9. CP Venter (41) Group chief executive officer
- Qualification: BA, MBA
- 4 years with the Group and first year on the Board
He started his professional career at Standard Merchant Bank in 1992. Since then he spend nearly 14 years in Merchant Banking. In his first seven years he obtained valuable experience at Standard Merchant Bank (Now Standard Corporate and Investment Bank) in the trade finance and project finance divisions. During his last two years at SCIB he was appointed as head of the Export Credit Finance Department.
Chris joined ABSA Corporate and Merchant Bank in 1999 as team leader of the structured trade and Commodity Finance team. In 2002 he was promoted to general manager at ABSA Corporate and Merchant Bank and soon thereafter he was appointed as head of a newly established Structured Trade & Commodity Finance team in New York. Chris and his family spent nearly three years in New York where the Structured Trade and Commodity Finance team focused on expanding its business in Latin America.
In December 2004 he relocated to South Africa where he was appointed as head of Global Structured Trade and Commodity Finance Team.
In June 2006 he joined AFGRI as managing director of AFGRI Financial Services and Insurance. Since he joined AFGRI he was also given the responsibility of the Treasury Division and was appointed in various director positions. He served as chairman of Agricola and AFGRI Western Cape. In July 2007 Chris was promoted and appointed as director of AFGRI Operations Limited.
Chris Venter was appointed Group chief executive officer of AFGRI Ltd, effective date 1 October 2008.
10. JA van der Schyff (46) Group financial director- Qualification: BCom (Hons) (Acc) CA(SA)
- 2 years with the Group and first year on the Board
Jan started his professional career in 1985 by completing his three years articles with Arthur Andersen & Co. After completing his two years national service, he spent five years with the Central Energy Fund managing the Money Market Investment & Foreign Finance Division.
Thereafter Jan spent 12 years in the Mondi group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anglo American PLC where he held various senior positions. Jan joined Mondi Ltd in 1995 as Group Treasurer, a position he filled for 3,5 years before being promoted to group financial manager. After 1,5 years Jan was promoted to the position of commercial manager of Mondi’s Flagship the Mondi Kraft Division who manufactures and exports corrugating paper and pulp to Europe and the Far East. Reporting to him in this position was Finance, Procurement, Customer Service and Logistics. Four years later, as part of the restructuring of Mondi by centralising business units into a Shared Service Centre he was promoted to Competency Centre Head: Finance & Procurement for Mondi Business Papers South Africa. This position he filled from March 2004 to March 2007.
In March 2007 he joined AFGRI as Group finance manager reporting to the Group financial director. In May 2008 Jan was promoted to Group chief financial officer and appointed to the AFGRI Operations Ltd Board, replacing the previous Group financial director who retired shortly afterwards.
On 15 September 2008 Jan van der Schyff was appointed to the AFGRI Ltd board as Group financial director.
11. MI Mogari (Dr) (42) Director corporate affairs and strategic projects- Qualification: MBChB, BSc(Med) (Hons), CPFA, EDP, MBA
- 4 years with the Group
Moji started his career as an entrepreneur medical practitioner, in a group practice, over 14 years ago. The group practice was later converted into a healthcare business with external institutional shareholders, where Moji was appointed managing director. Later Moji was appointed as chief executive of the SA Medical Association, after selling his interests in the health enterprise.
Prior to joining AFGRI, Moji co-founded Agri Sizwe with three other partners, and together they played a key role in the AFGRI Agri Sizwe partnership finalisation.
Moji was appointed executive director in February 2008, at AFGRI Limited responsible for the Corporate Affairs, New Business and Strategic Projects. In this role Moji leads the strategy on Group transformation, and strategic industry and Government relations. Prior he was managing director for AFGRI Africa. Overall his major responsibility is to develop and implement strategy for new business development in Africa.
In June 2008 he was elected as deputy chairman of the SA Agricultural Business Chamber at its 2008 biannual congress. At the Agricultural Business Chamber he is a member of the Executive Committee and takes part in a number of Agri Business working Committees, like the Chief Executives Forums, the State Presidential Working Group, the Land Reform and Post Settlement Support Task team.
12. LJ Smit (48) Chief executive officer: AFGRI Producer Services- Qualification: BSc Agric (Hons), MBA
- Director of companies
- 5 years with the Group
After completion of his national service he started his professional career at Drakensberg Cooperative in Bethlehem as an agricultural economist in 1986. From there he joined Agri SA in Pretoria as manager of the summer grain industries for four years. Thereafter he accepted a position as assistant general manager at the Lowveld Tobacco Co-op in Nelspruit. He played an active role to change the organisational form from a cooperative to a public company.
He was promoted to CEO and MD of Lowveld Corporate Investments Ltd in 1995 where he remained in this position for eight years. During this period the company was restructured and split into two main stream businesses namely tobacco processing and marketing (structured in SA Golden Leaf Ltd) and retail, finance and forestry (structured in Lowveld Corporative Investments).
In order to unlock value for shareholders he negotiated the sale of the latter company to OTK Ltd in 2002. He remained MD of SA Golden Leaf Ltd after the disposal during which he facilitated an Article 311 Settlement with creditors for another tobacco company, MKTV Ltd in Rustenburg. As a non-executive director of the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa he also played a leading role in the restructuring and consolidation of the struggling Primary tobacco industry in South Africa.
In 2004 he joined AFGRI Ltd as deputy CEO of the AFGRI Requisites division and was promoted later that year to CEO of AFGRI Producer Services which position he holds until today. During that period he turned the lossmaking division around into a profitable business.
13. WW Mentz (38) Chief executive officer: AFGRI Logistic Services- Qualification: BCom Law
- 5 years with the Group
Wouter started his professional career in 1994 with ABSA on marketing and customer relations. In 1995 he joined the Omnia fertilizer Group, as a marketer tasked to explain the new free market and the workings of the South Africa Futures Exchange (SAFEX) to producers and customer of Omnia. In 1996 he joined Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank, (SCMB) working on the agricultural commodities broking desk. The broking and trading of derivatives on agricultural market was performed on behalf of SCMB customers.
In 1997 Wouter joined Cargill as merchant trader and here he gained invaluable exposure on commodity trading both locally in South Africa and internationally. Cargill nominated Wouter to do their grain school in 1999 and after that he spend time in Cargill’s Geneva office assisting the grains desk on an ad hoc-basis. Prior to leaving Cargill, Wouter was responsible as senior trader for Cargill’s White Maize trading book. Responsibilities included the management of all positions traded as well as the development of the delivered sales to the food and feed sector.
In June 2004 he joined AFGRI as managing director of AFGRI Trading. Since he joined AFGRI he was also given the responsibility of the Handling and Storage and Logistics Division and was appointed as chief executive officer of AFGRI Trading and Logistics. In July 2007 Wouter was appointed as director of AFGRI Operations Limited.
14. L Wolthers (47) Chief executive officer: AFGRI Foods- Qualification: BCom (Hons) (Acc), CA(SA), MCom (Bus Man)
- 8 years with the Group
Louis started his career in 1980 by completing his articles with Alex Aiken & Carter (Now KPMG) while completing his studies part-time at RAU (now the University of Johannesburg), thereafter completing his National Service with the Receiver of Revenue. He started at Premier Foods in July 1988 spending seven years in the group where he held various senior positions in the Milling Division.
He joined Epol (a subsidiary of Rainbow Chickens) in October 1995 as managing director, a position he held for two years. He joined Tiger Brands in August 1997 as managing director – Meadow Feeds North and was promoted to managing director – Meadow Feeds South Africa in October 1998. Louis was then promoted to the position of managing director – Tiger Milling.
In March 2001 he joined AFGRI as chief executive officer Grain handling, Marketing and Trading, reporting to the Group chief executive officer of AFGRI. Currently he holds the position of CEO of AFGRI Foods responsible for AFGRI Animal Feeds, The Daybreak Farms Group, Nedan (Oil & Protein) and Labworld (Scientific and analytical equipment).
15. HD Bloem (47) Chief executive officer: AFGRI Financial Services- Qualification: BCom (Hons), Senior Management Programme
- 1 year and 6 months with the Group
Hercu started his working career with Transnet Limited as clerk and within six years was promoted to deputy treasurer, Risk Management. He was responsible for managing all of Transnet’s funding and dealing activities. When leaving Transnet he joined ABSA bank as assistant general manager, Domestic Trading. He managed to reposition their activities in such a way that the department increased its bottom-line contribution by 278% over a 2,5-year period. Hercu was promoted to group treasurer at ABSA Bank. In this position he was responsible for managing the global treasury activity on behalf of ABSA Bank.
Hercu then joined Mercantile Bank in 2001 with the aim to develop and establish a Securities Banking Department for the bank focusing on securitisation, collateralised lending and cash flow discounting. Hercu was appointed as Head of Corporate Services in April 2004 with responsibility for Treasury, Card Division, Electronic Bank and Structured Finance where he managed to grow the net income from these activities by 44% and 113% per year since he assumed responsibility for those portfolios.
Hercu joined AFGRI Financial services in January 2008 as treasurer and
was appointed as chief executive officer of AFGRI Financial Services in
September 2008.