Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards ......Mpho Booysen, Pierre Boshoff, Zweli Kula FINALIST PROFILES 6 | Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition

Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship

Recognition Awards

2015

Recognising and showcasing the Western Cape’s entrepreneurial achievers

1 | Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards 2015


OVERVIEW

The Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards is sponsored by:

Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards 2015 | 32 | Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards 2015

FINALIST PROFILES

BEST EMERGING BUSINESS

[email protected]

072 728 7954

When the owner of an electrical contracting firm started designing

the odd LED lighting product for a few of his existing customers,

a new passion was uncovered. As word got out about these

custom-designed lighting solutions, the demand grew to the

extent that fulfilling his passion left insufficient time to devote to

managing the electrical contracting business, and a new business,

Techtrend, was born.

Techtrend focuses on LED product design – mainly problem-

solving designs. Potential customers approach the company for a

product where a solution is not available on the market, or where

the available solution is too expensive or unsuitable. In contrast

to other LED companies that import and assemble lighting

components, Techtrend now designs and manufactures unique

lighting for the industrial, commercial and agricultural industries

from its premises in Atlantis.

TECHTREND

Eckehard Sixt


Phyto Pro was started when its owner, a medical doctor in

search of an anti-inflammatory, non-allergenic protein solution to

recommend to patients as part of their healing plans, came across

pea protein. The first customers were the patients in the doctor’s

clinic and, based on their positive reception, food and nutrition

products made with pea protein were then introduced to a wider

market, and a business was born.

This emerging business now provides consumers who are looking

to replace part or all of their animal protein-based foods (for

PHYTO PRO

Yesheen Singh

health, ethical or environmental reasons) with a clean, green, complete protein solution.

The product is manufactured and packaged in Cape Town and distributed nationally

through health shops and select retail outlets.


[email protected]

084 742 7567

LEARNING LAB APPS

Adrian Marnewick, Dereck Marnewick, Mike Schulz

[email protected]

021 558 2523

Learning Lab Apps develops web- and mobile-based educational apps to make learning

and teaching easier. Its first app, WorksheetCloud, which was launched in November

2014, provides learners, parents and teachers with access to thousands of CAPS-based

school worksheets for revision purposes. WorksheetCloud also allows parents to keep

track of their child’s progress and the app suggests areas where the child should focus

his/her attention. The company has subsequently launched a free Maths app called

MyMathsApp, which helps learners practise addition, subtraction, multiplication and

division. The current focus of Learning Lab Apps is on the South African primary and

high school market, with plans to integrate curricula from other countries in the near

future.

BEST EMERGING REGIONAL BUSINESS

HERMANUS CLOTHING MANUFACTURING

Mpho Booysen, Pierre Boshoff, Zweli Kula

FINALIST PROFILES


[email protected]

082 802 7549

Founded in 2014, this CMT (Cut, Make

and Trim) operation based in a Greenfield

location has already succeeded in securing

orders for ladies’ garments from some of

South Africa’s biggest fashion retailers.

In setting up the business, every effort

has been made to provide not only job

opportunities, but also skills training for

poorly educated and unemployed people

from the local community. Consequently,

as many as 73 people are already employed

in the business. The business is run on

participative management principles

and every effort is made to ensure that

all employees are engaged in driving the

success and future growth of the company.

BEST EMERGING AGRO-PROCESSING BUSINESS

FINALIST PROFILES

GREEN HEALTH INNOVATIONS (ESPINACA INNOVATIONS)

Lufefe Nomjana


[email protected]

021 836 6940

Espinaca Innovations produces a range of items, primarily baked

goods incorporating spinach, and sells them from a container

shop alongside a busy intersection in Khayelitsha. To keep up

with demand, the company has recently increased production

to also supply a few external retail outlets.

The owner sources his vegetables from organic micro-farmers

through the Abalimi Bezekhaya Harvest of Hope, ensuring

that the agricultural produce is sourced locally. Apart from his

business ambitions, the ‘Spinach King’ hopes to inspire township

residents to develop healthier lifestyles by incorporating more

vegetables in their diets and where possible, by encouraging

them to start their own food gardens.

[email protected]

021 300 0501

BEST EMERGING TOURISM BUSINESS

CAPE CANOPY TOURRyan Larkman

FINALIST PROFILES

Sometimes a young business can be years in the making! After

10 years of scouting for the perfect nature location in which to

set up a canopy experience, the owners’ eyes were opened to

the majesty of the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve. After a

few more years of discussion with CapeNature in order to get the

necessary permissions, construction of this engineering feat took

a year to complete.

Cape Canopy Tour now takes clients by 4x4 high into the

Hottentots Holland Mountains. Here it makes use of a series of

cables to slide guests between the cliffs and past waterfalls on

an exciting tourism adventure. The whole tour is fully guided and

showcases the awe-inspiring Western Cape natural environment.

The tour has gained rapid popularity and the Lonely Planet travel

guide has named the Cape Canopy Tour second in its list of

hottest new experiences for 2015.


BEST ESTABLISHED BUSINESS

FINALIST PROFILES


TRACTOR OUTDOOR

Murray McWilliams

[email protected]

086 999 0226

Established in 2001, Tractor Outdoor (TO) offers brands out-

of-home advertising opportunities across South Africa. The

advertising mediums offered include iconic and traditional

billboards, beach media, transit advertising and innovative projects

and activations. These bespoke, out-of-home media solutions not

only provide unique advertising opportunities to brands, but also

provide non-traditional revenue streams to commercial property

owners, schools and NGOs. TO has done numerous international

projects and services for some of the globe’s largest brands.

In order to keep up with demand for its bespoke advertising

opportunities and growing portfolio of advertisers and agencies,

TO operates from offices in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape

and Gauteng and is currently planning on opening an office in

KwaZulu-Natal.

NCC ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

Linden Rhoda

BERGENDAL ROOIBOS

Liezl Jantjies, Ronel van Zyl, Mark Hendricks

Bergendal Rooibos, a rooibos processing

plant and a joint venture between the

Bergendal Workers’ Trust, Carmien Tea

and the Bergendal Farming Operations,

started in 2006. Based near Citrusdal on the

Piekenierskloof escarpment, in an area where

many people only have the option of obtaining

seasonal work or ad hoc jobs, Bergendal

Rooibos (a 53.2% black-owned company)

strives to provide sustainable jobs and wealth

creation for the Bergendal farm workers.

The company has a custom-built facility where it processes and packages large volumes of

Rooibos procured from Bergendal and other farms in the surrounding areas. The tea is then

either supplied in bulk to selected clients or as part of the extensive range of rooibos tea, which

is marketed under the Carmien brand and distributed through various retail outlets locally and

internationally.


[email protected]

021 702 2884

[email protected]

022 921 8811

Founded in 2003, NCC is an environmental consultancy that

focuses on the provision of conservation and biodiversity services,

environmental management, health and safety consulting services

and training and development programmes. The organisation is a

trusted partner to major engineering and construction firms, mines,

parastatals, film and event production companies, municipalities,

provincial and national government, NGOs and conservation bodies.

NCC has designed or participated in some fascinating interventions

including the well-known Shark Spotting initiative along the False

Bay Coast, the Baboon Monitoring project around the Cape Peninsula and in ensuring the

Absa Cape Epic mountain bike race stays green. Work undertaken in other provinces has

been varied, but includes mitigation of environmental risks at Medupi and rehabilitating the

area of the Wild Coast that was used as a film set during the shooting of Blood Diamond.

BEST INNOVATIVE BUSINESS

FINALIST PROFILES


MANMAKEMACHINE

Ian Duvenage

[email protected]

083 628 7736

The concept for this business, which focuses on the ideation,

prototyping and development of leading-edge hardware

technologies, started four years ago at UCT.

Initially doing once-off consulting for a few local clients,

ManMakeMachine now works with multiple large corporate clients

in South Africa and Kenya in designing, developing and supplying

innovative hardware solutions. While the business started as

an attempt to understand the interplay between software and

hardware, and connecting that to the cloud, the company now

enables the development of technology products in Africa, for

Africa, through using the creative and engineering skills that are

available locally. It takes pride in the fact that some of its home-

grown hardware designs have been featured on CNN and BBC.

STEEPLE

David de Waal

[email protected]

021 100 0025

Steeple was started in the Bandwidth Barn technology incubator

in Cape Town in 2012 with the aim of using technology to make

the real estate sales process more efficient and cost effective for

sellers.

The company now offers a service that allows it to sell properties

throughout South Africa from a single office in Cape Town.

Steeple’s small staff complement provides the critical estate

agency services online and by phone (assistance with valuation,

marketing, negotiation and taking care of the paperwork) whilst

allowing the seller to do the simple task of showing potential

buyers around his or her home. The cost saving is then passed on

to sellers in the form of very low commissions (generally around

1.5% in comparison to 5-7% usually charged by traditional agents).

AGRIPROTEIN

David Drew

[email protected]

021 422 1887

AgriProtein diverts hundreds of tons of organic waste from

landfill every week, using the nutrients to grow flies and their

larvae – maggots – the natural feed for chickens and fish.

Each ton of its product thereby allows up to three tons of fish

(ground up into fishmeal and used in agricultural feed) to be

left in our seas.

This Western Cape business is at the cutting edge of agri-

technology as it makes use of robots in its locally designed

manufacturing plant to facilitate fly and larvae growth in biotech

conditions. Ultimately, AgriProtein aims to redefine the protein

supply chains globally and create a nutrient recycling industry

with the potential to eliminate organics to landfill completely.


BEST JOB-CREATING BUSINESS

FINALIST PROFILES

askOsca

Clint Crowster

[email protected]

021 705 0653

Operating from the owner’s home in Grassy Park, askOsca

provides recruitment and business process outsourcing services

to local, US and UK companies. The business was started when

the owner decided to transfer the skills he had acquired during

16 years of working in the contact centre industry to unemployed

youth in Cape Town.

OSCA (Online Sales Coaching Application) allows for people to

be coached online and once the trainees have developed the

necessary skills, they are assisted in compiling a professional CV

and are placed in a live call centre environment so that they can

apply their skills and be taken through a mock interview process.

After two years, the business employs 30 people who work with

clients in the UK, US and locally and who make calls to people in

all the Nordic countries, Germany, Italy and Spain. Some of these

locally trained staff are now top agents for their respective clients.


MPOWER WASTE

Peter Petersen

Started in 2007, this waste collection and recycled plastics

manufacturing business initially operated from Blackheath near

Cape Town as a purely manufacturing business. When reviewing

sites that would enable the business to reduce its rental and

operating costs, the owner undertook to take the impact of job

creation on the surrounding community into consideration.

Today Mpower Waste is based in Van Rhynsdorp, approximately

300 km from Cape Town, in a local community where up to

80% of the population were previously unemployed. When

the business was started, it employed 14 full-time and 40 part-

time employees. Today the business employs 89 full-time and

55 part-time employees – one person from every household in

the surrounding community. Ensuring that every household in

the immediate vicinity now has at least one income has had a

wider socio-economic impact as crime and substance abuse have

decreased in the area.

[email protected]

027 213 1416

OT JOINERS

Burger Kraemer, Vincent den Ouden

OT Joiners was founded in 2012 when the owners identified a

gap in the Western Cape market for the supply of laminated

timber beams. Setting up a manufacturing operation is a capital-

intensive business, but the company has not only managed to

generate a profit from the first year, but also created 26 full-

time jobs. It focuses on continuous skills training for employees

and plans to create an additional 16 jobs within the next couple

of years.

The management team is also focusing on improving the

environmental sustainability of the business through the

installation of a 60kW PV solar plant and by implementing zero

waste programmes focusing on reuse of by-products from its timber business. [email protected]

021 931 1240


BUSINESS WITH GLOBAL REACH

FINALIST PROFILES

TRIGGERFISH ANIMATION

Stuart Forrest

Started in 1996 as a boutique stop-frame studio servicing the

pre-school education and commercials market, the company

relaunched as a computer-generated animation facility in 2006.

Today Triggerfish Animation conceives, develops, produces and

distributes original animated feature films that are translated into

over 27 languages and licensed in around 150 countries around

the world.

Previous feature films have collectively generated more than $75

million in gross revenues across box office and home entertainment

and, having collaborated with Disney on its Africa-wide Story Lab

initiative in order to unearth African stories, it plans to develop at

least six new scripts based on the best entries received. Triggerfish

has recently produced a BBC Christmas special and is extremely

busy with a number of other exciting, yet confidential, projects.

[email protected]

021 713 4008


RARITY HANDBAGS

Jaqueline Burge

Initially a manufacturer of ostrich leather products, the owner of

Rarity was approached by a farmer’s wife who explained that

farmers usually burnt springbok skins as there was no commercial

use for them. The woman then enquired whether it would be

possible to make handbags from the skins instead.

Intrigued by the idea, Jaqueline bravely set up a small factory

to manufacture these handbags after discovering that no local

manufacturer was willing to work with the hides. With a limited

budget and little knowledge of international business, she set out

to develop a new line of business. Today, African-inspired Rarity

Handbags are exported to over 14 countries and have even been

proudly carried by royals attending royal events in Europe!

[email protected]

021 448 1934

Ti-TaMED

Debbie Katz

[email protected]

021 510 8382

Ti-TaMED is a manufacturing company that specialises in the

development and manufacture of a spinal implant system as

well as high-precision OEM items, mostly out of titanium, highly

specialised stainless steels, and other exotic materials.

The first deformity correction surgery using the Ti-TaMED system

was done in Cape Town in 1998. One of the components in its

spinal system has been internationally patented and the company

holds international certifications to manufacture a range of highly

specialised, precision-engineered products, for example, medical,

aerospace, satellite and marine components that are sold locally

as well as exported to the USA, Sri Lanka, Romania, the Middle

East, Europe, the UK and New Zealand.


FANCAM

Tinus le Roux

Tinus le Roux, Schalk van der Merwe and James Taylor met

as first-year students at the University of Stellenbosch and

after completing their respective studies, they soon started

collaborating on a number of projects and ventures. In 2009,

they started experimenting with gigapixel imaging. Within

weeks of creating a highly successful 4 gigapixel image of Cape

Town, plans were being made to extract commercial value out

of this new trend in composite imaging, and so Fancam was

born.

Today Fancam captures the crowd at large events in one single

high-definition image, which is made available online for fans

to tag themselves and share via social media. The 360-degree

interactive image ("Fancam") is then used as a platform on

which the sponsor's brand is seamlessly integrated to serve as

a digital advertising medium. Currently 96% of the company’s

revenue is derived from advertising sales to clients in the US,

Asia and Europe. [email protected]

021 913 9297


BEST SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

FINALIST PROFILES

TOWNSHIP PATTERNS

Nicole Iresch

When the founder of Township Patterns first visited the homes

of women in Khayelitsha in the early 1990s, she was amazed at

the colour and vibrant patterns on display (in combinations that

she found surprising). To create the township® range some years

later, a group of Paris-based designers interpreted and translated

recurring township colours, patterns, shapes and textures into

distinctive print designs.

To date more than 120 local women have received sewing skills

and business training and there are now eight autonomous co-

operatives (employing 60+ women in total) that earn an income

sewing Fair Trade bags and fashion accessories for the company.

The Township Patterns items are not only popular with South

Africans and visiting tourists, but are exported to a number of

international stockists. In an exciting development, an order of

25 000 bags was recently supplied to the biggest medical

congress in Europe.

[email protected]

021 534 8558


TSiBA CAREER CENTRE

Graham Moore

[email protected]

021 532 2750

Focusing on the recruitment and placement of unemployed

youth and early career professionals into employment, TSiBA

Career Centre was started as a means of generating scholarship

revenue for TSiBA students. As a private education institution

for youth from disadvantaged communities, TSiBA Education

NPC had traditionally been donor dependent. In order to improve

its sustainability, TSiBA is actively building additional revenue

streams to support its mission.

TSiBA Career Centre not only places people in employment, but

also provides workplace preparation and readiness interventions

for unemployed youth and graduates. In operation for a little over

a year, the Centre has already attracted international funding for

a work readiness programme and has secured a contract with

one of South Africa’s largest retailers to provide entry-level and

trainee-management staff to all branches in the Western Cape.

VULA MOBILE (MAFAMI)

William Mapham

[email protected]

072 330 2441

Inspired while volunteering for 10 months at the Vula Amehlo

Eye Clinic in Swaziland, a Cape Town ophthalmologist decided

to develop an app to assist health workers in rural areas access

specialist medical advice on eye conditions. Launched in June

2014, the Vula Mobile App connects health workers in remote and

underserved areas directly with specialists who are able to assist

in diagnosis and recommend treatment options or provide urgent

referrals in the case of serious conditions.

In the short time that the app has been available, it has not only

assisted patients to obtain better treatment, but has empowered health workers to

recognise less common eye conditions and better understand which conditions warrant

referral to a specialist. Although the bulk of the app users are in South Africa currently,

there has been a demand from a number of other African countries and from health

workers as far afield as Sri Lanka and New Zealand.


BEST GREEN BUSINESS

FINALIST PROFILES

BRIGHTHOUSE SOLAR

Gabriella Garnett, Devin Race, Nicholas Bestbier, Leigh de Decker, Mark Bleloch, Jenna Bleloch

[email protected]

021 794 4953

When a couple in Constantia became the first home owners to sign an individual power

purchase agreement with the City of Cape Town (for generating power in a residential

area and exporting the surplus back to the City’s grid for credit), they were unprepared

for the ensuing media interest. Having been inundated with enquiries from people who

sought to understand more about residential power generation, they realised there was

a gap in the market for the design and installation of rooftop solar photovoltaic systems,

and a business was born.

Still operating from their house in Constantia, the owners of BrightHouse Solar are

promoting the grid-tied model, in an industry where most players are pushing self-

generation and on-site battery storage, without feedback to the city. Education on

renewable energy and energy efficiency now goes hand in hand with product sales.


COLD GOLD ARTISAN ICE CREAM

Janine van Zyl

[email protected]

074 182 5510

In late 2011, a trained chef decided to introduce 100% natural ice

cream and sorbet to the Western Cape. Using local, sustainable

ingredients and practices and catering for those with specific dietary

requirements, Cold Gold Artisan ice cream is not only delicious, but

free from preservatives, artificial additives and chemicals.

Initially the ice cream was made in the owner’s flat, but when word

got out and orders from markets, delis and restaurants started rolling

in, she secured premises in Stellenbosch and hired assistants.

POSTWINK RECYCLING SOLUTIONS

Berenice Westmore

Postwink’s wide range of recycling bins encourages separation of

waste at source, looks good even in sophisticated offices and educates

staff, patrons and students about sustainable living.

When the owner left her position as an actuarial analyst to start her

own business, she initially focused on importing the large European

recycling containers into South Africa. However, when it became

apparent that only a few recycling collectors in South Africa had

trucks that were suitable for lifting the European containers, she was

forced to innovate. Postwink subsequently developed a recycling

[email protected]

021 447 8783

igloo suited to the South African context – one that all collectors can empty by using manual

labour and a small vehicle. This innovation allowed Postwink to get involved in the initiation of

numerous recycling projects, for example the Woolworths-Engen forecourt recycling initiative

and the Bitou Municipality kerbside recycling project.

The company has continued to innovate and now supplies a large range of recycling bins,

varied recycling services and signage, as well as a new planet-friendly enzyme cleaner called

the Bacterrorist.

Although the business has grown and there are now over 800 different flavours of ice cream,

the owner has stayed true to her intention to produce products that are completely natural.

The business makes every effort to recycle, minimise waste and source from local, ethical and

where possible, fully organic suppliers.


BEST INNOVATIVE STUDENT BUSINESS IDEA

FINALIST PROFILES

CUPPA CAMPUS

Dewald Müller

The idea for Cuppa Campus started in 2013 when the owner,

then a first-year student at Stellenbosch University, realised that

walking around campus with a cup as if you were having a coffee

on-the-go had become a status symbol. He then installed Nescafe

Coffee vending machines at different spots on campus to provide

students with hot beverages at affordable prices.

By the time that 5 000 cups per month were in circulation on

campus, the owner saw that these cups could be used to advertise

those businesses that target the student market.

Cuppa Campus approached selected companies and offered

them the opportunity to advertise their logo on the coffee cups.

QR codes were also printed on the cups and the Cuppa Campus

website provided further information on the profiled companies.

Applying the principle of cross-subsidisation, the company

subsequently used some of the marketing income to enable

it to sell the beverages at below competitive prices, thereby

increasing the number of cups sold per month. When the sale of

hot beverages dropped during the summer months, it launched a

line of bottled water by using a similar concept.

[email protected]

076 842 5486


GROWTH OP

Bianca Vernes

The Grow Up Garden is a concept aimed at making micro-farming

affordable, accessible and efficient by providing consumers with

an all-inclusive vertical food growing system.

The first pilot of the latest design is being conducted and a low-

run manufacturer has been identified. The plan is that an initial

launch would be made on Kickstarter and the first run of products

would enable further market testing. The longer-term plan is that

the Grow Up Garden will be sold online and at selected retailers,

and will be delivered initially to all major cities in South Africa.

Customers would be able to order customised soil as well as

organic seed strips as part of their package. The website will be

interactive and comprehensive with easy-to-follow video tutorials

on how to assemble and utilise the Grow Up Garden as well as

gardening tips. [email protected]

084 269 6444

TutorX

Adrian Peter Bunge

TutorX aims to provide a personalised and interactive education

solution through online video calling together with a shared white

board. The plan is to link learners to a national database of student

tutors attending South Africa universities. The online facilitation

of tutoring overcomes a significant logistical barrier between the

learner and tutor. This increases the number of tutors available to

learners, which would enable better learner-tutor matching and

substantially reduces the cost of tutoring. By recommending the

most contextually compatible tutors, it is more likely that the tutor

will be able to understand the challenges that the learner is facing.

A working prototype of the voice calling and shared whiteboard

forms part of the app/website and has already been developed

in partnership with another company. Work is currently being

done on the sign-up, tutor browsing interface and the payment

gateway components of the website/app, which will be launched

before the end of 2015. [email protected]

074 102 6646


BEST SCHOOL BUSINESS IDEA

FINALIST PROFILES

Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof (Stellenbosch)

Entrants: Jana de Villiers, Louise Buhrmann (Smart Alarm)

The idea of the Smart Alarm is that a means of security could be

offered to people in low-income houses at an affordable cost. After a

Smart Alarm is installed, the home owner/occupier would nominate

a number of people living in close proximity to his/her house to be

“guardian angels” and these guardians would be notified via cellphone

if the alarm is triggered. In this way, the monitoring and response

costs associated with traditional alarms could be eliminated.

As the alarm would be built using cellphone technology, the power

requirements for setup and operation would also be minimised.

[email protected] (Headmistress)

021 887 3044 (school)

Hugenote Hoërskool (Wellington)

Entrant: Karel van Niekerk (Karel’s Hockey Shop)

When he was in Grade 8 at Hugenote Hoërskool, Karel who is the

youngest of three brothers, noticed that his mother always had to

travel to Cape Town to buy hockey equipment as there was little

available in Wellington, the town where he lives.

He made an arrangement with a supplier to supply a range of hockey

goods on consignment, which Karel then sold to people in the Boland

town. Now in Grade 11, Karel’s Hockey Shop is a thriving business, so

much so that he is one of the sponsors of his school’s first hockey

team and his equipment is also sold in other towns in the Boland.

[email protected]

021 873 2111 (school)


Bernie BerkowitzBernie is the provincial manager for Absa Enterprise Development. His

area of responsibility is driving the enterprise development agenda

for the group in the region. He played a key part in the rollout of the

successful market linkages platform for SMEs (an Absa procurement

portal). Bernie has 19 years’ service with Absa Bank, mostly in frontline

sales and relationship banking.

Erica ElkErica is the executive director of the Cape Craft and Design Institute

and has been with the institute since it was founded in 2001. Prior to

that, she worked as a project manager for the Cradle of Humankind

and the Rapid Phase Group and as a press officer for a national

government minister. More recently, she was a member of the World

Design Capital 2014 board.

Jeanne Groenewald Jeanne, founder of Elgin Free Range Chickens, was the overall winner

of PERA in 2014. A gifted entrepreneur, Jeanne started modestly in

1997 by rearing chickens in her backyard and has, over the years,

grown her chicken farming endeavours to a formidable company that

today provides employment to about 300 people.

Judi SandrockJudi is the co-founder and joint CEO of MEDO, an organisation that

focuses on enterprise and supplier development. Judi has long been

involved in various aspects of enterprise development having been

the CEO of the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship and the head of

small business hubs for Anglo Zimele.

Mike HerringtonMike is the executive director of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

(GEM), regarded as the world’s largest study on entrepreneurship. He

is also the Team Leader of GEM South Africa and is currently based

at the Faculty of Commerce, University of Cape Town. His extensive

business experience includes senior management positions at a

number of companies both in South Africa and New Zealand, as well

as founding and selling two entrepreneurial ventures of his own.

PERA 2015JUDGES


Philip MaraisPhilip is the CEO of LaunchLab, a mixed-use incubator based at

Stellenbosch University. Prior to joining LaunchLab, Philip founded

Heirheads, a business coaching and mentoring company that is still

operational. His varied background includes software development,

venture capital investment and business consulting.

Rob GilmourRob is the co-founder and managing director of RSAWEB, an internet

services provider and web-hosting company. He founded the popular

Net Prophet conferences for start-ups and is currently a board

member of numerous organisations.

Simon MantellA born and bred Capetonian, Simon started his working career in 1976

as a 13-year-old door-to-door salesman marketing mirrors after hours

to home owners in the newly built Mitchells Plain. A mixture of fate

and opportunity in 1988 provided him with the seed capital to be able

to establish Mantelli’s, which evolved from a pasta and ice cream retail

business into a biscuit factory that manufactures premium biscuits

and supplies major national retailers, private label clients as well as

large corporates in the food service channel.

Tessa PhilpTessa leads the business development and marketing function for

Deloitte in the Western Cape and has also worked for PWC and KPMG

in senior business development and marketing positions. She loves

meeting entrepreneurs and has been actively involved in the Western

Cape Funding Fair.

Chris LouwChris is the Western Cape regional manager of the National

Empowerment Fund (NEF). Prior to that, he worked in banking for

many years and was employed by both Nedbank and Standard

Chartered Bank.

Sedick JappieAn entrepreneur with decades of experience, Sedick is the founder

and director of Superior Cabinet Doors, a manufacturing company

that employs 65 people. A winner of the Rapport/WECBOF

Businessperson of the Year (1997), Sedick has been a board member

of Wesgro, WECBOF, TABEISA and the Cape Town Regional Chamber

of Commerce and Industry. He has also served as the chief adjudicator

for both the Santam Schools Entrepreneurial Programme and the

WECBOF Businessperson of the Year Competition.



The Premier’s Entrepreneurship Awards is hosted by:

Department of Economic Development and TourismDirectorate: Enterprise Development10th Floor, NBS Waldorf Building80 St George’s MallCape TownTel: 021 483 8768

www.westerncape.gov.za


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Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards ......Mpho Booysen, Pierre Boshoff, Zweli Kula FINALIST PROFILES 6 | Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition