Alumni in the spotlight November 2021
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Catch up on a roundup of Witsie awards, appointments and newsmakers from the past month.
Awards
Professor Lucille Blumberg (MBBCh 1974, MMed 2003, DTM&H 1987, DOH 1991) was awarded the Professional Excellence Award at the 2021 Jewish Achiever Awards. Professor Blumberg, the founding head of the division of public health surveillance and response, now one of the largest units at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, designed a COVID-19 national hospital surveillance system for South Africa.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has awarded four Witsies his office’s highest honour for their services to South Africa. Professor Sibusiso Nyembezi (BA Hons 1947; MA 1950; Hon Doc 1982) was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga, gold: Dr Raymond Louw (DLitt honoris causa 2015) the Order of Ikhamanga, gold: Justice Edwin Cameron (LLD honoris causa 2010) was awarded the Order of Baobab, gold and Max (BSc Eng 1949) and Audrey Coleman the Order of Luthuli, silver. The Colemans were the founders of the Detainees’ Parents Support Committee, an organisation of parents formed to provide food, clothing and legal assistance to detainees under apartheid, as well as to monitor and publicise state repression. The Colemans are the parents of three Witsie sons: Neil (BA 1980) senior policy analyst at the Institute for Economic Justice; Keith (BA 1981, BA Hons 1983, MBA 1991) CEO and co-founder of SuSeWi in the UK and Colin (BArch 1988) a former Goldman Sachs CEO.
Avital (Tali) Nates (BA Hons 1994), director and founder of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, received the 2021 Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award. In March this year the accomplished educator also received the Gratias Agit Award from the Czech Republic for her work on the Holocaust as an example of injustice and its consequences for humanity.
Glen Pearce (BCom 1987) won the 2021 Finance Transformation Award at the prestigious 2021 CFO awards. 
Pearce has been the chief financial officer of Sappi since 2008. He completed his articles at EY and started his career as a group accountant and finance manager for Murray & Roberts. He then joined Sappi as a financial manager in 1997 and later became the financial manager of Sappi Forest Products. He was promoted to FD of Sappi Fine Paper South Africa in 2001 and moved to Brussels in 2004 to become accounting director for Sappi Fine Paper Europe.
Fred Khumalo (MA 2015) received a SA Literary Award in the Novel category for Ngenxa yeMendi (isiZulu).
Lebohang Masango (BA 2015, BA Hons 2016, MA 2019) and Professor Claudine Storbeck won a 2021 Silver Pendoring Award for their children’s book Mpumi and Jabu’s Magical Day (New Africa Books).
Khensani Nobanda (BCom 2000), deputy chairperson at the Nedbank Foundation, was awarded Industry Leader of the Year at the FM Ad Focus Awards, adding to her award in October at the 2021 Loeries as Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award winner.
Appointments
Daniella Levit (BCom 1993, PDM 1994), executive director of the Leading Women Executives Programme by Corporate Leadership Centre, has joined the board of directors for the American Red Cross of greater Chicago.
Bheki Vilakazi (BCom 1997) has been appointed managing director of SVA International, effective from October 2021. SVAI is a member of the GIBB Group of Companies and GIBB Engineering.
The South African Bioproduct Organisation appointed Andrew Bennett (MSc 1992) as general manager. SABO was established in 2013 as a brainchild of the then Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, various research institutions and the agricultural industry. Bennet was with Monsanto for 22 years, where he led their technology development team in Asia and Africa.
Standard Chartered appointed Bongiwe Gangeni (BPharm 1998, PDM 2003) as head of consumer, private and business banking. She will be based in Dubai and begins her appointment in March 2022. 
She joins the company from Absa, where she spent the last 14 years, most recently as a member of the Group Executive Committee, with the dual roles of deputy chief executive officer for retail and business banking, and head of relationship banking. Her successful career at Absa comprised roles across businesses including the SME segment, micro-enterprise finance, commercial cards, inclusive banking, private banking and wealth management.
Katlego Kobue (BCom 2011), a senior investment manager at Royal Bafokeng Holdings, has been appointed as an independent non-executive director on the Dis-Chem Pharmacies board.
David Talpert (BAcc 2013, HDipAcc 2014) was appointed fund manager and analyst at Visio. He joined Visio in June 2021 and is a chartered accountant. After studying at Wits he completed articles at EY in the financial services division. He began his investment career as a sell-side analyst at Avior Capital Markets.
Dr Gideon Boako (PhD 2016), currently technical advisor on Ghana’s economic management team and spokesperson to the vice president who is the head of the economic management team, has been nominated by the country’s president to serve on a nine-member board of directors of the National Investment Bank.
Reynolds Maleka (MBA 1994) was appointed as independent non-executive director to the boards of Grindrod Bank Limited and Grindrod Financial Holdings Limited.
Sandile Dube (MSc Eng 2017) was appointed as Accounting Authority of Umgeni Water's Interim Board.
Duncan Wanblad (BSc Eng 1989, GDE 1997) was named the new Anglo American CEO as Mark Cutifani steps down after nine years at the helm. He will join the board of the company as executive director from 19 April 2022.
Dr Riyas Fadal (BSc 1996, MBBCh 2000) has been appointed a non-executive director of Ascendis Health. 
Dr Riyas is the chairperson for the South African Neuro Rehabilitation Association, vice chairperson of the South African Society for Physical Rehabilitation Medicine Society, chairperson for the Dialysis Association of South Africa and was appointed to the World Health Organisation’s Parkinson Committee to develop clinical and funding protocols.
Dr Alison Long (MBBCh 1986) was appointed as chief medical officer of biotech company Kaleido Biosciences in the US. The company uses a molecule approach to treating inflammatory conditions and diseases by selectively targeting the resident microbiome to restore gut-immune homeostasis. Dr Long will be responsible for leading the development of Kaleido’s ongoing and future clinical programs, including the development of KB295 and KB109 in ulcerative colitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respectively.
Professor Jane den Hollander (BSc 1975, BSc Hons 1976, MSc 1977) has been appointed as interim Vice-Chancellor of Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. It is the University’s most senior executive position – serving as both the principal academic officer and chief executive officer. Prior to this Professor den Hollander was the Vice-Chancellor of Deakin University in Melbourne until 2019. She obtained her PhD from the University of Wales in Cardiff with assistance from the Wits Fantham Memorial Scholarship and was deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at Curtin University in Western Australia before joining Deakin.
University of Fort Hare Vice-Chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu (MA 1996, PhD 2002) has been appointed for a second term.
The Arts and Culture Trust in South Africa has announced the appointment of Jessica Denyschen (BA DA 2009, MA 2021) as the interim CEO with effect from 15 November until March 2022.
Newsmakers
Steven Friedman (BA 1974, BA Hons 1975), director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg, addresses the roots of state capture in colonialism and apartheid, showing how these same webs of corruption are active in post-apartheid South Africa. He writes about implications of coalitions in latest local government elections.
Athol Williams (BSc Eng 1992) shares why he fled the country and fears for his safety. He also launched his new book Deep Collusion:Bain and the capture of South Africa (NB publishers, 2021) about the inner workings of the state capture design.
Dr Kenneth Creamer (BA 1992, BA Hons 1995, LLB 1995, LLM 1997, PhD 2010) gives an overview of South Africa’s performance at C0P26 and the urgency necessary to get our energy transition moving into high gear so that we can begin to put behind us the past 13 years of loadshedding.
Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong (MBBCh 1975) was profiled in the New Yorker magazine.
Constitutional law expert Steven Budlender (BA 2000, LLB 2002) argues that government has a constitutional duty to protect citizens’ right to health by “distributing vaccines widely and making vaccinations compulsory”.