Panel of Experts
We’re building a panel of mentors to provide insight and guidance to our readers.
Ideate is all about entrepreneurs thinking BIG! And since you’re reading this blog, you’re thinking big too. We believe that you’re a superhero and superheroes need to hang out with other superheroes in order to learn all the tricks of the trade. We also believe that mentorship is at the heart of a successful and sustainable entrepreneurial culture, and so we’ve created the query box you’ll notice on the right of the Ideate blog (go ahead, use it). To answer your questions we’re working hard to bring some serious heavyweights to the table. These are people that can provide insight, experience and wisdom and hopefully steer you further down the road on your business adventure. Meet our experts:
Colin Hall
Colin is currently Non-Executive Director of Cadiz Holdings, and has a illustrious career in South African business holding several top-flight positions in some of our best known companies, including CEO of Woolworths. His passion is people – as individuals, in teams and as part of society. Because of this passion Colin visited the Covey Institute in Utah (U.S.A.) and completed their Facilitator Training Program. He bought the rights to Covey and introduced his programs to South Africa. Colin will be focusing on energy in the work place.
Idris Suleman
Idris Suleman is a business strategist and a turn-around specialist with experience spanning over 25 years in the Technology sector; he is largely credited for his extreme ability to transform ailing concerns into profitable entities. Idris started his career at Siemens as a cost accountant on large electrical projects from street lighting to power stations. He moved on to managing software development projects which was his entry into the IT World. His progress into managing large outsourcing contracts (Medscheme, Petro SA, Hollard) was the highlight of his learning experiences. He eventually succeeded in becoming the CIO of Siemens Southern Africa. The next step in taking over as CEO of Fujitsu-Siemens Southern Africa was the achievement of his ultimate goal in his career.
Tim Cruise
Tim is the co-founder and co-owner of SMSWEB, a provider of school-to-parent communication solutions in South Africa. Tim is a Marketing expert and enthusiast who aims at making marketing fun. Tim will field questions on marketing and technology, and will endeavor to keep it short (since Tim’s encyclopedic knowledge of all things marketing-related is nothing short of legendary).
Marc Rogatschnig
Marc Rogatschnig is the Western Cape General Manager of Connemara, one of South Africa’s most respected management training consultancies, Connemara. Marc follows the Arnold Schwarzenegger rule of branding: “If you can spell my name right, I must be doing my job right”. Marc is a business consultant, surfer, Africa traveler, energy ambassador, dreamer and a big fan of common courtesy. Marc also happens to be a Clinical Psychologist.
Anthony Farr
Anthony Farr is the CEO of Allan Gray Orbis. Anthony is passionate about the power of education and the upliftment of entrepreneurs. Anthony Farr completed his Bachelor of Business Science (Finance) at UCT before qualifying as a CA(SA) during articles at Deloitte in Cape Town and Luxembourg. After working for Standard Bank London for a number of years in their international corporate finance team, Anthony co-founded the Starfish Greathearts Foundation.
Henk Kleynhans
Henk is a computer scientist and Internet junkie turned social entrepreneur. He is the CEO & founder of Skyrove, which enables anyone to set up a WiFi Hotspot and earn an income by sharing their internet access. Henk is also the chairperson of the Wireless Access Providers Association (WAPA) and the M&G has named him as one of “200 Young South Africans You Must Take To Lunch”
Eric Edelstein
Eric Edelstein has 10 years experience in Internet start-up’s. Previously, he co-founded the incuBeta group, which launched global search marketing company Clicks2Customers.com, affiliate marketing network TrafficSynergy.com, and website builder Yola.com. Eric is currently CEO of CrowdTech Holdings, which owns a number of Internet brands, including crowdsourcing eCommerce Tshirt business springleap.com, and the soon to be released crowdsourcing Social Network, evly.com.
Judi Sandrock
Judi joined the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in August 2010 as CEO. In this unique position she is responsible for identifying high potential entrepreneurs, equipping them with practical skills, providing them with access to coaches and mentors and financing opportunities to enable their businesses to grow.
Bernadette Homor
Bernadette Homor is passionate about online marketing and as the Head of Affiliates at Admarula.com she specializes in affiliate, social media and SEO marketing and has gathered extensive knowledge in the field of Internet marketing . Being an affiliate herself she gets to explore all angles of entrepreneurship on the Web.
If you have a burning question on your mind and you’d like some advice, please enter your question in the box on the right. We’ll do our best to prioritize them and get them answered by the panel above. We can’t promise all questions will be answered, and to be honest, some of the questions we receive are pretty silly (unfortunately some of you really should stick to your day job!) – BUT we’ll try. Keep ‘em coming, and keep up the support of Ideate.
