The NACI Council

• a Chairperson appointed by the Minister;
• the Chief Executive Officer in the person of the Director-General of DST;
• an officer of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) appointed by the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister of Trade and Industry;
• 16-20 Members appointed by the Minister after consultation with the Minister's Committee, and after submission to the Cabinet for notification.

The members of NACI, other than the CEO and the officer from DTI, are appointed in their personal capacity due to their outstanding achievement in any field of Science & Technology, or in the context of innovation, special knowledge, experience and insight into the role and contribution of innovation, in promoting and achieving national and provincial objectives.

The chairperson of NACI has direct access to the Minister and members of the Minister's Committee to submit and discuss any report of NACI, any minutes of a meeting of NACI, or any other matter relating to the functioning of NACI.

The full Council meets four times a year.

NACI Council Members

Dr Steve Lennon (Chair) is the Managing Director: Corporate Services Division of ESKOM.  His responsibilities primarily include Sustainability, Information Technology, Technology & Innovation, Business Planning & Strategy, Investment Strategy Optimisation and Safety.  In 1997 he was elected as Eskom Executive of the year. Dr Lennon is also a global business leader who has a reputation for bridging sharply contrasting positions in various global forums such as the World Economic Forum (WEF), G8 & United Nations. He serves on various boards, committees and advisory councils. He is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Fossil Fuel Foundation, non-Executive Director of EDI Holdings, Board member of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) & an Executive Committee member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).  He is also Chairman of the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI). Dr Lennon holds a PhD from the University of Witwatersrand.

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Dr. Phil Mjwara (CEO) is the Director General of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) since April 2006. Prior to his appointment at DST, Dr Mjwara was the Group Executive: Research and Development; Strategic Human Capital Development at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). At CSIR he was responsible for strengthening the CSIR Science and Technology base including Human Capital Development. In 2001 Dr Mjwara joined CSIR as the head of the National Laser Centre (NLC), where he has been instrumental in growing the centre's activities since its inception and in creating a network of centres in Africa, i.e. African Laser Centre (ALC). He has also held positions at the then Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology; as Director of Technology; at the University of Pretoria as professor of S&T policy and at the Universities of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and Fort Hare as a physics lecturer. He has been involved in discipline of Management of Technological Innovation as well as in processes for policy formulation, through his leading the South African Technology Foresight project. He has published and presented numerous papers on physics, technology analysis and foresighting. Dr Mjwara has served on various advisory councils and review boards, including providing the secretariat to the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI). He currently serves on the Boards of the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, Centre of Excellence on Hard Materials at Witwatersrand University, and the Laser Research Institute of Stellenbosch University. He also serves on the Council of the University of Johannesburg and is also a General Secretary of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa (ASSAf).

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Mr Paul Baloyi DBSA Director and Chief Executive Officer as of 1 July 2006 Advanced Management Programme, INSEAD (2006) MBA, University of Manchester (2004) Senior Executive Programme, Harvard Business School (2001) Management Development Programme, University of Stellenbosch (1996) Commercial Banking Diploma, Institute of Bankers, Licentiate (1989)

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Dr Ntuthuko Bhengu is an anaesthetist who also holds an MBA from the University of Wales (Cardiff), and an MPH (Health Care Management) from Harvard. He has extensive experience as a healthcare management consultant and has served on the Pharmaceutical Pricing Committee Working Group by appointment of the Minister of Health. Dr. Bhengu serves on the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI) by appointment of the Minister of Science and Technology. He is also a Trustee of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modeling and Analysis (SACEMA) and Deputy Chairman of the National Biotechnology Advisory Committee. He is a co-founder of Afrika Biopharma Investments and holds the position of Executive Head: Provider Networks at Qualsa Healthcare (Pty) Ltd.

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Dr. Cheryl de la Rey was appointed as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria in July 2009. Before that she served as Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Psychology at the University of Cape Town for a term of six years. She also served as the Executive Director: Research Promotion on secondment to the National Research Foundation (NRF) from 2000 to 2002. Her external commitments include membership of the Board of the Centre for Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR), the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), the Executive Evaluation Committee of the National Research Foundation and the Research Strategy Committee of Higher Education South Africa (HESA). She completed her Bachelor of Arts, Honours and Master's degrees at the University of Natal. Her PhD was completed at UCT, her thesis covering the career narratives of women professors in South Africa. Her area of research is in Social Psychology, with specific attention to gender and race. Professor de la Rey has written numerous articles for journals and books, as well as commissioned reports and papers. She is currently on the editorial boards of the South African Journal of Psychology and Feminism and Psychology.

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Mr Kuseni Dlamini is the Chief Executive of Old Mutual (SA). Before that he was Head of Anglo American South Africa and a member of the Executive Committee of Anglo American plc. He left Richards Bay Coal Terminal where he was Executive Chairman since 2005. Kuseni previously worked for De Beers in South Africa and at its London Office and for AngloGold Ashanti’s Corporate Office in Johannesburg. He was educated at Natal and Oxford Universities where he was a Rhodes Scholar. In March 2008, Kuseni was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF). During the same month, Miningx selected him as one of the top 100 most influential people in South African mining. In June 2008, South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper selected Kuseni as one of South Africa top 200 young people you must take to lunch.

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Prof Helen Laburn is dean of the faculty of health sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, and honorary professorial research fellow in the brain function research group, school of physiology. She holds a BSc honours and a PhD from Wits and has served Wits in various capacities. Prior to her deanship in 2006, Laburn was head of school of physiology, and professor of thermal physiology in that school. She is a chair of the board of the Wits Health Consortium and a director of the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, and honorary fellow, Physiology Society of Southern Africa. For several years she was the only South African who was a foreign member of the Physiological Society (London). By invitation, Laburn has been a member of the Thermal Physiology Commission of the International Union of Physiological Sciences and is the chair of the SA National Committee for the IUPS. She has published widely ion the subject of fever and temperature regulation and is considered to have particular expertise in the feto-maternal thermal relationship.

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Professor Lineo Vuyisa Mazwi-Tanga started her career as a school teacher at several schools in the Eastern Cape before joining the University of Fort Hare as a lecturer in 1987. She holds an MSc degree from the University of Fort Hare and a certificate in Higher Education Administration from Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania. She received a research award in 1990 to spend time at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom to read for the MSc degree in Climatology. That same year she was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society. Professor Mazwi-Tanga joined the former Peninsula Technikon in 1996 in the post of Deputy Vice-Chancellor responsible for Student Affairs, Public Affairs, Management and Information Systems and International Affairs portfolios. In 2001 she was seconded to the Ministry of Education for one and a ˝ years where she assumed the position as the Special Advisor to the former Minister of Education, Prof Kader Asmal. Her areas of responsibility included participating in policy development processes, representing the Minister at meetings, interacting with higher education stakeholders, managing the Minister’s speeches, dealing with parliamentary questions and overseeing projects. In February 2006 she was appointed as the first Vice-Chancellor of the merged Cape Peninsula University of Technology. At the time of her appointment as Vice-Chancellor she was serving her second term as the chairperson of the Board of National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), a position she had to relinquish after her appointment as the Vice-Chancellor. NSFAS oversees the government funding of financially needy students attending public higher education institutions. In July 2008, Professor Mazwi-Tanga was appointed for a three-year term to the Artscape Council.

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Ms Khungeka Njobe is currently the Group Executive responsible for R&D outcomes (IP management and technology transfer); strategic human capital development, strategic research relationship management, stakeholder management, HR and communications at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). As the member of the Executive Management Committee of the CSIR she plays an actively role in providing strategic leadership to the organisation’s operations and activities. She has worked in the public sector as well as in public research and development institutions gaining experience in leadership; general management; strategy and business planning; change management; research; analysis; writing; scenario planning; international governmental negotiations; facilitation; technology and research management, environmental management; sustainable development. She has a B.Sc (Hons) in Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles, an M.Sc degree in Zoology from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and a Mastering Technology Enterprises (MTE) Certificate – a management development programme - from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) from Lausanne in Switzerland. She chairs the National Environmental Advisory Forum (NEAF),member of the South African Power Utilities Research Advisory Board (SAPURAB) , is on the Board of Governors of the World Water Council, is a member of NACI : SET 4 Women Subcommittee and was recently appointed as chairperson of the Board of the South African Weather Service.

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Professor Nthabiseng Audrey Ogude is a Vice-Principal at the University of Pretoria. She was previously Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. She obtained a BSc (Biology and Chemistry majors) at the National University of Lesotho, MSc (Analytical Chemistry) at the University of Nairobi and a PhD degree in Chemistry Education at the University of the Wiwatersrand, Johannesburg. In her current position she is a member of the University’s Executive and assists the Principal in managing the University particularly with regard to the core teaching and learning activities at the undergraduate level. Her role is to provide strategic direction and focus on undergraduate education and ensure that UP undergraduate programmes are responsive to the local context while striving for national and international recognition. The responsibilities in this executive position also include providing an impetus to and supporting the University’s vision, mission and strategic plan and reflect and enhance the University’s commitment to transformation and employment equity. She has over 26 years experience in tertiary education, ten of which were in strategic leadership positions, as Vice-Principal of the University of Pretoria, DVC(Academic) at NMMU and UPE, Interim DVC(Research, Technology and Innovation) at NMMU and as Dean of Research at Technikon SA. She is a member of several professional organizations and has published several academic papers in national and international journals. She serves in various capacities in internal University committees as well as National Councils.

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Dr Francis Petersen is Dean of Engineering at the University of Cape Town. Before joining UCT in 2008, he was Head: Strategy at Anglo Platinum Corporation and is a former Executive Vice-President: Research and Development at Mintek. He graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with the B. Ing (Chem), M. Ing (Metal) and Ph.D (Ing) degrees, and completed a short course on Financial Skills for Executive Management with IIR Training. He is a recipient of the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust and the Cape Technikon Researcher of the Year Awards and is a regular reviewer, and member of a range of editorial boards for international journals. Furthermore, he is a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), member of the Boards of the National Research Foundation (NRF) and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and a member of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA). Francis is a registered professional engineer with ECSA, and a member of the Councils of both the South African Institution of Chemical Engineers (SAIChE) and the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM). He is the chairman of the Investment Committee of the Innovation Fund and is a Fellow of both the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the South African Academy of Engineers.

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Dr Johannes Potgieter is Chief Director: Innovation and Technology at the Department of Trade and Industry. The aim of this unit in the dti is to enhance industrial development and global competitiveness of South African industries through technology support measures. Dr Potgieter’s responsibilities include the development of policy and strategy for support measures by Government to promote technology in industry through innovation, technology transfer and human resource development. Dr Potgieter represents the dti on the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI). He holds a Ph.D from RAU, an MBL from Unisa and a Teacher’s Diploma from the Natal Technikon .

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Prof Gerhard Prinsloo graduated with a PhD in Electronic Engineering from the University of Stellenbosch in 1993. He started his career as Research and Development Engineer with Telkom Technology Transfer in Cape Town, from which he gained active experience with the filing and commercialization of patents for technology inventions in the corporate industry. He was actively involved with the commercialization of a number of technology inventions locally and internationally, through which he gained active experience in working with foreign patent attorneys and a network of corporate and private investors in Europe. Prof Prinsloo’s experience extends into the academic and corporate fields in which he held senior management positions, particularly associated with research, technology transfer, fundraising, partnerships and intellectual property management.

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Mr Geoffrey Rothschild is an immediate past chairman of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and has been a member of the board since 1991.   His current role is Director: Government & International Affairs of the JSE.   After qualifying as a chartered accountant he spent 30 years in the stockbroking industry with Sasfin Frankel Pollak Securities.   Initially he was in charge of administration, followed by the positions of Financial Director, Joint Managing Director and finally Marketing Director.  He has had extensive experience in the stockbroking industry. He also serves as a Council Member on the National Advisory Council on Innovation. His roles today see him involved in the NEPAD Business Foundation and The Da Vinci Institute of Technology. He is a director of companies, has spoken at many conferences and involves himself in various charitable activities.

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Prof. Jennifer Thomson (NBAC Chair) has an MA from Cambridge in Genetics and a PhD in Microbiology from Rhodes University, SA. She was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and a visiting scientist at MIT. She was a member of the Department of Genetics at the University of the Witwatersrand (lecturer to associate professor) and Director of the Laboratory for Molecular and Cell Biology of the CSIR before becoming head of the Department of Microbiology at UCT. She is currently a Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. She was awarded the UNESCO/L'Oreal Woman in Science for Africa in March 2004.

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Prof Arnold van Zyl is Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and professor of civil engineering at Stellenbosch University and Advisory Professor at Tongji University’s China-German Traffic Research Centre in Shanghai. He received his PhD in Engineering from the University of Cape Town in 1987 and subsequently spent a year at the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Physics as a post-doctoral fellow. Here he developed expertise in materials for fuel cells and batteries. During his ensuing professional career he was first appointed as engineer and thereafter as European Manager for Research and Technology representing Daimler at the EU in Brussels. Since 2001 he served on the management of numerous trade associations in the vehicle and transportation industry in Europe and North America. As Chief Executive Officer of the public-private association ERTICO in Brussels he focused on the development of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) that enable safer, cleaner and more efficient mobility. ITS aims to integrate and link the operation of vehicles, transportation infrastructure, IT and communication technology.