Category: Members News

Gareth is currently the Finance Executive at Liberty Two Degrees, where he is responsible for the finance function, treasury and investor relations. He has been with Liberty Two Degrees since it listed in December 2016 and was part of the team that worked on the initial listing.

He is a CA(SA) and completed his articles at Deloitte, during which time he was appointed as a Partner in the Financial Institutions Services Team. Since departing Deloitte in 2008, he has gained broad experience in the financial services sector and has completed the MBA at Gordon Institute of Business Science. In addition, he attended the SAPOA PDP course in 2019 and currently serves as a member of the SAPOA Audit and Risk Committee.

Darren Wilder is currently the CEO at Fairvest Property Holdings Limited and has over 30 years’ experience in all aspects of the property industry. His various portfolios include Asset Management, Property Management, Leasing, Property Development and Management. He worked for Seeff Properties in various positions from 1991 until 1997. In 1997 he was appointed to the board of the then JSE-listed company, Capital Alliance Properties, and was a participant in its management buy-out. Wilder was part of the team that listed Spearhead Property group on the JSE and was appointed COO in 1999. Darren’s work experience also includes National Leasing Director for Madison Properties, Business Development Director of the V&A Waterfront and a Consultant to the Chief Executive Officer of the V&A Waterfront.

Morné is a qualified Industrial Engineer spent the first ten years of his career in property finance, deal structuring and corporate finance at Rand Merchant Bank.

In 2008 he joined Atterbury and later became Chief Operating Officer of Attacq in 2009. Morné was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Attacq in 2011 and served in this position until December 2017. Before joining Hyprop in 2019, Wilken was Chief Executive Officer at MAS Real Estate.

Steven Brown entered the property industry after completing his articles as a Listed Property Analyst in 2008 at Corovest. Later on, he joined Standard Bank’s Global Markets division in the equity derivatives finance team and thereafter moved to the South African Real Estate division focusing on structured lending and equity transactions.

From 2013, Brown has been involved with a number of listed real estate companies focusing on deal origination and structuring. He joined Fortress REIT Limited from Capital Property Fund after the acquisition in December 2015.

Paul Duncan holds a Bachelor of Business Science in Finance, an MBA and is a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst.

Duncan began his career in real estate as a Commercial Real Estate Broker with the Broll Group. He later moved to London to work in the investment banking sector for five years before returning to South Africa in 2003.

Paul joined Catalyst Fund Managers in 2004, where he was an Executive Director and Investment Manager until 2015. In 2015 he co-founded Catalyst Alternative Investments (Pty) Ltd.

Yusuf Mowlana holds a Bachelor of Business Science and is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst. He is currently responsible for all property funds at Prudential Investment Managers. Additionally, Yusuf co-manages the Prudential Equity Fund and the institutional general equity funds for South African and Namibian clients.

Mowlana spent the first five and half years of his investment career at Allan Gray, covering companies across various sectors, before joining Prudential in October 2018. Prior to that, he worked at Deloitte, where he completed his articles.

Amelia Beattie holds a BCom and is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS). She has 21 years’ experience in the property sector.

Amelia has been the Chief Executive at Liberty Two Degrees since the company’s listing in December 2016. Prior, she worked at Old Mutual Property in various positions, including Chief Operations Officer and later in 2012, she joined STANLIB to establish the institution’s Direct Property Investment business.

Beattie was the President of the South African Association (SAPOA) from 2014 to 2015, former Chair of Women’s Property Network (WPN) and served as a trustee for the education trusts of WPN and SAPOA until 2018.

Andrea Taverna-Turisan has a BSc Honours in Mathematics and Management. In 2006 he established his own property development company and built up a substantial portfolio of modern logistics assets for his own account over the eight years. These assets became an important component of the Equites portfolio on listing.

Taverna-Turisan has extensive development expertise of which some was gained while he worked in the UK.

Desirée Nafte joined Hyprop in 2011, and before that, she was a practising attorney.

Nafte entered the commercial property industry in 2001 as a Legal Advisor, specialising in property law as well as landlord and tenant law.

Gerald Völkel is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years’ experience. Prior to being appointed Financial Director and Executive Director of Growthpoint Properties in 2013, he spent 12 years at JD Group Limited where he worked as Group Financial Director and later as Chief Financial Officer.

Gerald began his career in the auditing industry, where he was an Audit Partner of Ernst & Young for four years.

Leon Kok is a Chartered Accountant with an excellent blend of operational experience, sound business acumen and technical accounting knowledge. He was appointed Redefine’s Financial Director in 2014 and is responsible for all aspects of finance, legal and human resource management, as well as support the Chief Executive Officer in corporate activities, regulatory compliance and investor relations

Before joining Redefine, Leon spent 13 years at Peermont Global where held various positions, the last being Chief Operating Officer.

Rob Hawton joined Vukile in May 2015 and is currently the Financial Director of Southern Africa. Prior to joining Vukile, Rob spent eight years as the Head of Finance and Support for the Real Estate Investment Division within the Corporate and Investment Bank of the Standard Bank Group. Prior to that, Rob held various finance positions within Investec Bank, Barclays Africa, Tourvest Retail Travel and Credit Suisse (London).

Rob holds a BCom Honours in Accounting and a Master’s degree in Financial Management. Hawton is a Chartered Accountant and completed his articles with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Estienne de Klerk is a qualified Chartered Accountant with 25 years’ experience in the listed property sector. During the 25 years, he has been involved in various corporate action such as take-overs, mergers and acquisitions, transformation deals and capital raises. De Klerk started his career at Eskom Durban Distribution in a marketing role. In 2002, he joined the Investec Property Group’s property fund management business where he was appointed Fund Manager and Executive Director of Metboard. Later on, he became Executive Director and Group Managing Director of Growthpoint before being appointed Chief Executive Officer (SA). Estienne is Chairman of the SA REIT Association and a longstanding member where he served as Chairman of the Taxation and Regulatory Committee since SAREIT’s inception. He is a former President of the South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) and represented the industry in the Property Sector Charter negotiations.

Raj Nana completed his bachelor’s degree in Accounting at the University of Witwatersrand and served his articles with the FirstRand group.

During his career in investment banking, Raj was employed at RMB and Barclays Africa Group Limited where he worked in the sectors of property finance, corporate debt and acquisition and leveraged finance.

Prior to joining Attacq in April 2014, Raj was a leveraged finance transactor. Raj joined Attacq’s Executive Committee on the 1st April 2016 and was appointed as the Attacq Group, Chief Financial Officer, in June 2018.

Ian Vorster completed articles at PKF Johannesburg Inc and qualified as a chartered accountant in 2006. In 2007 he joined the PKF Corporate Division, where he was appointed a partner in 2009. Following the PKF and Grant Thornton Johannesburg merger in 2015 Ian was appointed the Head of the Grant Thornton Corporate Finance Division.

Vorster has extensive experience in due diligence investigations, valuations, fairness opinions – in terms of the Companies Act and the JSE – and Reporting Accountants’ work in respect of companies listed on the JSE.

Monica Muller completed her articles at Deloitte where after she qualified as a chartered accountant. While working at Deloitte, she was then appointed Manager in the audit division in 2010 and was later promoted to Senior Manager in 2012.

She joined Resilient in October 2013 as a Financial Manager and was appointed as the CFO in March 2020.

Pinny Hack obtained a Bachelor of Business Science degree from the University of Cape Town and is a qualified chartered accountant. He was involved with the listing and international expansion of Stor-Age Property REIT where he served as the company’s Head of Finance and Treasury for eight years.

Prior to his current role, Pinny was an audit manager at KPMG and was involved in the audit of numerous listed property companies.

Laurence obtained his bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of Witwatersrand in 1993 and his bachelor’s in Accounting in 1995 from UNISA. He has more than sixteen years’ experience in listed property asset management in South Africa, having previously served as CFO of retail-focused REIT Hyprop Investments from 2003 to 2018. Cohen joined Vukile in March 2019 and was appointed to the board as CFO in July 2019.

Laurence has extensive experience in various aspects of property asset management, including REIT regulation, IFRS and JSE reporting, deal structuring, debt and treasury management and investor relations. He was instrumental in the publication of the first BPR and previously chaired the Accounting and JSE Committee and served on its Executive Committee.

Geoff Jennett is a qualified chartered accountant with over 20 years’ deal-making experience in the financial markets, particularly in the structured capital markets and the corporate equity derivatives spaces. Prior to joining Emira he has worked at FNB Corporate, Coronation Capital, Nedbank Capital and Absa Capital, and was the financial and operations director of Honey Fashion Accessories.

Geoff joined Emira in November 2014, becoming Chief Financial Officer with effect from 1 January 2015 where he was later appointed CEO in September 2015.

Howard is a real estate transactor at Fortress REIT Limited, Lighthouse Capital and Resilient REIT Limited. He has extensive property sector knowledge where he has been involved in the sourcing, securing and executing of 340 million euros worth of physical real estate transactions across Europe. Penny has experience in the deal structuring, listing, capital raising and corporate finance initiatives.

Howard is a top-rated analyst and equity sales at RMB Morgan Stanley and Macquarie.

Heloise Mgcina obtained her BCom from UNISA and has a track record of over 20 years in marketing and communications with expertise in brand management, digital marketing, sponsorship management and strategic communication.

She has worked across several industries including telecommunications, professional services and banking and on multiple brands such as Vodacom, Procter & Gamble and WesBank.

Her role entails strategically positioning the L2D brand to the market, while providing insights and direction across the portfolio.

Riaan Gous has an LLB and was previously a director of one of the predecessor firms of Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Inc. where he gained extensive exposure to real estate transactions. He then spent some 10 years as an executive director of the Arabella Group and was actively involved in the development of their property portfolio.

His legal knowledge in the property sector has proven invaluable in the listing process and the many significant transaction Equites has concluded to date.

Nazeem Ebrahim has a B.Soc.Sci. and a B. Proc and in 1996 was admitted as an Attorney to the High Court of South Africa. He has been involved with the Board of Oasis Group Holdings in an advisory capacity since its inception in 1997.

Nazeem’s professional experience includes over twenty years of business and professional legal practice. He is an official member of the Industry Supervision Standing Committee of the Association of Collective Investments of South Africa. He has served on the Board of the Institute of Retirement Funds, the Association of Collective Investment Schemes, and the Investment Managers Association of South Africa. Ebrahim completed formal qualifications from the Graduate School of Business Administration of the University of Witwatersrand which qualifies him to serve as a Director on the ALT X Board of the JSE.

Preevan Moodley is an accomplished professional executive with extensive experience. He began his career in 2000 and gained experience within the financial services, motor, hospitality, agriculture and foods – and related sectors. These has allowed him to develop the skills to utilise a very focused performance driven and people-based approach when dealing with operations within the South African and Rest-of-Africa region.

Jackie van Niekerk Jackie has over 14 years’ experience in the property industry and prior to joining Attacq she was the Chief Executive Officer of Pivotal.

At the end of 2016, she successfully concluded the merger between Pivotal and Redefine Properties. Jackie joined Pivotal Property Fund in 2009 and became the youngest and only woman Chief Executive Officer in the property sector at the time, growing the fund to a R12 billion listed development fund.

She established Pivotal’s offshore strategy by successfully concluding the merger of Mara and Delta Africa to create the MaraDelta Africa fund and acquired an equity stake in Echo Property Polska based in Poland.

Van Niekerk joined Attacq in 2017 as Chief Operating Officer Attacq and was appointed to the Attacq board in June 2018

Professor Kola Akinsomi has over 15 years’ experience in the property sector and holds a PhD in Real Estate Finance and MSc in Real Estate from the National University of Singapore as well as a BSc in Real Estate Management with Honours from Oxford Brookes University, England. He has been a visiting researcher at the National University of Singapore, University of Tokyo, Japan and the University of Western Sydney, Australia. Kola is the Vice-President and board member of the African Real Estate Society and on the board of directors of the International Real Estate Society. He is on the Advisory Forum of the South African Council for Property Valuer and Profession (SACPVP). In addition, Kola is the Chair of the future leaders of the American Real Estate Society (FLARES). He has served on the program committees for the African Real Estate Society, American Real Estate Society and European Real Estate Society conferences.

Naeem Tilly is a qualified chartered accountant and CFA charter holder. After obtaining his Bachelor of Accountancy degree at the University of Witwatersrand, he began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and has 13 years’ experience in the listed property sector. Before joining Sesfikile, Naeem was an Executive Director and senior listed property analyst at Avior Capital Markets, where he was awarded the Financial Mail’s top-rated analyst award for

Ndivhuho Netshitenzhe obtained her undergraduate degree in Economics and Politics from Rhodes University and has two Masters’ degrees: one in Economics from University of Pretoria and a second in Finance from Cambridge University. Ndivhuho has 7 years’ experience in the property sector and began her career at the South African Reserve Bank, where she joined as a graduate in 2013 in the Financial Stability department. Since then she has worked on macroeconomic policy, helping develop South Africa’s macroprudential policy and financial stability monitoring framework.
In her current role at STANLIB which was effective in 2019, Ndivhuho is responsible for conducting macroeconomic research and forecasts with a focus on South Africa and China. As a research economist, she has authored a number of research papers which have been presented at The Economic Society of South Africa conferences.

Phil Barttram has an MBA from UCT’s Graduate School of Business, with over 26 years’ experience in financial services in both London and South Africa.
Phil’s previous role as an Executive Director at MSCI, enabled him to work with investors across Africa and the Middle East, providing him with a unique perspective of Real Estate investment strategy and portfolio optimisation.
Phil is a recognised authority in the South African Real Estate sector, with a record of profiling innovative concepts and analysis at national and international conferences and through media platforms. He has held a directorship position at IPD (SA); been part of the SAPOA Research Committee as well as worked at Old Mutual Properties as Head of Property Research.

Pranita Daya is a qualified chartered accountant and obtained her BCom Accounting degree from the University of Witwatersrand and her BCom Honours at the University of Johannesburg.
Pranita completed her 3 years of articles at KPMG in the consumer markets and retail sector, where her biggest clients were the Business Connexion Group, And Beyond Holdings and Yum Restaurants, amongst others. She also holds a JSE Registered Trader certification with the South African Institute of Financial Markets and is currently working towards obtaining her CFA designation having completed CFA Level 1 thus far.