Theme: Between2Ends

South Africa’s social and economic development needs are particularly layered and nuanced. Problems are notoriously difficult to solve, and solutions often polarising. Consider the opposite ends of the country’s socio-economic spectrum—the not-for-profit end, offering social value, motivated by benevolence; and the for-profit end, offering economic value, motivated by profit. The situation begs more than one question: Why do we choose to rely so heavily on such extremes to meet our development needs? And, what should we make of the middle, the seemingly empty space between the two ends? We learnt, in a clear and concise talk delivered last year by author Kerryn Krige, that in fact the space between the two ends is anything but empty. It is here where the rich and promising world of social entrepreneurship lives, and thrives.

GIBS
26 Mellville Road
Illovo
Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2196
South Africa

Bongi Mkhabela

CEO

Christoph Castellaz

Christoph Castellaz has more than fifteen years of international work experience with special focus on the healthcare sector and emerging markets. He has broad experience across multiple roles and functions in driving transformational change, executing growth strategies, developing people, driving local relevant innovation with an end-to-end approach and managing a business. He was educated in Austria (Vienna University of Economics and Business) and the UK (Warwick Business School) and continuous learning through executive courses in UK (Ashridge/ Hult International Business School), Netherlands (Maastricht School of Management) and US (Harvard Business School). Work/live experience in Austria, UK, France, Netherlands, Russia, South Africa and Germany

Dudu Mkhwanazi

CEO of Project iSizwe, public policy analyst, free WiFi activist | Twitter: @DuduMkhwanazi | Web: http://www.projectisizwe.org/

Masingita Masunga

“The world does not go out of its way to accommodate the disabled,” says Masingita Masunga. “You have to get used to that and just take on the everyday challenges.” That she was born with Cerebral Palsy – the tragic consequence of a lack of oxygen during her birth at a clinic in rural Limpopo, South Africa – is completely incidental, to Masingita at least. She presents her own TV show, manages her own media company, and is a regular speaker at schools, churches and conferences. For 10 years, she was the CEO of Miss Confidence, a beauty pageant for people with physical disabilities. Currently, she is the driving force behind the #Africa40440 and #R1PaysMyFees campaigns. These projects respectively seek to contribute to the decolonisation of education, and to help open up access to higher education, for the African child.

Nickey Janse van Rensburg

Lecturer

Roche Mamabolo

Author, entrepreneurship guru, startup revolutionist. Twitter: @rochemamabolo | Web: http://loracentre.com/

Sharron L. McPherson

Former investment banker and Wall Street attorney turned social impact investor and serial entrepreneur Sharron L. McPherson is Executive Chair and co-founder of The Center for Disruptive Technology. Sharron is putting to work the knowledge and global network she developed during 25 years operating across the continent to solve Africa’s biggest challenges. Creating a tech-enabled collaborative innovation platform that enables African experts, ideators and disruptors to create a measurably better future is the Center for Disruptive Technology ‘s mission. The experience of participating in Singularity University's (SU) Global Studies Programme and serving as a SU Faculty member informed her decision to help orchestrate African innovators and investors. Sharron is a founding director of Women in Infrastructure Development & Energy (WINDE) Consortium, Africa’s largest women in infrastructure investment group. She also teaches at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business in Project Finance. She’s a pioneer in NEXUS thinking for smart city development and has been instrumental in the planning and development of an innovative Africa Smart City 2.0 project in Kwa-Zulu Natal, with the potential to benefit over 3,000 women-owned SMEs. Sharron was a founding board member of the Graca Machel Trust’s Women in Finance network, New Faces, New Voices and is a member of the Brains Trust of UnitedSucces, a global network of high impact women entrepreneurs. She sits on Katerva Awards Council for Social Innovation. In 2015, she was recognized by the Tony Elumelu Foundation for the development of BigIdeas.Africa, a framework that leverages digital media to make social impact invention more accessible in Africa. An accomplished public speaker and moderator with a lifetime interest in building better communities through social investing, Sharron has addressed a wide range of audiences including TEDx (Tokyo), the World Economic Forum on Africa, the Clinton Global Alliance, the Abraaj Forum and a host of leading international forae on topics that include: Women in Technology, Sustainable Investment, Nexus Thinking, Smart Cities, Future Schools and The African Youth Dividend. She earned a Doctorate Degree in Law (Columbia University), an honor degree in Finance from the University of Toulon (La Garde, France) and a B.A. in Economics (College of William & Mary).

TO Molefe

Writer