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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Ms Luci Abrahams is a Director of the LINK Centre, a research centre in ICT policy, regulation and management in the “network economy”, at the University of the Witwatersrand. She conducts research on institutions and economic sectors in the “emerging knowledge economy”. She has been engaged, inter alia, in the field of public policy as researcher, drafter, advisor and manager for 16 years. As a Council Member of NACI, she was Chair of its Science, Engineering and Technology for Women Committee. She is a Board member of the National Research Foundation and of the Council on Higher Education. She is Advisor to the Premier of the Gauteng province on matters relating to Gauteng’s aim to be a “global city-region”.

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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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As Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town, Professor Cheryl de la Rey's portfolio includes academic leadership and development of the University. She is also responsible for research, innovation and postgraduate affairs. The Deans of the six faculties, the Director of the Graduate School of Business and the Dean of Higher Education Development all report to her, as do the Directors of the Research Office, UCT Innovation and the Postgraduate Funding Office and Centre. She chairs the University Research Committee, the Board for Graduate Studies and the Postgraduate Studies Funding Committee. 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). Professor de la Rey first joined UCT in 1995 as a member of the Department of Psychology, following an eight-year scholarly stint at the University of Durban-Westville. 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. Alan Hirsch was born in Cape Town, and educated in South Africa and the USA, with degrees in economics and economic history from UCT, Wits, and Columbus University. He also trained at Georgetown University, and a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School from 1998 to 1999. He worked as an economics lecture and economic policy research director at the University of Cape Town from 1984 to 1986 and from 1989 to 1995. Hirsch joined the DTI as Chief Director, Industry and Technology Strategy in 1995. In 1999, after spending a year at Harvard, he returned to the post of Chief Director, Business Regulation and consumer services in the DTI. In 2000 he was appointed Deputy Chief Economist of the DTI, and Strategic Advisor on New Economy Policy. He has been asked to manage the information and communication technology industrial cluster at the DTI. He has developed, restructured, and managed a wide range of projects at the DTI, initiating or modifying many of the supply -side measures and investment incentives operating since the mid-1990s. He also helped establish several new institutions such as Investment South Africa and the Micro-Finance Regulatory Council. Hirsch has been or remains a member of the board of many institutions including the Industrial Development Corporation, the State Tender Board, the National Training Board, the ISETT SETA, and the National Advisory Council on Innovation, was a founding chairperson of the Trade and Industry Policy Secretariat, and Investment of South Africa (now Trade and Investment South Africa). He has published widely on trade and industry policy issues.

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Mr Fairoz Jaffer has been a member of the Black IT Forum (BITF) for 10 years, and the National Advisory Council for Innovation (NACI) which reports to the Minster for the Department of Science and Technology (DST). His ICT career spans over a period of 18 years having worked for brand name companies including HNR Computers, WordPerfect SA and Novell SA. Fairoz is the CEO for an ICT company and has extensive business experience that includes aspects of operations, sales, marketing, management and IT Consulting. Fairoz displays strong consulting skills and has worked with many blue chip companies to provide Business Process Automation solutions. He also serves as an active board member for an Associate (Subsidiary) company.

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Mr John Marriott is Advisor: SASOL Synfuels International. He started his career with SASOL in 1964 and worked consecutively as Engineer and Chief Process Engineer until appointed Manager, Process Design in 1982. Appointed Assistant General Manager of SASOL in 1993, he was responsible for Research, Development and Technology at Sasol until his retirement in 2003. He was a president of the SA Institution of Chemical Engineering from 1989 to 1991, served as Chairman of Energy Frontiers International, a Washington based alternative energy organization. He was appointed Chair of the National Science and Technology Forum in 2003 and as a member of NACI in 2004.

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Professor Tshilidzi Marwala is the Head of Control and Systems Group and Carl and Emily Fuchs Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, is a Chair of Telkom Local Loop Unbundling Committee, Deputy Chair of Limpo Business Support Agency, is a board member of the City Power Johannesburg Pty (Ltd), State Information Technology Agency Pty (Ltd), EOH (Ltd), Statistics South Africa and National Advisory Council on Innovation. He was previously an Executive Assistant to the Technical Director at the South African Breweries. He matriculated from Mbilwi Secondary School in Limpopo Province and holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a Magna Cum Laude from Case Western Reserve University, a Masters of Engineering from the University of Pretoria, a PhD in Computational Intelligence from University of Cambridge and was a post-doctoral research associate at the University of London's Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. Prof. Marwala has received 40 awards including the Order of Mapungubwe; has published over 140 articles in refereed international journals, conference proceedings and book chapters and has succesfully supervised over 28 masters and PhD levels. In year 2006-2007 he was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University and in year 2007-2008 he is a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. His book titled: Computational Intelligence for Modelling Complex Systems is due for publication in July 2007 by Research India Publishers.

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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.

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Dr Nhlanhla Msomi is founder and Executive Director of BioPath Laboratories (Pty) Ltd. His other Executive responsibilities include that of interim CEO of East Coast Biotechnology Regional Innovation Centre, and founder and Executive Director of Umsongo Biotechnology (Pty) Ltd. He is Chairman of VS Computer Supplies. Dr Msomi, who holds a PhD from the University of Natal, previously lectured at the Biotechnology Department of the Technikon Natal.

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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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Dr Adi Paterson is the General Manager: Business Development and Operations at the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Company. The PBMR is the South African Generation IV high temperature gas reactor programme. Adi joined the CSIR in 1984 and undertook and led research on ceramic materials securing two US Patents. He was Division Director of the Division of Materials Science and Technology at the CSIR from 1990 – 1994. Appointed to the CSIR Executive in 1995: with roles in HR, science and technology policy, strategic funding of research and innovation, CIO, organizational development and intellectual capital. Served on the CSIR and University of Pretoria Executive 2000–2001 (joint appointment). In the domain of public policy he was a co-author of the South African Green Paper on Science and Technology prior to his secondment to the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology as Head of the Science and Technology Branch in 2001. He co-authored National R&D Strategy and appointed COO when the Department of Science and Technology was formed in 2002. He joined PBMR in 2006. Currently he is a Member of South African Qualifications Authority, Member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation, Member of the Licensing Executives Society of South Africa, and Institute of Directors. He is a Board Member of the Sugar Milling Research Institute, a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and the South African Academy of Engineering. Previously he was a Member of the National Research and Technology Foresight Board, President of AS&TS (2000), Chair of the South African Excellence Foundation (1998), Chair of the Innovation Fund Trust, and the UNESCO Chief International Expert for the Science Reform in Nigeria. He was a Board Member of PBMR and the Cradle of Humankind Trust. He has a B.Sc. in Chemistry and a PhD in Engineering from the University of Cape Town.

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Dr Francis Petersen is 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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Professor Calie Pistorius is the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Professor Pistorius was appointed as an associate professor in the Department of Electronics Engineering at the University of Pretoria in 1987. In 1989 he was promoted to professor and Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He established the Institute for Technological Innovation at the University of Pretoria in October 1994 and was appointed as the first director. In May 1998 he was seconded to the position of Director: Information Technology. He was appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology on 1 January 2000. On 1 August 2001 he was appointed as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria, and re-elected for a second term in November 2005. He holds bachelors and honours degrees in electronic engineering from the University of Pretoria (both cum laude, 1979, 1981), Masters and Ph.D degrees in electrical engineering from The Ohio State University (1984, 1986) and a masters degree in the management of technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1994). He is also an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, having completed the Advanced Management Program (AMP) in October 2003. His current research and consulting interests include the management of innovation, management of technology, national innovation policy and related topics. He has published widely, is a regular contributor at international symposia and has presented numerous guest lectures world-wide. Publications include one textbook (on electromagnetic diffraction, with two co-authors), two patents, numerous papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, presentations at local and international conferences (including several international key-note addresses) and many research and consulting reports. He was the supervisor or co-supervisor for 22 masters and doctoral students. He received a number of awards, including the award for the best PhD dissertation from the ElectroScience Laboratory at the Ohio State University, the President's Award from the National Research Foundation for outstanding research achievements and the Bill Venter-prize (with two co-authors) for outstanding research in book form to originate in a South African university.He is registered as a professional engineer in South Africa. He is also a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineers, Fellow of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers and Senior Member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

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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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Ms Thuli Radebe is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Public Service Innovation, since November 2007. She joined the Department of Public Service and Administration in 2000 to establish an internally-focused Knowledge Management Unit which in 2001 became the Learning & Knowledge Management Unit with a mandate to establish a programme for the public service. In 2004, with the addition of the research element to her responsibility, she became Chief Director for the Research, Learning & Knowledge Management Component which she drove until October 2007. Previously she held the position of Senior Researcher at the Sirius Development Foundation for six months (July 1999 until December 1999). This was after a long stint with the University of Natal where she was a senior subject librarian from 1983 until 1993, managing a portfolio of subjects in the social sciences. In 1993 she joined the Department of Information Studies, University of Natal, as a lecturer, later becoming a senior lecturer until 1999. Prior to that, she was a College librarian for the Federal Theological Seminary from January 1982 to October 1983. For one year (1981) she was a teacher at Ohlange High School in Inanda, KZN. She holds a Masters Degree in Information Science from the University of Natal.

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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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Professional affiliations: FAE, BSc Eng (Mech), Dip Eng Management Thero Setiloane was appointed a director of Rand Refinery in May 2003, becoming chairman at the end of January 2005. As AngloGold Ashanti’s Executive Officer: Marketing, he is responsible for the promotion of gold globally and for the company’s international downstream activities and beneficiation. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the World Gold Council, a member of the Advisory Board for Nestlé Africa, a director of Swiss Re Africa and a trustee of the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust.

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Dr. John Stewart (IRG Chair) is a mechanical engineering graduate from Wits University.  He completed his PhD while working for the Chamber of Mines Research Organization, where he worked for 20 years, becoming head of the organization in 1991.  In 1993 he moved to the Chamber’s Head Office, where he became the Chamber’s Mining Consultant, and spent close to 10 years handling mainly policy level issues in areas such as mine health and safety, the environment, and science and technology matters in general. He has represented the South African mining industry and organised business in many national and international forums. He led the international employer group in the formulation of the International Labour Organisation’s Convention and Recommendation on Mine Safety, played a pivotal role in the tripartite process (labour, government and employers) which formulated South Africa's new Mine Health and Safety Act, and then also in the consultation processes which led to the formulation of South Africa's new Environmental Management Act.  He also convened and facilitated Business Sector input into the process of formulating South African National Policy on Science and Technology. He served as the employer convenor on the Mine Health and Safety Council and in a similar capacity on the Executive Committee of the National Science and Technology Forum. He represented business on the Board of the National Nuclear Regulator and was a member of the Global Assurance Group that oversaw the global project on mining, minerals and sustainable development, MMSD. He has also led and participated in various international peer group reviews of a number of national science and technology institutions and programmes. John became an independent consultant in 2002, continuing his work in the fields of science and technology and mining related environment, safety and sustainable development, primarily at a management and policy level.

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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.