About

Koos Bekker led the founding team of the M-Net/MultiChoice pay-television business in 1985. He was also a founder of the cellular telephony group MTN.  Koos headed the MIH group in its international and internet expansion until 1997, when he became chief executive of Naspers and lead the group until 2014. He serves on the boards of other companies in the wider group.  In April 2015 he succeeded Ton Vosloo as non-executive chair of Naspers. He holds a BA Honours and an honorary doctorate in commerce from Stellenbosch University, an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MBA degree from Columbia University, New York.

Mark Sorour joined the Naspers group in 1994, heading up business development and corporate finance globally. Following a tour of duty in Hong Kong and Amsterdam, he returned to Cape Town as group chief investment officer and had the responsibility for all global investment activities. On 26 February 2018 Mark retired after more than 20 years with the group. Mark remained on the board as a non-executive director. Mark is a qualified chartered accountant (SA) holding a BCom and DipAcc.

Fred Phaswana holds the qualifications MA (Unisa) and BComHons (Rand Afrikaans University, now University of Johannesburg), and obtained a BA (philosophy, politics and economics) from Unisa in 2010. He joined Naspers as a director in 2003. He is joint chair of the Mondi Group and former chair of The Standard Bank Group and of Standard Bank of South Africa Limited. 

Rachel Jafta holds the degrees MEcon and PhD, and is a professor of economics at Stellenbosch University. She joined Naspers as a director in 2003 and was appointed a director of Media24 in 2007. She is a member of the South African Economic Society, director of Econex, chair of the Cape Town Carnival Trust and a member of the management committee of the Bureau for Economic Research at Stellenbosch University. She is a member of the human resources and remuneration committee of Media24 and chair of the nomination committee of Media24. She was appointed chair of the Media24 board in April 2013 and on 9 June 2015 she was appointed to Naspers’s audit and risk committees. In 2015 she was appointed to the international advisory board of Fondação Dom Cabral Business School, Brazil.

Don Eriksson is a chartered accountant (SA) and an honorary life member of the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa (IoDSA). Mr Eriksson is chair of Oakleaf Insurance Company Limited, Insurance Outsourcing Managers Holdings Limited, Renasa Insurance Company, and the remuneration committee of Discovery Health Medical Scheme. He also serves as an independent non-executive director of Naspers Limited and chairs the Audit, Risk and Social and Ethics committees of the Naspers Group. He served on the council of IoDSA for a number of years and was a partner at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc.).

Debra Meyer is professor of biochemistry and executive dean of the faculty of science at the University of Johannesburg. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Davis, where she obtained a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology. She has completed modules in media strategy and academic leadership at Harvard and Gibs (University of Pretoria) and makes regular contributions to several newspapers and magazines. She serves as trustee or board member of several organisations.

Craig Enenstein is the CEO of Corridor Capital, LLC, an operationally intensive private equity firm focused on the lower middle market. Corridor Capital, LLC is based in Los Angeles and was founded by Mr Enenstein in 2005. He holds an MBA in finance (Wharton School of Business), an MA International Studies (Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania) and a BA (University of California, Berkeley).

Ben van der Ross, who holds the qualification DipLaw (University of Cape Town) and is an admitted attorney. He also serves, inter alia, on the boards of FirstRand Limited, MMI Holdings Limited, Distell Limited and Lewis Group Limited.

Martin is responsible for Classifieds operations at Naspers, managing the OLX Group portfolio which includes dubizzle, Avito and letgo. He holds an MSc in Engineering from Delft University and an MBA from INSEAD. In seven years prior to Naspers, he held a variety of senior roles in internet companies, first at eBay and then at Schibsted. During this tenure, he accumulated extensive experience in all relevant business functions such as strategy, finance, product management, operations and M&A. Martin has worked in all life-cycle phases, from starting a greenfield operation to managing a mature, multi-national internet company. He has also written about business problem solving in his book, Thinking Backwards, which was published in five languages. Prior to starting his career in technology, he worked for seven years in business consulting at McKinsey.

Laurent was appointed CEO PayU in January 2016. He is responsible for global operations and brings extensive knowledge of digital payments and high-growth markets to PayU. He concluded an 11-year career at PayPal as Vice-President and General Manager for Continental Europe, where he successfully led the launch of PayPal in Africa, Israel, the Middle-East, and Russia. Laurent started his career as a business analyst at McKinsey, before founding TalentManager in 1999. TalentManager is a leading recruitment software provider and he spent three years growing the business, successfully selling the Italian operation. Laurent holds an MBA from the London Business School and is a graduate of Bocconi University in Italy (CEMS Master, International management).

Oliver is CEO B2C ecommerce which includes etail, marketplaces and travel. He joined Naspers in January 2009 as head of business development in South-east Asia before managing e-commerce in Africa and Middle East shortly after. From 2011 to 2014 he oversaw e-commerce in South-east Asia, India and Africa. Between 2014 and 2015, he was managing online services segments including e-tail outside of Europe, travel, real estate, and mobile services. Before working for Naspers, Oliver spent nine years at eBay – first in his home country Germany and then as part of the Asia-Pacific region in China, Korea, and South-east Asia. There, he mostly focused on strategy, business development, as well as category management and marketing operations. Oliver studied economics in Berlin, Germany.

Larry is CEO for Ventures and also responsible for group ecommerce strategy. His team identifies emerging trends, acquiring and operating disruptive platforms for the group. He has more than 20 years of professional experience and more than a decade with leading, global internet companies. Before joining Naspers Larry was VP and General Manager New Ventures at Trulia, a leading US online real estate marketplace. Previously, he spent eight years as senior executive at eBay, responsible for strategy and general management of many of its global marketplaces and classifieds assets. Prior to eBay, he spent several years as strategy advisor for leading global consumer goods companies. Larry started his career at the US Federal Reserve Board and holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Charles is responsible for the group's listed internet assets, including Tencent Holdings Limited; a leading Chinese Internet company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and Mail.ru; a leading Russian Internet company listed on the London Stock Exchange. He joined the Naspers group in 1998 in Hong Kong where he held the position of chief investment officer for the group’s internet division. Prior to joining Naspers, Charles held senior corporate finance and M&A positions at Cable & Wireless, Hong Kong Telecom and Deloitte. Charles is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

Imtiaz was the director of Professional Cricket at the United Cricket Board of South Africa before joining SuperSport in 1999. In March 2005, he was appointed as chief executive officer of SuperSport. In 2010 he was appointed as Group CEO of MultiChoice South Africa. Imtiaz was appointed as CEO of Video Entertainment for Naspers in October 2015. He was responsible for the transformative broadcast rights deal with the PSL (Premier Soccer League) and received the prestigious Naspers Phil Weber award in 2009.

Calvo joined MultiChoice in 2011, having been with the Group since 2006. His first role in MultiChoice was as an Executive in the Chairman's office and in 2013 as Head of Stakeholder and Regulatory Affairs. He has a strong background in the broadcasting industry having started his career at Sentech as an Engineer, his transition into regulatory began when he joined ICASA as Broadcasting Spectrum Manager. Calvo holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of KwaZulu Natal, Management Advancement Programme (MAP) from Wits Business School and a Post Graduate Diploma in Economics for Competition Law from King's College (UK, London). He has served on a number of Ministerial Advisory Task Teams, including the Digital Migration Working Group, Digital Dzonga and the ICT Policy Review Panel.

Brand joined MultiChoice Africa in November 2015 as Strategy and New Business Director, in January 2017 he was appointed CEO. He is a Chartered Accountant who previously was CEO of the PSL (South African Premium Soccer League) and the Marc Group - an investment Group focused on commercialising sport and marketing rights in Africa.

Uvashni holds a Bachelor of Commerce Honours degree from the University of Natal (2001) and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. Previously, she was the Vice President Finance/Chief Financial officer for BHP Billiton’s Global Manganese and Iron Ore Divisions. Prior to that she was Vice President Finance/Chief Financial Officer for South 32’s Australian Region.

Gerdus holds a B.Eng. degree in electronics and completed his honours in industrial engineering at the University of Pretoria. A registered professional engineer, Gerdus also completed the Harvard Senior Executive Programme. Prior to his current position, Gerdus was vice-president of solutions and customer service at Irdeto BV (a Naspers owned conditional access vendor, based in the Netherlands). While there, he successfully expanded Irdeto's business in China before joining MultiChoice as chief technology officer in 2002. He’s been in his current position since 2013 and has a string of achievements to his name (including the launch of the world's first dual view decoder and the 2008 launch of the first high definition services on the African continent). During 2010-14, he was responsible for a large, multi-country digital terrestrial transmitter network project, which enabled GOtv's business to roll out across sub-Sahara Africa. Most recently, he spearheaded the team that developed and launched the popular DStv Explora PVR.

Roy Masamba joined the company in 2017 as Chief Human Resource Officer for Video Entertainment. Roy has held a variety of HR leadership roles and has lived and worked in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Angola, Nigeria, Bahrain, UK and The Netherlands. He holds a BSc. (Hons) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Zimbabwe, and an MBA from Cranfield University in the UK.

Yolisa Phahle began her career in broadcasting at the BBC in the United Kingdom where she worked in the newsroom as a studio manager (later moving into production). A classically-trained musician, Yolisa performed, composed and arranged music for some of the biggest names in the industry. She joined M-Net in 2005 as general manager for Channel O and in 2008 was appointed channel director for local channels SA (where she launched the Mzansi Magic portfolio). In 2015 Yolisa was appointed as CEO of M-Net and in 2017, CEO of General Entertainment. She holds an MBA from GIBS Business School.

Gideon has a number of qualifications including: a national diploma in accountancy, a postgraduate diploma in integrated marketing communication, a foundation management program certificate, a B.Com degree (specialising in marketing management), a postgraduate diploma in marketing management, and a master’s degree (specialising in strategic marketing). Prior to becoming CEO of SuperSport, Gideon was director of M-Net general entertainment channels (M-Net, M-Net Edge, M-Net City and M-Net Family). During his time with the Group, Gideon has driven a number of very successful key projects: he launched the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards, launched and rebranded the African Magic Channels, launched M-Net Family and M-Net City. He also helped to develop a number of key shows: Tinsel, Idols East and Southern Africa, Star Gist, Big Brother Africa and most recently The Voice SA. He has been with the MultiChoice Group since 2008 and has held roles as Head of Marketing and Publicity for M-Net Africa and Director for Research and Business Intelligence for M-Net South Africa.

Ishmet Davidson joined Media24 in 2012 as head of community newspapers. He became the head of its news division in 2014, after which media distribution company On the Dot and Media24’s magazine division were added to his responsibilities. He has 16 years’ experience in the media industry and among other qualifications, holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an MBA from the Edinburgh Business School at Scotland’s Heriot Watt University. He became CEO of Media24 on October 1, 2018.