Sibongile Bapela
Executive: Third Party Business
Old Mutual Investment Group/Property Investments
Tel: +27 11 537 3911
www.omigpi.com
Sibongile Bapela was born in Johannesburg and moved to Soweto when her parents secured a house in the township. She began her schooling in Soweto but realised from her interaction with children from other schools that the standard of education was not the same, so she was sent to a boarding school at the age of eight, which helped her to become independent at a very early age.
Bapela completed her matric at boarding school, where she was nominated as best science student. As there was no money for university, she trained as a teacher, later completing a BCom at Unisa, where she specialised in property. She also holds a postgraduate diploma in property management and development from the University of the Witwatersrand and completed an executive women leadership programme with the Gordon Institute of Business Science.
Bapela studied international facilities management at Pretoria Technikon. She is currently employed by Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments as an executive: third party business.
Amelia Beattie
Chief Operating Officer
Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments (Pty) Ltd
Tel: +27 21 530 4500
www.omigpi.com
Amelia Beattie, the chief operating officer of Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments (OMIGPI), is a director of several companies associated with the organisation and the R28-billion property assets it manages. Her role is to ensure OMIGPI has, firstly, the platforms necessary to gear the business for growth and, secondly, the operational efficiency enabling it to achieve a growth target of R100-billion in assets under management by 2015.
She serves on the board of a joint venture company in India, where OMIGPI is providing asset management expertise and property development and management services. She is also a director of Sethekgo Private Party (Pty) Ltd, a company responsible for design, construction, finance, operation and maintenance of the head office of the Education Department in what is South Africa’s first public private partnership. She is a member of Women’s Property Network national executive and a councillor of the Western Cape branch of the SA Property Owners’ Association.
Lisa Blane
Partner
KMH Architects
Tel: +27 11 268 6644
www.kmh.co.za
Lisa Blane is the managing partner at KMH Architects’ Johannesburg branch. She started her career as an architect at Boni & Gill Architects, where she was a member of the close corporation and partner of practice. In addition to her status at KMH, she is also an executive director at Blueprint Worx, a joint venture architectural practice focusing on large projects and parastatal clients.
Projects she has worked on recently include the Isando warehouse and office extensions; an office conversion for Bayer; a warehouse development called Corporate Park 3; a new office block in Rivonia entitled Autumn Street Offices; and the Bel Air Mall additions. Some of her awards include the Sapoa Award for Innovative Excellence in Property Development, which she won in 2007 for her project 33 on Bree, as well as the Five Star Women award, a national honour for women in the commercial property industry in South Africa. She is a member of the South African Council of Architects.
Lynette Finlay
Partner
KMH Architects
Tel: +27 11 268 6644
www.kmh.co.za
Lynette Finlay is CEO of Finlay & Associates, which provides management, development and consulting services in the commercial, retail, industrial and leisure property sectors. The value of the portfolio under management is R2,5-billion. The company also consults to various government agencies and parastatals on the release of non-core assets for private sector development. Finlay is a director and one of the founding members of Nurturing Orphans of Aids for Humanity (Noah), which began in 2001 and empowers communities to care for children orphaned by the Aids pandemic.
She also launched the Meet the CEOs series. Finlay was the first woman president of the South African Property Owners’ Association, established in 1966. She is one of the founding members of the Women’s Property Network. In 1994 she won the Five Star Women award for excellence in the commercial property industry. Previous positions include service as director of the board of the Property Services Seta, chairperson of the drafting of the property charter, and chairperson and director of the Rosebank Management District. Finlay is a qualified chartered accountant.
Pam Golding
Chairperson
Pam Golding Properties
Tel: +27 21 797 5312
www.pamgolding.co.za
Pam Golding’s passion for property is legendary. In more recent years the role of the chairperson and founder of the Pam Golding Property Group has evolved into an ambassadorial one. As a global networker and facilitator, she is committed to promoting South Africa to the world at large and marketing South African properties internationally.
And as a key member of numerous local and global government and business initiatives, she is ideally placed to forge links with high-profile leaders in business and government worldwide. Golding’s memberships and awards include the Women’s Leadership Board at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University International Women’s Forum, the Star Group (Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World), commissioner for Africa and Mauritius for Femmes Chefs d’Enterprises Mondiales, executive committee member of Business Against Crime, Desmond Tutu Peace Trust board member, a founder member of Proudly South African, and winner of the Business Personality of the Year award from the Cape Times and KPMG.
Nyameka Madikizela
President
South African Institute of Black Property Practitioners
Tel: +27 11 838 6700
www.saibpp.co.za
Nyameka Madikizela, the controlling shareholder and chief executive of iMfihlakalo Asset Management, is president of the South African Institute of Black Property Practitioners (SAIBPP), leading transformation in the property industry. In 2005 Madikizela joined Calulo Properties as a shareholder and managing director and was seconded to Calulo Property Fund Limited as chief operating officer.
Prior to that, she was executive manager: property with the National Ports Authority (NPA), and the head of property in South African Ports and Harbours. She played an instrumental role in the formation of the department of public enterprise’s property restructuring process. Her employment history includes Absa Properties and the Airports Company of South Africa. She has extensive knowledge, experience and an understanding of the challenges of structuring a black economic empowerment framework; and heads the team representing SAIBPP in the negotiation of the property transformation charter. She holds a BComm (Hons) in economics from Rhodes University.
Lauren Tapping
Executive Director: Finance SA Corporate Real Estate Fund
Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments
Tel: +27 31 366 1319
Email: www.sacorp.co.za
Lauren Tapping is a chartered accountant with more than 13 years’ property experience, with particular emphasis on the listed property sector. She is the executive director responsible for finance of the JSE-listed SA Corporate Real Estate Fund and a non-executive director of the Namibian Stock Exchange-listed Oryx Properties, its subsidiaries and management company. SA Corporate is the third-largest JSE-listed property fund and Tapping has played an important role in its strategic expansion.
Both SA Corporate and Oryx are managed by Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments. Tapping obtained her CA qualification in 1994, having received the C&D Ritson award from the Natal Society of Chartered Accountants for the top Natal Unisa BCompt Hons student the previous year. She has continued her six-year involvement running Toastmasters Youth Leadership programmes for grade 11 learners to improve the communication and leadership skills of the participants.
Marna van der Walt
CEO
JHI Properties
Tel: +27 11 911 8111
www.jhi.co.za
Marna van der Walt is CEO of property services company JHI and a past president of the South African Property Owners Association (Sapoa), the second woman in the 40-year- history of Sapoa to assume the presidency. JHI has more than R31-billion of assets and 7,7-million square metres under management, in 1 035 buildings with more than 12 700 tenants.
The company is 50,1% black-owned, which, says Van der Walt, “adds real weight to our growth strategy in government, parastatal and corporate market sectors”. Van der Walt was a finalist in the Businesswoman of the Year award: Corporate 2006, as well as the winner of the Five Star Woman award 2006, the latter presented by the Women’s Property Network, sponsored by Nedbank. Her professional qualifications include BCompt Hons and certificate in the theory of accountancy (University of the Free State), CA (SA), and MCom (financial management) cum laude at Rand Afrikaans University, now the University of Johannesburg.
Denese Zaslansky
CEO
Firzt Realty Company
Tel: +27 11 731 0300
www.firzt.co.za
Denese Zaslansky, CEO of Firzt Realty Company, has been actively involved in real estate for more than 20 years. She has received two awards from Nedbank/PA Property Professionals, the Young Lions award, and in 2004 and in 2006 the Movers and Shakers award, both in recognition of outstanding leadership qualities and inspiration for the well-being of the industry. In 2005 Firzt Realty Company was awarded the “Go for Gold” annual Business of the Year award.
In 2006 Zaslansky was appointed to the board of directors of the National Association of Real Estate Agencies. Firzt Realty Company encompasses company-owned offices and franchises and provides employment for more than 250 people. “I am proud to have created a platform to guide, train and encourage people to achieve their goals,” says Zaslansky, adding that she strives “to achieve the highest degree of ethical and professional standards” and to entrench an “empathetic culture” within the company.
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