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Mustaq Ahmed Brey
Chairman
Neville Donovan Brink
Chief Executive Officer
Ralph Buddle
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Interim Company Secretary
Peter Gerard de Beyer
Lead Independent Non-Executive Director
Mustaq Ahmed Brey
CHAIRMAN
CA(SA)
Appointed to the board in 1995
Non-executive director
Member of the Remuneration Committee and member of the Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee
Mustaq is the Chief Executive Officer of Brimstone Investment Corporation Ltd, a company that he co-founded in 1995. A qualified Chartered Accountant by profession, Mustaq also currently serves as the chairman of International Frontier Technologies SOC Ltd. He also serves on the boards of AON Re SA (Pty) Ltd, Equites Property Fund Ltd, FPG Property Fund (Pty) Ltd and House of Monatic (Pty) Ltd. He serves on and chairs various board committees, including the audit committee of The Mandela Rhodes Foundation. He is also a trustee of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation and the founder of the Saabri & Ashrafi Relief Fund.
Neville Donovan Brink
Chief Executive Officer
Marketing Management
Appointed CEO in February 2022
Fishing doyen Neville was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Company in February 2022. Neville was appointed managing director of Oceana Lobster and Calamari Fishing in 2005 and assumed the position of managing director of Blue Continent Products from 1 February 2011. Prior to that he worked in various marketing and sales positions at Adcock Ingram before moving to Federal Marine and then Oceana as marketing director of the Oceana Fishing Division. He obtained his marketing qualifications with the Institute of Marketing Management in Johannesburg.
Ralph Buddle
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Interim Company Secretary
CA (SA)
Appointed 23 February 2022
Ralph, a Chartered Accountant, was appointed Interim Chief Financial Officer of the group in February 2022 and Ex Officio Executive Director of the Board on 03 June 2022. He has over 35 years of experience across retail, utilities, consumer finance and FMCG sectors in South Africa, Australia, and the United Kingdom. During this time, he specialised in finance, M&A, strategy, governance, and investor relations. Ralph has held various senior positions, including director of strategy and business development and head of corporate finance at Woolworths. Ralph is a non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee at Evolution Credit Limited. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Table Mountain Fund.
Peter Gerard de Beyer
Lead Independent Director
BBusSc, FASSA
Appointed to the board in 2008
Chairman of the Remuneration Committee, Chairman of the Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee and Member of the Audit Committee
Peter sits on a number of boards, including Evolution Credit and certain Old Mutual Group subsidiary companies. He is a fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa. Peter joined Old Mutual in 1978, was appointed deputy managing director of Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (South Africa) in 2000 and retired in November 2008.
Non-executive directors
Aboubakar (Bakar) Jakoet
Lesego Sennelo
Nisaar Ahmed Pangarker
Nomahlubi Victoria Simamane
Nomahlubi Victoria Simamane
Independent Non-Executive Director
BSc (Hons): UBS – Botswana
Appointed to the board in 2009
Chairman of the Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee, member of the Remuneration Committee and member of the Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee
Nomahlubi is the Chief Executive Officer of Zanusi Brand Solutions (Pty) Limited. She currently serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director for The Foschini Group Limited, Cashbuild Limited, Lenmed Health Group and Hollard Insurance. She has extensive marketing and advertising experience both locally and internationally, and has served on various Marketing and Communications committees boards, including the Association of Advertising Agencies (AAA), Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA’s) Advertising Properties Committee, and UNEP’s Advisory Committee. She has also worked at BLGK Bates as Managing Director, Unilever in South Africa and Kenya as Marketing Manager and British American as Marketing Director in South Africa and USA. Nomahlubi has received various awards, including Businesswoman of the Year at the National Business Awards and BBQ and being named the Enterprising Women of the Year in Fort Lauderdale in Florida, USA.
Nisaar Ahmed Pangarker
Non-executive director
BBusSc (Finance), MBA
Appointed to the board in 2019
Member of the Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee and member of the Risk Committee
Nisaar is currently a managing executive at Brimstone Investment Corporation Limited, a company he joined in 1995 as part of the founding team. Nisaar has expertise in marketing, corporate communications and investor relations. He serves as a non-executive director on the boards of African Peoples Investment Company, Commlife Holdings, Lion of Africa Life Assurance Company, Die Suidoosterfees, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and Cape Town International Convention Centre. Nisaar is also a board member of the Brimstone Legacy Fund.
Lesego Sennelo
Independent non-executive director
BCompt, BCom Acc (Hons), HDip Auditing, CA(SA)
Appointed to the Board in 2019
Member of the Audit Committee, Risk Committee and Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee
Lesego Sennelo is a Chartered Accountant with vast experience in both the private and public sectors, spanning nearly 20 years. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Gosele Advisory Services and serves as Chairman of Onelogix Group Limited and Non-Executive Director of Assupol, Nampak and Redefine Properties Limited. Her prior Board member roles include, among others, Sasfin Holdings Limited, Foskor, Reef Tankers, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and Medshield.
She is the past President of the African Women Chartered Accountants (AWCA) Forum; a Member of the International Women’s Forum (IWF), the Aspen Global Leadership Network, Africa Leadership Initiative, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), the Institute of Directors (IoD) and an Eisenhower Fellow.
Aboubakar (Bakar) Jakoet
Independent Non-Executive Director
CA(SA)
Appointed to the Board in 2019
Member of the Audit Committee and Risk Committee
Bakar is a chartered accountant and an experienced director. He currently serves as a non-executive director on the Pick n Pay Stores Limited Board. Before that after many years of service, Bakar retired as Chief Financial Officer of Pick n Pay Stores Limited in September 2019. During this period, he held various positions, directorships and executive positions across the Pick n Pay group.
Peter John Golesworthy
Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe
Zarina Bibi
Mahomed Bassa
Peter John Golesworthy
Lead Independent Director
BA, CA
Appointed to the board in 2021
Member of the Risk Committee and Audit Committee member-elect
Peter is a seasoned leader and has held various executive and board positions. He is currently the Lead Independent Director, Chairman of the Audit Committee and member of the Investment and Risk Committees at Life Healthcare Group Holdings Ltd. He is also a member of various investment committees encompassing private equity, credit and development impact funds (affordable housing and retirement accommodation). He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa (F.Inst.D), and National Treasurer of Scripture Union.
Zarina Bibi Mahomed Bassa
Independent Non-Executive Director
BAcc and Dip Acc, CA(SA)
Appointed to the board in 2011
Chairman of the Audit Committee, Chairman of the Risk Committee and a member of the Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee
Zarina serves as the lead independent director on the Investec Group and Woolworths Holdings boards, and as a non-executive director of Mediclinic Holdings Limited and the JSE Limited. She also serves as the Audit Committee Chairman of the Investec Group.
Zarina’s previous positions include being a non-executive director and Audit Committee Chairman of Kumba Iron Ore, director of Vodacom South Africa, Sun International and the Financial Services Board. She was also the Chairman of Yebo Yethu Limited, Chairman of the Public Accountants’ and Auditors’ Board, Chairman of the Auditing Standards Board, a member of the Accounting Standards Board, a member of the JSE’s GAAP Monitoring Panel, a board member of the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants and Vice President of ABASA.
Her past executive roles were that of executive director at Absa Bank, a member of the Absa Group Executive Committee, and a Partner at Ernst & Young where she spent 17 years. Zarina was named Top Women in Business and Government in 2007 and Top Business Personality in Financial Services Banking in 2008.
Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe
Independent Non-Executive Director
BSc. and Dip. Ed, MSc. (Medicinal Chemistry)
Appointed to the board in 2021
Member of the Remuneration Committee and Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee
Thoko brings with her a wealth of strategic experience. She has held various leadership positions for more than 15 years and continues to contribute at board level. She currently holds a number of nonexecutive board positions, including Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Old Mutual Limited and Omnia Group. Thoko was named the Top ICT Businesswoman in Africa in 2005 and 2007 and Businesswoman of the year in the Corporate category. She has worked in senior positions for several worldwide pharmaceutical companies. Before establishing the Kutana Group, where she is currently the Chief Executive Officer, Thoko held senior positions at Telkom, Lucent Technologies and Siemens Telecommunications. She was also the CEO of Alcatel SA and HP SA.
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Oceana Group Limited
Neville Donovan Brink
Trevor Giles
Jillian Marais
Ralph Buddle
Ralph Buddle
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Interim Company Secretary
CA (SA)
Appointed 23 February 2022
Ralph, a Chartered Accountant, was appointed Interim Chief Financial Officer of the group in February 2022 and Ex Officio Executive Director of the Board on 03 June 2022. He has over 35 years of experience across retail, utilities, consumer finance and FMCG sectors in South Africa, Australia, and the United Kingdom. During this time, he specialised in finance, M&A, strategy, governance, and investor relations. Ralph has held various senior positions, including director of strategy and business development and head of corporate finance at Woolworths. Ralph is a non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee at Evolution Credit Limited. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Table Mountain Fund.
Trevor Giles
Group Executive: Business Development and Mergers & Acquisitions
BCom (DipAcc) (Kzn), CA(SA)
Trevor completed his articles with Deloitte (Pietermaritzburg) in 1995 and stayed on as manager before leaving to pursue a 2 year working holiday experience in London which included an 8 month contract at Imperial Chemical Industries Plc (ICI) head office. He returned to South Africa in 1999 and started his career at Oceana at BCP in May 1999. He has held various executive roles within the Group including the finance director of BCP and the Lobster, Squid and Fries division. Trevor transferred to Oceana Group in 2013 as Business Development Manager and was integrally involved in the Lusitania, Foodcorp and Daybrook acquisitions, culminating in a 7 month assignment as acting Daybrook CFO in New Orleans to assist with the transition before appointing a permanent US based CFO. He returned to Oceana in 2015 in his current position as head of Corporate Reporting and Business Development.
Neville Donovan Brink
Chief Executive Officer
Marketing Management
Appointed CEO in February 2022
Fishing doyen Neville was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Company in February 2022. Neville was appointed managing director of Oceana Lobster and Calamari Fishing in 2005 and assumed the position of managing director of Blue Continent Products from 1 February 2011. Prior to that he worked in various marketing and sales positions at Adcock Ingram before moving to Federal Marine and then Oceana as marketing director of the Oceana Fishing Division. He obtained his marketing qualifications with the Institute of Marketing Management in Johannesburg.
Jillian Marais
Group Executive: Risk and Compliance
BA LLB (University of the Western Cape)
Admitted as an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa
Appointed on 1 October 2018
Zodwa Velleman
Bronwynne Bester
Zodwa Velleman
Group Executive: Regulatory and Corporate Affairs
BA LLB (University of the Western Cape)
Admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa, B Juris and LLB University of the Western Cape, 2019 final year registered LLM (Environmental Law) student at WITS.
Appointed on 1 July 2019.
Before joining Oceana, she was the CEO of the Vaping Products Association of SA (VPSA). Prior to her role at VPSA Zodwa was Board Member, Legal, Corporate Security and Corporate Affairs Executive Director for HEINEKEN SA. She also served as Company Secretary & Executive Director responsible for Legal and Corporate Security, Brandhouse JV (a Diageo led JV with Heineken Plc and Namibia Brewery Ltd). Zodwa is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa with international experience in litigation, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, corporate and commercial law across a range of industries including Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), petrochemical, fishing and pharmaceuticals. She served her articles and also worked for Edward Nathan Sonnenberg Africa before moving to Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, America’s third-ranked law firm based in New York City. Zodwa obtained her B Juris and LLB from the University of the Western Cape and is a 2019 final year registered LLM (Environmental Law) student at WITS. She also completed course work towards her Master’s Degree with the University of Stellenbosch focusing on Corporate Governance, Advance Corporate and International Trade Law. She also graduated Cum Laude in a Gibs Leadership Development Programme.
Bronwynne Bester
Chief People Officer
Masters’ Degree in Commerce, Wits University
Appointed on 1 July 2020.
Bronwynne was appointed as Chief People Officer on 1 July 2020. She joins Oceana from Masscash, a division of Massmart, where she held the position of Human Resources Director for nine years. Prior to this she was consultant for Accenture SA and MAC Group Consulting. She was, earlier in her career, an Associate lecturer at Wits University, and has spent some time in the UK in an HR role. On her return to SA she joined Massmart Holdings as the Group Human Capital Manager.
She has an active interest and passion for organisational development and effectiveness.
Bronwynne obtained her Masters’ Degree in Commerce from Wits University.
Africa Operations
Lourens de Waal
Suleiman Salie
Ina Botha
Ina Botha
Managing Director: Blue Continent Products
BCom
Ina joined Oceana in 2017 as the Supply Chain Director and became the Executive Director in 2018. She is an accomplished executive with more than 20 years of experience in the Supply Chain, Logistics and Cold Storage industry. Ina is experienced in leading strategies for operations, supply chain management, logistics, finance, infrastructure development and partnership collaboration. She played a critical role in the growth of the business. Before this, she was the Regional Operations Executive at Vector Logistics (a division of RCL Foods) and held positions at The Cold Chain Bloemfontein (a division of ICS Group) and EY. Ina is a Global Cold Chain Alliance Member.
Lourens de Waal
Managing director
Lucky Star Marketing and Sales
HND in Cost & Management Accounting (CapeTech)
Lourens worked for I&J from 1994 to 2000 as the administration manager and then national & export distribution manager. He joined Vector in 2000, holding the position of general manager for sales and distribution while it was part of the I&J business and was then appointed as customer and supply chain director at Vector Logistics in 2007. Lourens attended the Executive Development Programme of UCT & Michigan University and is a member of several international industry bodies. He joined Oceana on 1 December 2011.
Suleiman Salie
Managing director
Lucky Star Operations
BSc Mech Eng (Cape Town)
Suleiman graduated in 1989 and joined I&J in 1990 as a graduate engineer. After progressing into management positions in the engineering and production disciplines of I&J’s processing plants, he was appointed operations director in 2004. In this position, which he held until 2010, he provided strategic leadership to I&J’s fishing operations. He represents Oceana on a number of fishing industry associations.
USA Operations
Bjorn Kwak
Bjorn Kwak
President
Daybrook Fisheries
Bjorn was appointed as President of Daybrook Fisheries in January 2022. He is an accomplished supply chain executive with over 15 years of experience in the fishing industry. Bjorn played a critical role in the success of Lucky Star, demonstrated in his tenure as Supply Chain Director for Lucky Star Marketing.
He joined Oceana from I&J, where he was the international business development manager. He was initially brought across to Oceana in 2013 as the General Manager to head up global Fish Meal and Oil sales for the Group.
He has also held positions in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, specialising in supply chain, strategic planning, business strategy and development.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Stellenbosch University.
Mustaq Ahmed Brey
CHAIRMAN
CA(SA)
Appointed to the board in 1995
Non-executive director
Member of the Remuneration Committee and member of the Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee
Mustaq is the Chief Executive Officer of Brimstone Investment Corporation Ltd, a company that he co-founded in 1995. A qualified Chartered Accountant by profession, Mustaq also currently serves as the chairman of International Frontier Technologies SOC Ltd. He also serves on the boards of AON Re SA (Pty) Ltd, Equites Property Fund Ltd, FPG Property Fund (Pty) Ltd and House of Monatic (Pty) Ltd. He serves on and chairs various board committees, including the audit committee of The Mandela Rhodes Foundation. He is also a trustee of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation and the founder of the Saabri & Ashrafi Relief Fund.
Neville Donovan Brink
Chief Executive Officer
Marketing Management
Appointed CEO in February 2022
Fishing doyen Neville was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Company in February 2022. Neville was appointed managing director of Oceana Lobster and Calamari Fishing in 2005 and assumed the position of managing director of Blue Continent Products from 1 February 2011. Prior to that he worked in various marketing and sales positions at Adcock Ingram before moving to Federal Marine and then Oceana as marketing director of the Oceana Fishing Division. He obtained his marketing qualifications with the Institute of Marketing Management in Johannesburg.
Ralph Buddle
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Interim Company Secretary
CA (SA)
Appointed 23 February 2022
Ralph, a Chartered Accountant, was appointed Interim Chief Financial Officer of the group in February 2022 and Ex Officio Executive Director of the Board on 03 June 2022. He has over 35 years of experience across retail, utilities, consumer finance and FMCG sectors in South Africa, Australia, and the United Kingdom. During this time, he specialised in finance, M&A, strategy, governance, and investor relations. Ralph has held various senior positions, including director of strategy and business development and head of corporate finance at Woolworths. Ralph is a non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee at Evolution Credit Limited. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Table Mountain Fund.
Peter Gerard de Beyer
Lead Independent Director
BBusSc, FASSA
Appointed to the board in 2008
Chairman of the Remuneration Committee, Chairman of the Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee and Member of the Audit Committee
Peter sits on a number of boards, including Evolution Credit and certain Old Mutual Group subsidiary companies. He is a fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa. Peter joined Old Mutual in 1978, was appointed deputy managing director of Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (South Africa) in 2000 and retired in November 2008.
Non-executive directors
Aboubakar (Bakar) Jakoet
Independent Non-Executive Director
CA(SA)
Appointed to the Board in 2019
Member of the Audit Committee and Risk Committee
Bakar is a chartered accountant and an experienced director. He currently serves as a non-executive director on the Pick n Pay Stores Limited Board. Before that after many years of service, Bakar retired as Chief Financial Officer of Pick n Pay Stores Limited in September 2019. During this period, he held various positions, directorships and executive positions across the Pick n Pay group.
Lesego Sennelo
BCompt, BCom Acc (Hons), HDip Auditing, CA(SA)
Appointed to the Board in 2019
Member of the Audit Committee, Risk Committee and Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee
Lesego Sennelo is a Chartered Accountant with vast experience in both the private and public sectors, spanning nearly 20 years. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Gosele Advisory Services and serves as Chairman of Onelogix Group Limited and Non-Executive Director of Assupol, Nampak and Redefine Properties Limited. Her prior Board member roles include, among others, Sasfin Holdings Limited, Foskor, Reef Tankers, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and Medshield.
She is the past President of the African Women Chartered Accountants (AWCA) Forum; a Member of the International Women’s Forum (IWF), the Aspen Global Leadership Network, Africa Leadership Initiative, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), the Institute of Directors (IoD) and an Eisenhower Fellow.
Nisaar Ahmed Pangarker
Independent Non-executive director
BBusSc (Finance), MBA
Appointed to the board in 2019
Member of the Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee and member of the Risk Committee
Nisaar is currently a managing executive at Brimstone Investment Corporation Limited, a company he joined in 1995 as part of the founding team. Nisaar has expertise in marketing, corporate communications and investor relations. He serves as a non-executive director on the boards of African Peoples Investment Company, Commlife Holdings, Lion of Africa Life Assurance Company, Die Suidoosterfees, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and Cape Town International Convention Centre. Nisaar is also a board member of the Brimstone Legacy Fund.
Nomahlubi Victoria Simamane
Independent Non-Executive Director
BSc (Hons)
Appointed to the board in 2009
Chairman of the Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee, member of the Remuneration Committee and member of the Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee
Nomahlubi is the Chief Executive Officer of Zanusi Brand Solutions (Pty) Limited. She currently serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director for The Foschini Group Limited, Cashbuild Limited, Lenmed Health Group and Hollard Insurance. She has extensive marketing and advertising experience both locally and internationally, and has served on various Marketing and Communications committees boards, including the Association of Advertising Agencies (AAA), Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA’s) Advertising Properties Committee, and UNEP’s Advisory Committee. She has also worked at BLGK Bates as Managing Director, Unilever in South Africa and Kenya as Marketing Manager and British American as Marketing Director in South Africa and USA. Nomahlubi has received various awards, including Businesswoman of the Year at the National Business Awards and BBQ and being named the Enterprising Women of the Year in Fort Lauderdale in Florida, USA.
Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe
Independent Non-Executive Director
BSc. and Dip. Ed, MSc. (Medicinal Chemistry)
Appointed to the board in 2021
Member of the Remuneration Committee and Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee
Thoko brings with her a wealth of strategic experience. She has held various leadership positions for more than 15 years and continues to contribute at board level. She currently holds a number of nonexecutive board positions, including Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Old Mutual Limited and Omnia Group. Thoko was named the Top ICT Businesswoman in Africa in 2005 and 2007 and Businesswoman of the year in the Corporate category. She has worked in senior positions for several worldwide pharmaceutical companies. Before establishing the Kutana Group, where she is currently the Chief Executive Officer, Thoko held senior positions at Telkom, Lucent Technologies and Siemens Telecommunications. She was also the CEO of Alcatel SA and HP SA.
Zarina Bibi Mahomed Bassa
Independent Non-Executive Director
BAcc and Dip Acc, CA(SA)
Appointed to the board in 2011
Chairman of the Audit Committee, Chairman of the Risk Committee and a member of the Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee
Zarina serves as the lead independent director on the Investec Group and Woolworths Holdings boards, and as a non-executive director of Mediclinic Holdings Limited and the JSE Limited. She also serves as the Audit Committee Chairman of the Investec Group.
Zarina’s previous positions include being a non-executive director and Audit Committee Chairman of Kumba Iron Ore, director of Vodacom South Africa, Sun International and the Financial Services Board. She was also the Chairman of Yebo Yethu Limited, Chairman of the Public Accountants’ and Auditors’ Board, Chairman of the Auditing Standards Board, a member of the Accounting Standards Board, a member of the JSE’s GAAP Monitoring Panel, a board member of the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants and Vice President of ABASA.
Her past executive roles were that of executive director at Absa Bank, a member of the Absa Group Executive Committee, and a Partner at Ernst & Young where she spent 17 years. Zarina was named Top Women in Business and Government in 2007 and Top Business Personality in Financial Services Banking in 2008.
Peter John Golesworthy
Lead Independent Director
BA, CA
Appointed to the board in 2021
Member of the Risk Committee and Audit Committee member-elect
Peter is a seasoned leader and has held various executive and board positions. He is currently the Lead Independent Director, Chairman of the Audit Committee and member of the Investment and Risk Committees at Life Healthcare Group Holdings Ltd. He is also a member of various investment committees encompassing private equity, credit and development impact funds (affordable housing and retirement accommodation). He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa (F.Inst.D), and National Treasurer of Scripture Union.
Oceana Group Limited
Neville Donovan Brink
Chief Executive Officer
Marketing Management
Appointed CEO in February 2022
Fishing doyen Neville was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Company in February 2022. Neville was appointed managing director of Oceana Lobster and Calamari Fishing in 2005 and assumed the position of managing director of Blue Continent Products from 1 February 2011. Prior to that he worked in various marketing and sales positions at Adcock Ingram before moving to Federal Marine and then Oceana as marketing director of the Oceana Fishing Division. He obtained his marketing qualifications with the Institute of Marketing Management in Johannesburg.
Trevor Giles
Group Executive: Business Development and Mergers & Acquisitions
BCom (DipAcc) (Kzn), CA(SA)
Trevor completed his articles with Deloitte (Pietermaritzburg) in 1995 and stayed on as manager before leaving to pursue a 2 year working holiday experience in London which included an 8 month contract at Imperial Chemical Industries Plc (ICI) head office. He returned to South Africa in 1999 and started his career at Oceana at BCP in May 1999. He has held various executive roles within the Group including the finance director of BCP and the Lobster, Squid and Fries division. Trevor transferred to Oceana Group in 2013 as Business Development Manager and was integrally involved in the Lusitania, Foodcorp and Daybrook acquisitions, culminating in a 7 month assignment as acting Daybrook CFO in New Orleans to assist with the transition before appointing a permanent US based CFO. He returned to Oceana in 2015 in his current position as head of Corporate Reporting and Business Development.
Jillian Marais
Group Executive: Risk and Compliance
BA LLB (University of the Western Cape)
Admitted as an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa
Appointed on 1 October 2018
Zodwa Velleman
Group Executive: Regulatory and Corporate Affairs
BA LLB (University of the Western Cape)
Admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa, B Juris and LLB University of the Western Cape, 2019 final year registered LLM (Environmental Law) student at WITS.
Appointed on 1 July 2019.
Before joining Oceana, she was the CEO of the Vaping Products Association of SA (VPSA). Prior to her role at VPSA Zodwa was Board Member, Legal, Corporate Security and Corporate Affairs Executive Director for HEINEKEN SA. She also served as Company Secretary & Executive Director responsible for Legal and Corporate Security, Brandhouse JV (a Diageo led JV with Heineken Plc and Namibia Brewery Ltd). Zodwa is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa with international experience in litigation, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, corporate and commercial law across a range of industries including Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), petrochemical, fishing and pharmaceuticals. She served her articles and also worked for Edward Nathan Sonnenberg Africa before moving to Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, America’s third-ranked law firm based in New York City. Zodwa obtained her B Juris and LLB from the University of the Western Cape and is a 2019 final year registered LLM (Environmental Law) student at WITS. She also completed course work towards her Master’s Degree with the University of Stellenbosch focusing on Corporate Governance, Advance Corporate and International Trade Law. She also graduated Cum Laude in a Gibs Leadership Development Programme.
Bronwynne Bester
Chief People Officer
Masters’ Degree in Commerce, Wits University
Appointed on 1 July 2020.
Bronwynne was appointed as Chief People Officer on 1 July 2020. She joins Oceana from Masscash, a division of Massmart, where she held the position of Human Resources Director for nine years. Prior to this she was consultant for Accenture SA and MAC Group Consulting. She was, earlier in her career, an Associate lecturer at Wits University, and has spent some time in the UK in an HR role. On her return to SA she joined Massmart Holdings as the Group Human Capital Manager.
She has an active interest and passion for organisational development and effectiveness.
Bronwynne obtained her Masters’ Degree in Commerce from Wits University.
Ralph Buddle
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Interim Company Secretary
CA (SA)
Appointed 23 February 2022
Ralph, a Chartered Accountant, was appointed Interim Chief Financial Officer of the group in February 2022 and Ex Officio Executive Director of the Board on 03 June 2022. He has over 35 years of experience across retail, utilities, consumer finance and FMCG sectors in South Africa, Australia, and the United Kingdom. During this time, he specialised in finance, M&A, strategy, governance, and investor relations. Ralph has held various senior positions, including director of strategy and business development and head of corporate finance at Woolworths. Ralph is a non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee at Evolution Credit Limited. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Table Mountain Fund.
Africa Operations
Lourens de Waal
Managing director
Lucky Star Marketing and Sales
HND in Cost & Management Accounting (CapeTech)
Lourens worked for I&J from 1994 to 2000 as the administration manager and then national & export distribution manager. He joined Vector in 2000, holding the position of general manager for sales and distribution while it was part of the I&J business and was then appointed as customer and supply chain director at Vector Logistics in 2007. Lourens attended the Executive Development Programme of UCT & Michigan University and is a member of several international industry bodies. He joined Oceana on 1 December 2011.
Suleiman Salie
Managing director
Lucky Star Operations
BSc Mech Eng (Cape Town)
Suleiman graduated in 1989 and joined I&J in 1990 as a graduate engineer. After progressing into management positions in the engineering and production disciplines of I&J’s processing plants, he was appointed operations director in 2004. In this position, which he held until 2010, he provided strategic leadership to I&J’s fishing operations. He represents Oceana on a number of fishing industry associations.
Ina Botha
Managing Director: Blue Continent Products
BCom
Ina joined Oceana in 2017 as the Supply Chain Director and became the Executive Director in 2018. She is an accomplished executive with more than 20 years of experience in the Supply Chain, Logistics and Cold Storage industry. Ina is experienced in leading strategies for operations, supply chain management, logistics, finance, infrastructure development and partnership collaboration. She played a critical role in the growth of the business. Before this, she was the Regional Operations Executive at Vector Logistics (a division of RCL Foods) and held positions at The Cold Chain Bloemfontein (a division of ICS Group) and EY. Ina is a Global Cold Chain Alliance Member.
USA Operations
Bjorn Kwak
President
Daybrook Fisheries
Bjorn was appointed as President of Daybrook Fisheries in January 2022. He is an accomplished supply chain executive with over 15 years of experience in the fishing industry. Bjorn played a critical role in the success of Lucky Star, demonstrated in his tenure as Supply Chain Director for Lucky Star Marketing.
He joined Oceana from I&J, where he was the international business development manager. He was initially brought across to Oceana in 2013 as the General Manager to head up global Fish Meal and Oil sales for the Group.
He has also held positions in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, specialising in supply chain, strategic planning, business strategy and development.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Stellenbosch University.
