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.

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.

Cobus Stofberg is a founder member of M-Net in 1986. He served as CEO of the MIH group from 1997 to 2011, and has been instrumental in the expansion of the group. Prior to joining M-Net, he was a partner of Coopers & Lybrand (predecessor of PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc.). He holds a BComLaw and LLB from Stellenbosch University, BComptHons from Unisa and qualified as a chartered accountant (SA).

Martin is responsible for the Classifieds operations at Naspers, entered around OLX, 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 had 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 aspects such as strategy, finance, product management, operations and sales. Martin has worked in all life-cycle phases, from starting a greenfield operation to managing a mature internet company with a large staff and big financials. Moreover, Martin has chosen to broaden his professional impact by publishing in five languages some of his thoughts on best-in-class problem solving with Thinking Backwards. He has seven years’ consulting experience with 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.

Nazeer studied at the University of the Witwatersrand where he completed his degree in accounting. He went on to complete his honors degree and became a qualified chartered accountant. Nazeer took on the position of articled clerk at Coopers & Lybrand in Johannesburg and stayed on through the merger of that firm with Price Waterhouse where he spent four years. Thereafter, Nazeer joined arivia.kom (an IT services provider) as group financial manager. Next, he moved to the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (he was hired as CFO but soon got promoted to COO). In Aug 2011 Nazeer joined the Group. He served as CFO for SuperSport and in 2014 was promoted to chief financial officer of MultiChoice SA. Towards the end of 2014 he moved up to head up the MultiChoice South Africa Group 2014 and was promoted to CFO for VE in 2015 and now is holds the position of chief of strategy for video entertainment.

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 hold a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of KwaZulu Natal. He has served in 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 comes highly recommended. She has a Bachelor of Commerce Honours from the University of Natal (2001) and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. Previously Uvashni was the Vice President Finance/Chief Financial officer for BHP Billiton’s Global Manganese and Iron Ore Divisions (2008 - 2015). Since February 2015, she was Vice President Finance/Chief Financial Officer for South32’s (Demerger from BHP Billiton) 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.

Glen Marques began his career with the Naspers group in 1997 as director of Business Development for SuperSport.In 1999 he was appointed Chief Operations Officer of SuperSport. Prior to joining the group, he was the Head legal adviser to the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and Executive Director of the National Association of Broadcasters. He was appointed as M-Net CEO in May 2000 a position he held until April 2008 when Glen was appointed CEO of MediaZone Inc based in San Francisco. In 2009 the business was relocated to South Africa and consolidated into DSTV On-Line, Glen was then appointed as CEO of Myriad Programming Services and oversees all the entertainment programming and channel acquisitions for the Pay-TV group.

Mark is a chartered accountant who served his articles at KPMG. He held various finance-related positions in the Bidvest Group (including group financial controller of Bidcorp Plc – a London Stock Exchange-listed transport group – and finance director of Dartline Limited – a short-haul shipping line). Mark joined the Naspers Group in March 2007 as the chief financial officer of DStv Mobile and was appointed CEO in October 2008. He oversaw the introduction of various mobile television services across the African continent under the DStv Mobile banner before moving on to MultiChoice South Africa as COO in October 2013. He was appointed CEO for MCSA in May 2016.

Esmaré Weideman obtained the qualifications BCom and BJournalism Hons (both cum laude) at Stellenbosch University. She has more than 25 years of experience as a journalist, political writer, news editor and editor at some of the country’s most prestigious publications. She was editor-in-chief of Media24’s flagship weekly magazines, Huisgenoot, YOU and DRUM, before being appointed Media24 CEO in 2011. She is a director of Media24 and Novus Holdings (previously Paarl Media Group).