ABOUT US

Vivek is an experienced business / operations leader with extensive industry experience working in the energy, chemicals, resources and sustainability industries across Australia, Asia, Middle East, and Africa. Vivek is currently the Vice President for Sub-Saharan Africa for Worley, where he is responsible for overall business operations, strategy, and growth across the region. Vivek has graduated with Chemical and Process Engineering and Commerce degrees from the University of Western Australia and started his journey with Worley as a Technical / Process Safety Engineer in 2012. Since then, Vivek has taken on various roles in engineering, project delivery, strategy, business development and operations. Prior to his current role, Vivek was based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leading business performance across Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC). In this role, Vivek was responsible for developing and implementing the regional strategy and identifying opportunities to improve business performance in line with corporate strategy.

A Business development manager with a technical background, Yvonne’s passion and strong focus on relationship building, combined with Electrical Engineering and corporate travel experience allows her the unique ability to work seamlessly with a wide range of industries within the multinational space.  

Having graduated at the University of Cape Town, and worked within her technical field for 5 years, she made the decision to build a new career in travel in 2015 and since then has moved quickly from leisure sales consulting, through a combination of corporate Key Account Management and SMME Business Development to a pure focus on multinational and enterprise Business Development Management.

As a dedicated mother of two young girls, she strives to achieve a healthy work life balance, and always keeps in mind, Henry David Thoreau’s “Life isn’t about finding yourself; it is about creating yourself. So live the life you imagined”.  

Brett Elmer is First Secretary (Trade and Economic) at the Australian High Commission, Pretoria. Brett actively supports Australia’s bilateral trade and investment relationship with Southern Africa – specifically, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and eSwatini. Brett works closely with Australian and African businesses in the region to address challenges and promote cooperation between government and business. Before coming to Africa, Brett delivered numerous high-profile Australian foreign and trade policy outcomes across critical minerals, infrastructure, trade finance, Free Trade Agreements, and agriculture. Brett has lived and worked in several overseas countries, including the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, and the UK.

Scott Morriss is the Trade and Investment Commissioner for Africa, for the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade). Scott leads a team of eight highly qualified Business Development Managers supporting Australian business across Africa out of four Austrade offices: Johannesburg, Nairobi, Accra, and Rabat. Scott is based in Johannesburg.

Prior to joining Austrade’s Africa team, Scott was Trade Commissioner to Tokyo responsible for defence industry, advanced manufacturing, education and technology and services sectors. Before joining Austrade in 2017, Scott served in the Australian Navy for over 20 years in a variety of operational and strategic analysis roles – the highlight of which was serving as an Australian Attaché to Japan from 2012 to 2015.  Scott holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Canberra and is a Japanese language speaker.

Milan is currently employed as a Corporate Credit Manager at Nedbank Johannesburg in the Corporate and Investment Banking division, having assisted the front office at Nedbank CIB in the implementation of a number of small and larger deals. Gaining exposure to the overall private debt market and managing a portfolio consisting of listed and unlisted clients in the Mining and Resource space as well as the Infrastructure and Public Sector, in South Africa, so as to contribute to the enablement of Nedbank optimally managing the credit risk associated with the portfolio & of quality assets on Nedbank and its subsidiaries books. Prior to being employed by Nedbank, Milan was an Assistant Manager at EY post his Chartered Accountant articles gaining a wide array of audit experience.

Fabienne has over 20 years of experience working in the service industry. She has worked for conferencing and technology organisations running the administration and co-ordination. Prior to that she worked for national hotel groups focusing on events co-ordination and customer fulfilment. Fabienne specialises in administration as well as her ultimate passion of event management. Fabienne joined ABCSA in April 2018 and is responsible for the event management and co-ordination as well as business development and administration for the Chamber.

Bill Guy (Chairman Theta Gold Mines Limited) is a professional Mining executive and geologist with over 25 years of experience in exploration and resource development in Asia, Australia, and Europe. In previous executive and geology roles, he has been involved in all aspects of the mining industry inclusive of capital raisings, project acquisition (European Zinc) project development (Cockatoo Island Fe), project discovery (Mt Ida (Fe), and large scale JV (Newcrest JV (Au)), in both the corporate and technical roles. As MD of Longford Resources, he progressed the Keel zinc project in Ireland to its first JORC Resource within just a few months. He previously served as Exploration Manager of Jupiter Mines Limited (Posco/Pallinghurst). At Jupiter Mines, he developed exploration protocols and a team that grew resource inventories to significant levels being the Central Yilgarn Iron Project (CYIP) Mt Ida Magnetite project was part of CYIP. Mt Ida, was progressed from zero to an Inferred Resource 530M tonnes @31.94% Fe with a conceptual target of 1.85 Billion tons.

Mark is the founder of The Boiler Room in South Africa and Australia. The Boiler Room is a dynamic production company that has been around for 21 years, specializing in 3D animation, eLearning, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and many other Industry 4.0 disruptive technologies. Originally from a small country town, Coffs Harbour in NSW, he moved to Sydney to obtain a degree in Computer programming. He worked in television animation and special effects that led him to the UK. Mark introduced 3D animation to SA and lectured at most universities and colleges before starting The Boiler room. He currently resides in Johannesburg with his wife and two children.

Jacqui Burn has been running her own consultancy business since December 2015 and is based in Pretoria and aids companies in the development and management of their various communication, marketing and digital programs and activities. Previously she worked for a large corporate specialising in web and digital communications, PR and marketing communications as well as having involvement in the heavy electrical engineering industry for many years.

Her qualifications include a Bachelors Degree in Communications and English, a certificate in Inbound Marketing Methodology as well as a diploma in Photography and Digital Marketing.