WEEKEND 2019

18 - 19 OCTOBER 2019 | UCT GSB CONFERENCE CENTRE

THE WORLD

The UCT GSB Alumni Relations department welcomes you to the 2019 Alumni Reunion. This annual event provides a platform where keen-world changers come together to re-unite and engage.

The theme this year is “The

World in 2050”. This year the

theme looks to the future, as

we explore possibilities of what

the next 50 years might hold.

What possibilities lies ahead

in 50 years? How can we and

our businesses benefit from

changes to come.

We thank you for your

presence today and look

forward to engaging in

fruitful discussions during the

networking session.

We now invite you to sit back,

relax and enjoy the programme.

-

UCT GSB Alumni Relations Department

- THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS -

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE REUNION WEEKEND

Welcome to the annual UCT GSB Alumni

Reunion Weekend. We are delighted

to host you this year at our brand new

conference centre – a wonderful venue

that is enabling us to showcase the

UCT GSB’s exceptional and expanding

academic ecosystem and research

excellence to a global audience.

The opening of this new venue has

been one of several high points for the

school in 2019. The year started with

news that we successfully secured

EQUIS re-accreditation from the EFMD,

thereby cementing our status as one

of just 89 schools worldwide that have

triplecrown accreditation – an important

demonstration of our international

relevance and quality standards.

This year we also moved up in the

Financial Times Rankings for our

Customised Programmes and both our

MBA and EMBA have been recognised

as among the best in the world in

the QS Global Rankings. The school

also became the first in Africa to be

awarded Gold in the prestigious EFMD

Excellence in Practice Awards for a case

study on a development programme

co-designed with Standard Bank and

several case studies generated by our

UCT GSB Case Writing Centre have won

global awards in recent months.

You, our alumni community, are of course

a significant part of the reason why

the UCT GSB continues to thrive and,

though we are a small school, to make a

big impact on the world. I thank you for

taking time out of your busy lives to invest

in your connection with the school. The

great strength of an alumni community

lies in its ability to connect us.

We are always looking for ways to

strengthen our network and give

you more opportunities to connect

and grow and we have a fantastic

programme lined up for you this

weekend so please take part and enjoy!

Kosheek Sewchurran

Assoc. Prof and Interim Director of the UCT GSB

Fellow alumni,

It is with a deep sense of gratitude for our

school and everything it has given us that

I welcome you to the 2019 GSB Alumni

Reunion Weekend.

This decades-long annual tradition is the

GSB’s foremost alumni event, and its chief

objective is to add value to our school’s

greatest asset – the alumni network.

To that end, whilst I have no doubt that this

weekend’s lectures will make for insightful

learning, I would like to encourage you to

use this reunion as an opporunity to forge

new friendships whilst rekindling old ones.

Sincerely,

Kosta Kontos

MBA 2009/2010Alumni Board Chairperson

PROGRAMME

08:30 - 09:00 Registration and Refreshments

09:00 - 09:10 GSB Director Kosheek Sewchurran Welcome

09:10 - 09:12 Dr Tim London EMCEE

09:15 - 09:45

Dylan Piatti Senior Manager, Deloitte Africa: Retail, Consumer and Manufacturing Industry

Topic: : Dancing with Robots & Digital Trade in Africa

09:50 - 10:20Nwabisa Mayema Entrepreneur, speaker and founder of nnfinity

Topic: The Future of the World is in Africa

10: 25 - 10:55Merle O’Brien Founder, Creation Lab

Topic: The Unthinkable Future - Scenarios for the World in 2050

11:00 - 11:10 Short break

11:15 - 11:45

Simon Dingle Technologist, fintech entrepreneur, broadcaster and experience designer

Topic: In Math We Trust

11:55 - 12:20

Adriana Marais Founder of #ProudlyHuman, and Director at the Foundation for Space Development

Topic: Off-World: Above and Beyond

12:20 - 13:00

Moderator: Nadine Mayers

Panelists:Dylan PiattiMerle O’BrienNwabisa MayemaAdriana Marais

Moderated Panel Discussioncentred around the different topics covered by the speakers

13:00 Lunch, Wine and Networking

SPEAKER

Dylan PiattiSenior Manager, Deloitte Africa: Retail, Consumer and Manufacturing Industry

Topic: Dancing with Robots & Digital Trade in Africa

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A growth strategist & expert relationship

partner, Dylan Piatti has over 13 years’

experience working in start-ups, SMME’s

and corporate. He helps clients navigate

business complexity, create value, solve

wicked problems and disrupt thinking

through the ‘art-of-the-possible’.

Dylan sits on the Deloitte SA Payments

practice committee and the Africa

Consumer Industry Executive Committee

focused on helping listed MNC’s and

Mid-Market clients. He is Chairman of

the Board of the E-commerce Forum

Africa representing over 55 companies.

He represents Africa on the Global DTN

(Digital Trade Network), and actively sits on

a number of Advisory Boards.

Dylan has presented at, and led Executive

Private Sector & Government sessions in

Africa, Europe and the US. In December

2018 he realised a 10 month ambition in

constituting the 1st Pan-African Digital CEO

Forum in Kenya, with 22 executives from 15

companies representing 11 Countries.

As a qualified futurist, Dylan has led

multiple global disruptive thinking

interventions as a keynote speaker, MC and

moderator. He holds a PPE from UCT and

is currently enrolled on the MPhil in Future

Studies at the University of Stellenbosch

Business School.

SPEAKER

Nwabisa MayemaEntrepreneur, speaker and founder of nnfinity

Topic: The Future of the World is in Africa

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A dynamic entrepreneur with a zest for

life and adventure, Nwabisa’s passion lies

in the development of women business

owners and their businesses. She founded

nnfinity in 2016, to support the growth of

women-owned businesses, and believes

women lead the way in solving poverty in

Africa by creating sustainable jobs in their

scalable businesses. The company provides

training and consulting services to women-

owned businesses, whilst focusing on

the development of social capital through

its endeavours.

As a sought-after speaker, Nwabisa’s focus

is on delivering knowledge and insights

on entrepreneurship and women-specific

enterprise development around the world.

She has served as the Partnerships Lead

for TEDxCapeTown since 2018 and is the

2019 Curator for TEDxCapeTownWomen.

She has also been selected to serve on the

Board of Trustees for the Branson Centre of

Entrepreneurship in South Africa.

Her entrepreneurial journey dates back to

2006 when she co-founded The Collective

Genius. The business consults to corporates

on social responsibility projects aimed

at students in high school and tertiary

education. Its clients, including Anglo

American, the First Rand Foundation and

government agencies, reach over 100 000

students a year through leadership and

skills development programmes. Nwabisa

stepped down from her role as managing

director of The Collective Genius in 2016 to

focus her energies on ensuring sustainable

growth for other women entrepreneurs

through nnfinity.

Nwabisa obtained her BSocSci in Political

Studies and Public Administration from

UCT in 2005, and was selected as one of 100

Brightest Young Minds in South Africa in

the same year. In 2014 she finished in the

top five of the Goldman Sachs-GIBS 10 000

Women Certificate Programme. She was

listed by the Independent Media Group on

its Top 100 Young Independents: Inspiring

and Aspiring Young South Africans

(Innovation category) in 2016, and was

nominated as one of Inspiring Fifty South

Africans in 2017.

SPEAKER

Merle O’BrienFounder, Creation Lab

Topic: The Unthinkable Future - Scenarios for the World in 2050

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A futurist, creative artist and teacher by

training, Merle is the founder of Creation

lab, the African Innovation Institute for the

Future, which brings a bold new approach

to Reality and Foresight studies for

Humanity in the 21st century.

She is recognised as one of 143 women

futurists in the world, ranked among the

top 5 in Africa and named a Woman of

the Decade in Innovation by the Women’s

Economic Forum (India) adding to her

awards in business leadership, crisis

management and creative activism.

Merle guides foresight and design

innovation teams in South Africa,

Botswana, India, UK, Germany and the

USA using her African Trendstar, a custom-

designed radar of rising trends, possible

scenarios and opportunity spaces for new

value and wealth creation.

Her vision is #AnEveNWorld | the ideal

scenario of an Africa without poverty,

inequality and ignorance limiting human

ingenuity, economic growth and

societal peace.

She writes, consults and speaks on ‘the

Unthinkable Future’ helping revolutionary

thought leaders unlock new pathways of

hope to solve complex problems with full

cognitive, human-centred solutions.

She is busy with doctoral research into the

potential for human creative intelligence

to transcend artificial intelligence in a

counter-revolutionary approach to the 4th

Industrial Revolution.

Merle holds an MPhil in Future Studies

from the Institute for Futures Research at

the University of Stellenbosch Business

School, and a BA from UCT. She is also

a martial arts, yoga and Odissi Indian

classical dance teacher trained by some

of the world’s finest Gurus in India and

South Africa.

SPEAKER

Simon DingleTechnologist, fintech entrepreneur, broadcaster and experience designer

Topic: In Math We Trust

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Simon Dingle believes we’re doing money

wrong and is trying to fix it. He is the

founder of Lettuce, an app providing real

time market data on any asset from ETFs

to cryptocurrencies. He is also the author of

“In Math we trust”, a book about the rise of

bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency.

He previously directed product design at

Curve in London, Luno in Singapore and

22seven in Cape Town.

Simon actively invests in block chain

technologies as founder of Inves, with a

particular focus on Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Until recently he hosted a weekly

technology show on 5fm and is a regular

media commentator on Bitcoin and block

chain technologies, having appeared on

local and international television and radio

shows including Tech News Today and The

Money Show. He has been a columnist for

Finweek, Brainstorm and SA Computer

Magazine among others. He is also a serial

entrepreneur of varying success, having co-

founded Skratch Technology, Split Infinitive

Broadcasting, Deathcard Media, Reshare,

Massive Gap and Phantom Design.

He started one of the world’s first podcasts

in 2005 with Seedcast, and went on to host

the ZA Tech Show before starting Binary

and Take Back the Day.

He has worked as a communications

consultant to technology firms including

Google, Oracle, The Shuttleworth

Foundation and others. He was awarded

Classic Business Journalist of the Year in

2011 for his technology columns in Finweek,

the Highway Africa New Media Personality

of the Year for his hosting of the ZA Tech

Show podcast, and a listing in the Mail &

Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans

edition of 2010.

Simon is passionate about open source

technology and content and believes most

of the world’s problems can be solved with

design and critical thinking.

SPEAKER

Adriana MaraisFounder of #ProudlyHuman, and Director at the Foundation for Space Development

Topic: Off-World: Above and Beyond

-

Adriana is the Founder of #ProudlyHuman,

an initiative aimed at pioneering new

frontiers in research and technology

for a sustainable future on earth, above

and beyond. She is also Director at the

Foundation for Space Development,

an initiative of which is Africa2Moon, to

inspire the youth of developing nations, in

particular Africa, to “Reach for the Moon”

through education and science. She is a

member of the South African government

advisory task team on the 4th Industrial

Revolution, Faculty at the Singularity

University and Duke Corporate Education,

and an astronaut candidate with the Mars

One Project.

Previously, Adriana was Head of Innovation

at SAP Africa between 2017 and 2019.

Her career began in academia, and she

has authored numerous articles on her

research in theoretical quantum physics,

and won awards including the L’Oréal –

UNESCO International Rising Talent Award

in 2015 and the Royal Society of South

Africa Meiring Naudé Medal in 2016. She is

an alumna of the Lindau Nobel Laureate

Meetings in physics and a Global Women’s

Forum Rising Talent, both 2016.

Adriana holds an MSc (summa cum laude)

in quantum cryptography and a PhD

in quantum biology. Her postdoctoral

research focused on quantum effects in

photosynthesis as well as the origins of

prebiotic molecules and life itself.

She is currently pursuing a second PhD

in economics in resource-constrained

environments at the University of Cape

Town. In December 2020, she and her

team will depart for an overwinter, off-

world settlement simulation experiment

in Antarctica to demonstrate community

living and off-grid capabilities from life-

support to communication systems.

NOTES

www.gsb.uct.ac.za