Advisory Board Members

Professor Rai is the Director of IIM Indore. Under his leadership IIM Indore got the triple crown accreditation of AMBA, AACSB and EQUIS making it one of the 100 institutions in the world to have the honour. Prior to this, he has been the Dean of SDA Bocconi India campus, Professor at SDA Bocconi, Milan, and has taught at IIM Lucknow and XLRI. His profile includes a stint of over 8 years at Tata Steel, India, where he played a pivotal role in developing Quality Systems and the Communication Policy for the Company. His book titled “Negotiation” published by McGraw Hill Education is a bestseller on Amazon. His TEDx talk on “Ethical Leadership: Lessons from the Vedas won him several accolades the world over.

Ms Bhana is currently the HR Executive at Tongaat Hulett Sugar. She has over 30 years of business experience, having in excess of 25 years in management and 15 years at executive level. She has served on the regional structures of the Black Management and in 2002, won the regional and national Manager of the Year Award in the same year. Jacquie has held positions of leadership as follows:
• Served on the board of the Agriseta, and also served on the strategy committee for a number of years;
• Served on the board Durban Girls College;
• Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry – currently 2nd Vice President serving on the board, and a council member - previously chair of the HR Committee;
• Chairperson of the Sugar Industry Training Centre and is a member of other industry management structures; and
• Chairperson of the Tongaat Hulett Sugar Provident fund, and a trustee on the Tongaat Hulett Sugar Pension Fund.

Douglas has more than 35 years of business experience through various executive management and board positions. He is currently Chairman of IRCA (Pty) Ltd, an occupational risk management company, and serves on the Boards of Curro, and is Chairman and founder member of investment companies such as Mnotho Group, Chakula Wote Africa, Thusang Global Advisory. Previously, Douglas served as non-executive director for EnviroServ, (a waste management company), WESSA (Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa), Stadio (an investment company investing in tertiary institutions) and also served at senior executive level for a number of corporations including Altron, Transnet, Absa and Anglo American. He was CEO of Bytes Healthcare Solutions, managing director of Bytes Specialised Solutions, and served on the boards of Anglo American (SA), Eskom Enterprises and was chairperson of Rotek Industries. Douglas serves as a non-executive director on a number of Social, Ethics and Transformation committees in various companies. His passion is in the education area. He has amassed a lot of experience in the areas of corporate governance and social, ethics and transformation.

Apelgren has 20 years of experience in International development and education. He is currently Head of Department – International and Governance Relations – eThekwini Municipality and responsible for all Durban’s sister city relationships, municipal international relations policy formulation, international donor relations, liaison with UN agencies and other multi-lateral organisations that are accredited in South Africa. Apelgren positions of leadership and community service is as follows:
• Non-executive board member of Innovate Durban
• Chairperson of Operation Jumpstart Association
• Vice Chairperson of TREE – Training Resources for Early Education
• Board Member of the Chatsworth Youth Centre.
• Associate member of Smart Exchange

Brouwer has 16 years’ experience in the automotive industry including two years working in Japan for Toyota Motor Corporation. He is currently Senior Manager – Materials Management at Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM). Brouwer’s experience is in Purchasing, Engineering, Sales, Plant facilities and Maintenance.

Delport is the Head of Corporate and Legal Service at Defy Appliances (PTY) LTD and is also a member of the company’s executive. Ian has been with Defy for 17 years with a background of Human Resources Management, Industrial Relations and Labour litigation. Ian served as Chairperson of the East London Metal and Engineering Bargaining Council, the Chairperson of the Labour Affairs Committee of the Border Kei Chamber of Business, a member of the Executive Committee of the Border Kei Chamber of Business, Chairperson of KZNEIA and a SEIFSA board member. Ian was also the Director and Co-owner of Border Training Solutions and lectured part time for Damelin. He has also been a member of The South African Society for Labour Law. In 2014, and in 2017 he was a member of the Key Negotiations Committee, representing employers in the South African Metal and Engineering sector during the National Negotiations.

Since 2002, Prof Dr. Dobbelstein is Professor for market/empirical research at Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Ravensburg and served as the vice-president from 2004 – 2008. Dobbelstein is also the managing director of the market research institute Customer Research 42. He is an honorary research professor at DUT and responsible for the modules of empirical research at different business schools and universities in Germany and Austria. He is a member in several supervisory boards, e.g. Privalor AG, Johanniter Unfallhilfe, 9 Levels Institute for Value Systems. He was awarded the EIRASS - Elsevier most innovative Research paper award, the best paper award of the Nordic Wholesale and Retail Association and the Science-Transfer-Award of the City of Ravensburg. He has published about 90 papers in international journals, did about 130 presentations and more than 30 empirical university projects together with companies.

Heinrich is currently the Chief Executive Officer for the KZN Cricket (Pty) Ltd, KZN Cricket Union (NPC) – Durban. His prior positions include:
• Company: North West Cricket (NPC) – Potchefstroom
Position held: Chief Executive Officer
• Company: Lions Cricket (Pty) Ltd – Johannesburg
Position held: General Manager
• Company: North West Cricket (NPC) – Potchefstroom
Position held: Financial & HR Manager
• Company: Bezuidenhout & Steyn Auditors – Potchefstroom (Questus Incorporated)
Position held: Article Clerk

Professor Whyte is currently the Director of Namibia Business School (NBS) in the University of Namibia (UNAM) and interim Chair of the Association of African Business Schools (AABS). In the UK from which he originates, he was Research Director for SMC from 1991, a Knowledge Management company he founded. He has also worked as a research consultant and business analyst in the IT industry for over fifteen years. In 1995, he obtained his PhD at the Cranfield School of Management, studying the measurement and management of customer perceptions of service within the Information Systems industry, using qualitative and quantitative research techniques. His work on customer service research and the measurement of service quality continued in Namibia, and became the subject of a major scholarly article in the European Journal of Marketing and a book in publication (2018) called the V-Model of Service Quality: An Exploration of African Customer Service Delivery.