Iaan van Heerden (Chairperson)
Non-executive director
BLC, LLB, LLM, H-Dip International Tax
Date of appointment: 05 September 2023
Iaan is a commercial lawyer by training and has more than 20 years’ relevant experience (specifically in banking, mergers and acquisition, finance, corporate law and regulatory matters). He practiced as an attorney, notary and conveyancer for a number of years post qualification, whereafter he joined Arthur Andersen in 1999. He remained with KPMG for 5 years after its merger with Arthur Anderson, advising many JSE Top-40 and multi-national clients and headed up the Johannesburg Corporate Tax business until his resignation in 2007. Iaan then joined Rand Merchant Bank’s Corporate Finance division as a senior executive. As part of the team, Iaan originated, structured and executed several landmark merger and acquisition transactions. Iaan was appointed as an Investment Banking Director at RMB in 2015 and served in that capacity until his resignation in 2019. During this time, Iaan advised clients across a wide range of industries. He has deep technical skills and understands the governance, regulatory and statutory environment in which listed companies operate. * Iaan is a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee.
Faith Khanyile
Lead independent non-executive director
BA Economics (Honours), MBA Finance, H-Dip Tax
Date of appointment: 01 November 2022
Faith has been serving on the Boards of publicly (JSE) listed, private companies, SME's and not-for-profit companies over the past 20 years in the following sectors - financial services (insurance, corporate and investment banking), mining and energy, business services, property (REIT), manufacturing, retail and education. She has also served on the following board sub-committees - Audit & Risk, Social & Ethics, Remuneration & Nominations and Investment committees. Faith is currently a non-executive director of JSE-listed Discovery Limited, Bidvest Limited and the JSE Limited. She is also the Chair of the WDB Growth Fund (an impact private equity fund that supports the growth of black and black women owned SME's) and a member of the Gender Based Violence Fund, a not-for-profit fund formed by the private sector, with support from the South African President, to raise funds to fight the gender-based violence scourge in South Africa. * Faith is a member of both the Audit and Risk and the Social and Ethics Committees.
Kobus Gertenbach
Executive director and Chief Executive Officer
BCompt (Honours), MCom, CA (SA)
Date of appointment: 01 April 2021
Kobus joined Premier in 2011 with more than 20 years’ experience in the financial industry. Prior to joining Premier, Kobus spent 6 years in the investment team at Brait and 7 years in restructuring, turnaround and consulting in the USA.
Fritz Grobbelaar
Executive director and Chief Financial Officer
BCompt (Honours), CA (SA)
Date of appointment: 02 August 2021
Fritz has over 19 years' experience in senior financial roles across various industries including manufacturing and agri-processing. Prior to joining Premier, Fritz spent 6 years as the Chief Financial Officer of Country Bird Holdings and the Commercial Director at RCL for Rainbow Chickens and Epol Feeds. Fritz leads the finance, IT, legal, business intelligence, procurement, and logistics functions at Premier.
Harish Ramsumer
Independent non-executive director
BCom, Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting, CA(SA)
Date of appointment: 09 May 2022
Harish is an experienced business executive with 33 years of experience in auditing and as an assurance partner for listed, multinational and privately owned entities. He managed the PwC Assurance practice in KZN for 8 years with a successful record of driving business development, growing the PwC (KZN) practice year on year, across a variety of different industry sectors and managing a team of over 300 partners and staff. The Assurance division included external audit, risk advisory services, IT audit, finance and accounting and tax compliance. Harish has industry experience in FMCG, private healthcare, automotive, freight and logistics and complex manufacturing entities. He was appointed a member of the PwC Africa Assurance Exco and the PwC Africa Assurance Strategic Committee. He also served on the PwC Southern Africa Governing Board. Harish is a member of the SAICA National Council and the Eastern Region.
* Harish is the Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee.
Wandile Sihlobo
Independent non-executive director
BSc (Agricultural Economics), MSc (Agricultural Economics)
Date of appointment: 22 June 2021
Wandile is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity, and Agriculture”. He is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand. Wandile was appointed as a member of President Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019, having served on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture from 2018. He is also a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA), a Commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) as well as a board member at the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), Grabouw Development Agency and Seriti Institute. Wandile is a columnist for Business Day, The Herald and Farmers Weekly magazine. * Wandile is the Chairman of the Social and Ethics Committee.
Jonathan Matthews
Non-executive director
BBusSc Finance (Honours), CA(SA), CFA
Date of appointment: 11 March 2020
Jonathan has over 16 years private equity and corporate finance experience, gained at Ethos, Actis, The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London. He has been involved in a number of different businesses in South Africa and on the rest of the African continent, across a range of sectors, including consumer, logistics, financial services and industrials. Jonathan sits on the Ethos Executive Committee and is the Managing Partner of the Ethos Africa business and also has responsibilities in the Ethos Large Equity Fund. * Jonathan is the Chairman of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee and a member of the Social and Ethics Committee.
Daan Ferreira
Independent non-executive director
BCom (Honours), BCompt (Honours), CA(SA)
Date of appointment: 12 December 2023
Daan has held numerous financial and executive roles, where he gained extensive experience in operational and financial management,
group accounting and tax matters. He joined Astral Foods Limited in 2001 as Group Financial Manager and has been instrumental, amongst others, in setting up group reporting structures for financial management and statutory reporting, group tax matters and establishing internal financial policies. In May 2009, he was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Astral, a position he occupied until his retirement in February 2023. * Daan is a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee.
Peter Hayward-Butt
Alternate non-executive director (Jonathan Matthews)
BBusSci (Agricultural Economics), MSc (Development and Agricultural Economics)
Date of appointment: 11 November 2022
Prior to joining TRG in April 2023, Peter was Partner: Head of Strategic Projects for Ethos Private Equity and the CEO of both Brait and Ethos Capital. He was a member of the Executive Committee and served on all investment committees for Ethos. Prior to joining Ethos in 2015, he was the Co-head of Investment Banking at Rand Merchant Bank. Peter was responsible for the conceptualisation and establishment of RMB Morgan Stanley which has become the leading stockbroking business in South Africa. Peter was lead advisor on many of South Africa's largest mergers and acquisitions and equity capital transactions. He was a member of the Executive Management Board at RMB and was a member of the bank's Investment Committee. Prior to joining RMB, Peter was head of Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory for ABN Amro Asia.