The role of the Secretariat is the overall implementation of the activities of Impact Investing SA. It is responsible for driving and executing the organisation’s strategy, with guidance and support from the Board and Taskforce members. The Secretariat is currently hosted by UCT’s GBS Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
The role of the Board is oversight of the overall strategic direction of Impact Investing SA. It provides guidance and direction to the Secretariat for the execution of the organisation’s strategy.
The role of the Impact Investing SA taskforce is one of advocacy and advisory. Taskforce members are responsible for identifying key levers to accelerate growth in the impact investing market. They activate their networks to foster the impact investment ecosystem.
Motshegwa is a consultant that specialises in sustainability and development projects who has a Bachelor of Business Science degree specialising in Finance. Her role as a consultant has afforded her the opportunity to work on a variety of projects across various sectors, including but not limited to financial services, pharmaceuticals, mining and the public sector. Across these sectors she has both developed strategies as well as implemented them for clients, write business plans and reports, as well as measure the impact of their projects and initiatives using Social Return on Investment methodology. She also has experience training organisations, foundations and state-owned enterprises on how to measure their own impact.
A key project that Motshegwa prides herself on is her role in developing a strategy for a large multinational mining company to create over 140 000 jobs in mining communities to stimulate economic growth and contribute to the meaningful existence of community members through assisting them attain sustainable livelihoods. Her role as a sustainability and development consultant has also made her impact orientated, and as a result she has developed a passion for impact investing. She continues to learn about the investment philosophy through her masters degree where her area of research is impact investing, as well as her role as a consultant for Impact Investing South Africa where she is a part of the team growing awareness and building the ecosystem for impact investing in South Africa.
Gertrude is a consultant with a focus on impact driven organisations. She is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Masters degree in Development Finance from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business. Her career started at Deloitte in audit and assurance where she was responsible for managing and leading various external audit assignments for companies in different sectors such as agriculture, retail, construction, and mining. Gertrude has worked in various roles with international and regional development organisations implementing projects in different African countries both in the private and non-profit sectors. This has provided her with a valuable appreciation of the broader development context and challenges in Sub Saharan Africa and a drive to be instrumental in contributing towards sustainable development on the continent, she aims to achieve this through her work with Impact Investing South Africa.
Her experience includes working as a consultant in the rural development sector, where she was responsible for developing sustainable corporate strategies for some of South Africa’s traditional communities. She has developed key skills in project management and coordination, funds compliance management, stakeholder liaison and organisational governance. She has worked with organisations that focus on impact areas such as enterprise development, rural development, humanitarian interventions and public health.
Monica Rossi is a consulting professional with investment management experience in both asset manager and asset owner roles. She previously worked for one of South Africa’s leading insurance companies, where she also led and served on various investment advisory committees for operations based in Africa, and on investment committees for alternative investment funds. Monica’s role is to drive the execution of the Impact Investing SA (IISA) strategy and to represent IISA in multi-stakeholder partnerships that support the development of an impact-focused investment market. She holds an honours degree in Actuarial Science specialising in Quantitative Finance, and the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certification. Monica is enthusiastic about sustainable finance, impact investing and the role of innovative finance in mobilising private capital for sustainable development in South Africa.
Elias is the Executive Chairman of DNA Economics, Commissioner of the 1st & 2nd National Planning Commission. His previous roles include CEO of the PIC, Head of Policy Analysis at Sanlam, Act. Deputy Director General for Economic Policy at the South African National Treasury and Director of Research, Central Bank of Swaziland.
Currently he serves as Chairman of several influential entities in South Africa, namely V&A Waterfront, Absa Asset Management, Capital Harvest and Economic Research Southern Africa and serves on several boards including Multichoice SA, Alternative Prosperity Holdings, Future Planet Capital in London, Avior Capital Markets, Strate, Absa Financial Services and CA Sales.
Previously, He was also a member of the Boards of the South African Reserve Bank, the Government Employee Pension Fund, the Airports Company SA, as well as the UN Global Compact Board & Chairman of the (UNGC) SA Local Network.
He is founder of many initiatives such as the Financial Sector Charter Council, Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA), Social security and retirement reform in South Africa, UNGC Africa Implementation Agenda for the SDGs, Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute for Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI) previously ESAIDARM and the Ratepayers Association network in Swaziland, amongst others.
Heather, head of Impact Investing at Ashburton Investments, has 26 years of capital market experience. She is a member of the executive committee of Ashburton that also coordinates and drives the overall impact investing strategy into the overall FirstRand Group. Prior to joining Ashburton, Heather founded a successful impact division at Atlantic Asset Management where the team developed impact investing strategies by forming strategic partnerships with National Treasury, WWF, and USAID amongst others. This business was acquired by FirstRand in 2016. Heather established her fund management reputation by heading up a number of traditional fixed income teams, including Investec and Prudential and was a founding director and partner of African Harvest Value Managers (1999).
She is deeply involved in advocacy and remains the founding chair since 2008 of the Responsible Investing subcommittee at the Association for Savings and Investment in South Africa (ASISA) as well as a member of ASISA Savings and Infrastructure Committee and was a founding member of CRISA. She is currently chair of ANDE SA Chapter (Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs) which promotes SGB’s. In addition, she participates regularly in National Treasury’s Sustainable Finance Working Group as well as their Working Group on Municipal Finance.
Patmanathan (Pat) Pillai is Founder/CEO of LifeCo UnLtd SA; Chair of the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance – Southern Africa and Board member of pan AVPA; Board member of the Global Social Entrepreneurship Network; Board member of Tendrel SA.
Pat has also been an entrepreneur in the private sector for the last 30 years.
Tanya joined SAVCA in March 2017, after a rewarding 10-year career at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) with her last role being Director of Academic Programmes where she also served on the board of the Executive MBA Council (EMBAC), an international academic association that represents the Executive MBA industry. Tanya is passionate about human and organisational development. During her time as a learning and development specialist focusing on management and leadership development, Tanya gained valuable experience working with various companies across a wide range of sectors. She holds an MBA and Post-Graduate Diploma from GIBS where her MBA research focused on methods to develop a global mindset. Tanya also holds a BCom Informatics and Honours in Business Management from UNISA.
Tanya is also passionate about developing the private equity and venture capital sector in Southern Africa. Through personal experiences, Tanya understands the complexities entrepreneurs face during the various stages of their business lifecycle and is a regular contributor at various events to help entrepreneurs, and investors, understand the value and impact of private equity and venture capital.
Tanya is the mother of a stunning young man, a motorbike/car enthusiast and a South African PowerLifter.
Tracey joined Palladium in 2015 to build Palladium’s impact investing practice which included the building of a Venture Capital Fund investing in northern Nigeria. In addition to her core role she leads bespoke impact investment advisory mandates for major influencers including blue-chip companies/DFIs/institutional investors active/embarking on impact investing.
Tracey draws upon a 17-year career centered in finance in emerging markets. Her experience ranges from investment banking—where she started at Barclays in the infrastructure and natural resources division—to managing a fund-of-funds (DFID Impact Fund) for the UK’s development finance institution, CDC Group plc. She also brings hands-on investment experience garnered from managing a portfolio of distressed mining assets in Australia and Colombia for one of Europe’s largest hedge funds, BlueCrest Capital LLC. Tracey’s understanding of investment fundamentals and core business operations, across many countries and sectors, enable her to work effectively across impact investing globally.
In June of 2018, Tracey will join Omidyar Network as Head of Investment Management for the Governance and Citizen Engagement Initiative.
Heleen is currently the Head of Alternative Investment Services at RisCura. Previous to this, she held the position of Private Equity Associate at RisCura. She is involved with the development of Impact Fund of Fund products and Impact reporting within RisCura. She has also served as an Assurance Director, Technical Partner for IFRS as well as the Head of Corporate Finance for PKF Cape Town. She believes that future opportunities that IISA may be well place to undertake are:
1. Educating institutional investor about the nature of Impact vs ESG
2. Trying to put together a very, very basic reporting framework that allows investors to aggregate info across investments. This is a very long-term goal, and there are as many opinions as people, but Heleen considers it essential.
Tshediso currently leads a multidisciplinary team of experts supporting the National Planning Commission in the Presidency, which is the think-tank responsible for long-term planning and promoting the National Development Plan - Vision 2030. His roles involve strategic advice and consulting at highest level (cabinet), and networks with leaders in business (CEOs), labour, the media, academics and the consulting industry.
His previous roles include Eskom Executive, Director-General (DG) of Public Enterprises (Department) and DG of Trade and Industry (DTI). Tshediso has over 25 five years of public sector leadership experience, inter alia in the fields development/planning; world trade; industrial policy; investment; economic regulation; BBBEE/enterprise development; and Corporate Governance. He has led large, complex organisations with significant transformational impacts on business and the economy, across several industries and state-owned enterprises.
Tshediso brings deep, crosscutting grasp of critical economic and social sectors that constitute the impact investing space, strategic planning skills, along with established stakeholder networks with the state’s key policy implementing arms and private sector actors.
He was part of the expert steering committee for the UNDP SDGs Investor Map undertaken with the UCT GSB’s Bertha Centre which identified impact investment opportunities in agriculture, healthcare, education and infrastructure. He believes that IISA is central to taking this process forward, and a low hanging fruit are student accommodation, early learning provision, low-fee private schooling and digital infrastructure for low-income communities.
Mandy Jayakody is an entrepreneur and consultant and has worked in the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) for clients and projects in the public and private sector in some sort or form over the last 18 years. In 2022, two (2) of the projects she worked on were presented at the UK Government Outcomes Labs, Social Outcomes Conference held at the University of Oxford; one focusing on investment in the affordable housing space and the other in green outcomes funding for SMMEs. Mandy has a wide range of experience and has worked on various projects in South Africa (SA), Rwanda, Mozambique, Swaziland, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom (UK). Some of her experience include being mentor on the Major of London’s Green 500 programme, technical advisor on the Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code and project manager on the Green Outcomes Fund. She is an accredited Green Buildings Professional and has also served as a member of the Technical Working Groups for the development of the Green Buildings Council of SA Public Buildings Tool and Stakeholder Engagement and Reporting and Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability, for the development of King IV Report of Corporate Governance.
She has a Masters in Civil Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand and is co-founder and owner of Aquila Projects (Pty) Ltd. She was awarded the 2018 African Construction Awards – Young Entrepreneur Rising Star. Mandy was also a finalist in the 2018 Standard Bank Top Women Awards for the Infrastructure category. In December 2021 she was appointed by the Minister of Human Settlements to serve on the board of the National Home Builders Registration Council.
Peggy-Sue Khumalo is the former CEO of Standard Bank Wealth SA and has an array of experience in financial services. She was responsible for the South African operations of Standard Bank's wealth business, which includes short and long-term insurance, asset management, pension fund operations, and fiduciary services for high net-worth individuals, corporate clients, and commercial and retail clients. She began her career in financial services after being offered a scholarship by the then State President, Mr. Nelson Mandela in collaboration with Stephen Koseff (former Group CEO) of Investec Bank to study Economics at the University of Manchester, UK. Prior to her studies, she ran her own PR and Communications company that boasted the likes of Anglo American as clients.
After completing her Master's degree, Peggy-Sue joined Investec Bank UK in 2004 where she was a Fixed Income analyst focusing on credit analysis of the European telecommunications, media, and technology sectors. She also has completed the Authentic Leadership Development Program at Harvard Business School, and is a 2013 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow.
Peggy-Sue is passionate about financial inclusion, social impact and sustainability. She continues to work with several charities, including Little Eden, MSUKUMO and the Teddy Bear Foundation. Throughout her career she has been credited for accessing new markets and unlocking new business opportunities. She is not only defined by her expansive career in financial services or by her achievements and accolades, but her most significant role to date is being a mother to her two brilliant daughters, Nobuhle and Siphosethu.
Leila Akahloun is an international development specialist and a social justice strategist. Leila has 20 years’ experience in accelerating social change through strategic investments in innovative development initiatives and high-impact advocacy. She also has expertise in creation and implementation of high-level organizational strategies, communication and branding initiatives, as well as high net worth partnership building and fundraising. She is a strong believer that the private sector, together with civil society and the public sector, need to work together as equal partners in creatively contributing to the social good. Therefore, in her professional capacities, she supports efforts and organizations that help these stakeholders apply their unique strengths to solve development challenges and collectively meet targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Africa Agenda 2063.. She works cross-sectorally and has extensive networks in both civil society and social enterprise circles via Ashoka and Echoing Green Fellowships, the African Leadership Network, Play Africa, and the Graça Machel Trust Women’s Networks, just to name a few. Leila has a proven ability in NGO management and capacity building with NGOs through strategic investments, organizational planning and institutional development. She further has success in corporate, private foundation and multilateral donor agency proposal development and grant management. Leila has an extensive amount of on the ground work experience in numerous countries in North and South America, Africa and Asia, and she speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin Chinese.
Mahlatsi is the lead of Infrastructure and Project Preparation Financing serving in the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Committee TTT / Infrastructure South Africa, with a private sector background in institutional investment consulting. During her tenure at Alexander Forbes she was voted as Chairperson of the Alexander Forbes Investments AC Committee, gaining early exposure to working with executive leadership on key strategies for the investments business. Mahlatsi’s role in the joint investment committee between Absa Mutli-Managers, Sanlam ACA Investment Consultants and Alexander Forbes Investments; embedded a collaborative approach to structuring outcomes driven investment solutions. Good communication and analytical skills, a technical foundation in Actuarial Sciences bolstered by a Masters degree in Development Finance from the University of Stellenbosch, have enabled Mahlatsi to develop a career as a multifaceted development finance professional. She is a member of the advisory board to the Sustainable Materials and Construction Technologies (SMaCT) Research Centre in the School of Civil Engineering and The Built Environment of the University of Johannesburg. In addition to being an aspiring African change agent, Mahlatsi is an avid mountaineer who has summited Uhuru Peak on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
