT), CA (SA)
Date of appointment: 01 February 2010
David Brown was appointed CEO of Impala Platinum in September 2006, having served as the company’s financial director since January 1999. Prior to that, David spent five years with Exxon Mobil, based in London. He is also a non-executive director of Zimplats Holdings Limited.
(Independent non-executive director, chairman of the Human Resources and Compensation Committee and chairman of the Safety Health and Environmental Committee and a member of the Investment Committee)
BSc and M.Sc in Chemical Engineering (University of Pretoria), B.Com and Advanced Management Programme (University of South Africa), Executive Program qualification (Stanford Business School)
Date of appointment: 10 December 2009
Ralph Havenstein has extensive executive experience in the oil, chemical and mining industries. He is a current director of Northam Platinum Limited and Omnia Holdings Limited. He started his career at Sasol in 1979 and was appointed as an executive director of Sasol in 1998. Ralph was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Anglo Platinum in 2003 and after stepping down in 2007 and is the former Chief Executive Officer of Norilsk Nickel.
(Independent non-executive director , a member of the Human Resources and Compensation Committee and Audit and Risk Committee)
CA (SA), Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting (University of Natal Pietermaritzburg), BCom (University of Natal Pietermaritzburg)
Date of appointment: 23 December 2009
A Chartered Accountant and founding partner of Gobodo Incorporated, Sindi Mabaso Koyana completed her articles at Deloitte & Touche and has held senior positions at Ernst & Young, Transnet Limited and Viamax Limited. She is currently Group Chief Financial Officer of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and is responsible for the financial strategy of four business units, which include Metrorail, Shosholoza Meyl and property development company, Intersite.
Sindi is also a founding member and president of the African Women Chartered Accountants and a former member of the Black Economic Empowerment Charter Committee of the Accounting Sector and has served on various boards. She currently serves on the boards of Broadband Infraco and the South African National Roads Agency.
(Independent non-executive director and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee and the Investment Committee
BSc Chemical Engineering (Imperial College, London)
Date of appointment: 01 February 2010
Stuart Murray is Chief Executive Officer of Aquarius Platinum, with a proven track record in the mining industry. He began his career at Barplats Refineries in 1989 before joining Impala Platinum, where he spent six years as a Consulting Engineer. In 2001 Stuart joined Aquarius Platinum and oversaw its transformation from a junior Australian exploration company to the fourth largest primary platinum producer globally. Stuart also chairs the board of Aquarius Platinum (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, and Mimosa Mining Company (Pty) Ltd, and is an associate member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (AMIChemE).
(Non-executive director and a member of Governance and Nominations Committee)
M.Ed (Primary Health Care) (Manchester University), Advanced Diploma in Health Education (Leeds Polytechnic)
Date of appointment: 01 February 2010
Baba Njenje has spent 10 years in the South African re-insurance industry and is a well-known public sector lobbyist. An appointment as New Business Development Director with Metrofile was followed by an appointment as a Director in the Vulisango Holdings Group of companies in 2003, and Lafarge Aggregates and Continental SA in 2004. Baba serves as Chairperson of Zibula Mining Exploration and is a non-executive director of SASRIA.
(Independent non-executive director, chairman of the Governance and Nominations Committee and a member of the Safety Health and Environmental Committee)
BSc (Eng) in Chemical Engineering and PhD in Physical Chemistry (Rand), DPhil in Economics (Oxford)
Date of appointment: 10 December 2009
Nick Segal was previously director of the UCT Graduate School of Business, a director of mining and other companies (including JCI Limited, Anglovaal Limited, Kumba Resources and Genesis-Analytics), senior economist on India at the World Bank and an associate director of Coopers & Lybrand in London. He served on the Presidential Labour Market Commission and on the first Council on Higher Education.
An independent consultant, principally on public policy issues at the business-government interface, recent assignments include a review for the Chamber of Mines of the industry’s progress in implementing the Mining Charter and an assessment for Business Leadership South Africa of the outlook for the country’s water sector.
He is the author of numerous books and articles, among them a co-authored chapter on South Africa in an OECD publication on corporate governance in developing countries (2003) and a co-authored report for the Chamber of Mines on the outlook for the South African mining industry in the 21st century (2000).
Nick is a director of TEBA Limited, and is also an extraordinary professor at the Gordon Institute of Business Science of the University of Pretoria.
Valence Watson(Non-executive director)
B Com Hons (UPE) Master of Business Leadership (MBL) (UNISA)
Date of appointment: 28 April 2010
Valence Watson is CEO of Vulisango Holdings (Pty) Ltd and Xelexwa (Pty) Ltd. He has a keen interest in economics and change management and is a former research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School where he also completed an Advanced Management Programme and an Economic Development Programme. He has consulted to several companies on transformation and strategy, among them Continental Tyres South Africa; Lafarge South Africa and LTA Construction.
(Interim CEO and member of the Safety Health and Environmental Committee)
B.Eng. Civil Engineering (University of Pretoria); Project Management Professional (PMI);
Professional Construction Project Manager (SACPCMP)
Date of appointment: 12 March 2010
Nico Schoeman is a qualified civil engineer who has managed large complex projects on behalf of a variety of engineering and consulting companies. Nico was seconded to Simmers by management consultants PSP Icon to assist the management team with the investigation intoheap leach opportunities in Mpumalanga, the rehabilitation of Buffelsfontein five shaft and to assess new business opportunities. He was invited to join Simmers on a full-time basis in 2008 as Group Business Development Executive. He was intimately involved in the restructuring of the company and was at the forefront of the acquisition of Tau Lekoa. Prior to being appointed interim CEO, he was Simmers’ lead agent in the integration of Tau Lekoa and was instrumental in dining Simmers’ role in the refinancing of First Uranium.
He is currently completing his MBA through the Gordon Institute of Business Science.