Thabisiwe Mlotshwa’s career in the medical aid industry started at Old Mutual as part of the healthcare administration management team and later as a principal officer. She has been in the financial (healthcare and retirement) industry since the 1990s and in the healthcare industry specifically for over two decades. Her experience in healthcare has been mainly as a principal officer and she has also held various positions in the administration space.

She has had the honour of working for three great medical aid administration and managed care organisations in various management positions. It has been a journey that she has enjoyed and still enjoys – particularly the governance role and member engagements. She feels that the ever-changing, dynamic healthcare space keeps one learning and forever researching the industry to ensure an organisation remains relevant and fit for purpose for its clients.

Dr Katlego Mothudi is the managing director of the BHF, an industry representative body for medical aid schemes, administrators and managed care providers. It has a presence in eight countries across southern Africa, including Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Dr Mothudi is responsible for providing leadership and strategic direction for the organisation and for driving its growth.

He previously served as a medical advisor and clinical executive for the Metropolitan Health Group, and was managing director of Aid for AIDS within the AfroCentric Health stable before becoming the executive head of clinical services and operations at Sizwe Medical Fund. He has held various other roles in the healthcare industry, including working as a medical officer in the South African public healthcare sector and later as clinical manager of a district hospital.

Dr Mothudi is an advocate for ethical leadership and serves on several boards and various industry committees. These include the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA), and the Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum and Steering Committee that were set up by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and applied chemistry, an MBChB degree from MEDUNSA and also has training in sports medicine. The latter gave him the opportunity to work with various sports organisations and teams, culminating in his appointment as chief medical officer for the Referees’ Headquarters during the 2009 FIFA Confederation and the 2010 World Cups.

Neo Khauoe, the current principal officer of Polmed, is an accomplished and multi-skilled individual with more than 25 years of managerial experience in the healthcare and medical schemes environment. Prior to joining Polmed, she was principal officer of Sizwe Medical Fund. She has also held strategic and senior roles as general manager, scheme executive, client relationship manager and provider relations manager.

The experience she gained in these roles has enabled her to acquire high-level management, administrative, strategic, organisational, stakeholder liaison, networking, decision-making, diplomacy, protocol and communication skills – with a high emphasis on governance and compliance.

Some of her phenomenal successes include managing the administration and managed care contract at Metropolitan Health, which contributed to Polmed’s success as reported in the media by independent companies such as Alexander Forbes. In 2014, she spearheaded the takeover of the strategic management of Sizwe Medical Fund out of curatorship. When she left, the scheme was in a stable condition with a positive financial outlook.

Since assuming the leadership of Polmed, good results have already been observed, as she has made employee satisfaction, member voice, scheme sustainability and stakeholder relations top priorities.

Janine Mosetlhi is the Managing Director of Dara Consulting, a boutique Governance advisory and Business Development firm.  A legal professional with over 15 years post qualification experience.  Her specific areas of interest are compliance, governance, and ethics, particularly within the healthcare industry. 

Janine holds both an LLB from The Oliver Schreiner School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, and a MPhil: Applied Ethics from St. Augustine College of South Africa.  She has experience as a Trustee and has served as an independent expert for the following disciplines: legal, social and ethics, clinical governance, disputes and governance. 

Cynthia Schoeman is the founder and managing director of Ethics Monitoring & Management Services (Pty) Ltd.

She is a founding non-executive director of the Ethics Practitioners’ Association (EPA) and its current chairperson. She also sits on the ethics committee of the Endangered Wildlife Trust. She has more than 20 years’ experience in the field of workplace ethics and governance. She is a published author, having written two books on workplace ethics and an ethics guide, and has contributed two chapters to other publications. Her articles are also widely published in business journals and the press.

She is a regular speaker on workplace ethics at conferences and is interviewed on TV and radio as an ethics expert. She has lectured on ethics and governance since 2000 as external faculty at South Africa’s top business schools. She holds a BA from Unisa, an MBA from Wits Business School and an

MPhil in Applied Ethics (cum laude) from Stellenbosch University

Mike Wilson is an accomplished executive with demonstrated experience across the consumer retail, risk management and medical aid scheme environments.

He is the current non-executive chairman of the Foschini Group Medical Aid Scheme (TFGMAS), chairman of the BP Medical Aid Society (BPMAS) and a non-executive director of the BHF. He is a past non-executive director on the board of the Wholesale and Retail Seta and head of risk for the Foschini Group. He founded the boutique management consultancy, Hatari Services, in 2017, specialising in board governance in the area of enterprise risk management.

In his free time, he can be found sailing along the West Coast, 4×4 on the nearest dirt track, cycling or running in the gym, active as a commander in the SA Navy Reserves or, more leisurely, pruning his numerous Bonsai trees.

Michelle Beneke is a director at Beneke Gantley Inc, heading up the corporate and commercial department. She has been an admitted attorney for over 22 years and has occupied management roles within corporate environments, both in the private healthcare industry and in the logistics and supply chain management industry, and has advised clients in the public and private sectors.

She also has management consulting experience, having headed up teams of management consultants in predominantly public sector engagements. Given her extensive operational and business experience, she views herself as a business partner to her clients who happens to be an attorney and provides practical solutions based on her clients’ stated commercial objectives. She is interested in the unique challenges facing each client rather than adopting a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Dr Sebayitseng Millicent Hlatshwayo is a qualified medical doctor with more than 17 years’ experience in the health industry. She was appointed chairperson of the GEMS board of trustees in September 2019. She brings to her role at GEMS her clinical and administration skills. She is currently a member of the GEMS Human Resources and Remuneration Committee and the chairperson of the GEMS Clinical Governance and Administration Committee.

Dr Hlatshwayo obtained a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) and a Bachelor of Science (BSc), majoring in biochemistry, chemistry and psychology, at the Medical University of South Africa.

In addition to her position at GEMS, she currently practises at Arwyp Medical Centre where she serves as a clinical manager. She has run the OR Tambo International Airport Travel Clinic since 2013. She has worked in various hospitals around Gauteng and internationally, and is a director at Meneli Medicals (Pty) Ltd and Sebay Transport and General. She also does consulting work for GPAA.

Dr Hlatshwayo is a member of the South African Society of Travel Medicine (SASTM), South African Medical and Dental Practitioners Association (SAMDP), the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), South African Medical Association (SAMA), Institute of Directors of South Africa (IoDSA), and The Ethics Institute (TEI).

For a provocative keynote talk that provides a balanced and authoritative perspective on South Africa’s economic and political outlook – mingled with a delightful and always welcome sense of humour – Dr Roelof Botha (son of the late, former foreign minister, ‘Pik’) will add an insightful and though-provoking element to any corporate gathering.

His past experience as an economic policy advisor at National Treasury and regular discussions with political analysts (including his father, who served in the late Nelson Mandela’s first Cabinet) also allow him to provide sensible reflections on the policy environment in general, and the likely implications of the imminent leadership change in government in particular.

He received his early schooling in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Christiana in the North-West Province, as well as in Cape Town and Pretoria.

Postgraduate qualifications include Honours and Master’s degrees in economics (cum laude) from the University of Pretoria and a Doctorate from the University of Johannesburg. A seasoned veteran of the economics fraternity in South Africa, he has more than 40 years’ experience as a lecturer, financial editor of a daily newspaper, economic policy advisor at National Treasury, columnist for various publications, researcher and as a public speaker.

He has shared a platform with two Nobel Peace Prize winners, has authored more than 500 articles, research papers and books, and has received the prestigious Finmedia Economist of the Year award, based on the accuracy of forecasts of key economic indicators.

He teaches economics (part-time) at the Gordon Institute of Business Science and is the economic advisor to the Optimum Financial Services Group. He has participated in competitive cricket, soccer (also as a coach) and sky-diving and is a member of the Gideons.

Professor PLO Lumumba is a Professor of Public Law, holder of an LL D (Doctor of Laws) on the Law of the Sea from the University of Ghent, Belgium, a Master of Laws and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Nairobi. He holds the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D Litt) (Honoris Causa) from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He also holds the degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) (Honoris Causa) from Bells University of Technology, Nigeria. He trained in human rights at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London, England, humanitarian law at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of the University of Lund, Sweden, and international humanitarian law in Geneva, Switzerland. He is an advocate of the High Courts of Kenya and Tanganyika and a certified mediator.

He is the immediate former director and chief executive officer of the Kenya School of Law and a former secretary of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission. He is the founding trustee of the African Institute for Leaders and Leadership and founding chairman of the Association of Citizens Against Corruption. He was the founding dean, Kabarak University School of Law, a former lecturer at the University of Nairobi, the United States International University and Widener University USA (Nairobi Summer School).

He is a renowned legal practitioner who has written several books. In 2004, he received a commendation from the Kenya Scouts Association for service to that society. In 2012 the East African Association of AntiCorruption Authorities recognised him for his valuable and exemplary contribution to the fight against corruption. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for Patriotism and Advocacy by the African Forum in 2017. In the same year he was recognised by New African Magazine as one of the 100 most influential Africans of the year. He currently practises law with Lumumba and Lumumba Advocates and coordinates activities under the aegis of the PLO Lumumba Foundation.

Cathy Mohlahlana is an award-winning TV and radio broadcast journalist. She’s a senior news anchor for South Africa’s newly launched 24-hour channel, Newzroom Afrika, where she hosts the daily prime-time bulletin between 18h00 and 20h00 on channel 405. She also hosts the mid-morning talk radio show on SAFM between 9am and 12pm daily.

Her career in national broadcast journalism spans more than 10 years. She previously hosted eNCA’s evening prime-time bulletin, NewsNight, and eTV’s evening bulletin. She has also covered high-profile stories, including the life of Nelson Mandela and the Oscar Pistorius murder trial.

In 2009 she won the National Press Club Radio Journalist of the Year Award. In 2012, she was selected to take part in the CNN Journalism Fellowship. In 2014, she was chosen to be a fellow for US President Barack Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative. She holds a Politics and International Relations degree from Wits University.

Malebona Precious Matsoso is co-chair: Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, World Health Organization. She has been responsible for healthcare policy and programmes at both national and international level and has led the development and implementation of technical guidelines, policies and regulatory tools, national legislation and compliance systems. She held the post of director-general of the South African National Department of Health for nine and a half years, starting in 2010. She chaired the Ministerial Advisory Committee on e-Health, as well as the Policy Review Committee of the South African National AIDS Council.

At international level, she held the post of WHO director responsible for the development and implementation of the global strategy and plan of action on public health innovation and intellectual property. Prior to that, she served as WHO director, Department of Technical Cooperation for Essential Drugs and Traditional Medicine. She served as a member of the WHO executive board for a three-year term, acting both as vice-chairperson and as chair. The United Nations Secretary-General appointed her as a member of his High-Level Panel on Access to Health Technologies, a body of eminent leaders from the public and commercial worlds. She served as chairperson of the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme. She was a member of the Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems and is currently serving on the board of Unitaid. She was also recently appointed as a member of the board of trustees of Vital Strategies.

Her qualifications include a degree in pharmacy from the University of the Western Cape and a postgraduate diploma with honours in health management from the University of Cape Town. She completed an LL M in Public Health, Law and Ethics at the University of Dundee, Scotland, and is currently undertaking doctoral studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Jacob Chirwa has over 15 years of experience in the insurance industry. He is currently team lead on the National Health Insurance (NHI) implementation project in Zambia. He is an ardent strategist who has led a team to the successful development and implementation of the operational infrastructure for the NHI scheme, including the operational guidelines and the core health insurance and ID systems. He previously served as head of marketing, among other roles, for one of Zambia’s leading insurance companies, where he led a team that developed and implemented the company’s transformational strategic business plan. He is passionate about social development and is keen to contribute toward the ambitious goal of universal health coverage in Zambia and beyond.

He holds an MBA in Management Strategy and a BA in Development Studies, among other qualifications.

Victoria Barr is an independent economic consultant, specialising in healthcare strategy and policy. Originally from the UK, she has been based in South Africa since 2016.

Her work focuses on three main areas: healthcare financing and reimbursement, including pricing and contracting; healthcare strategy, regulation and policy; and economic analysis, including cost modelling, budgeting and cost-benefit analysis. During a two-year secondment at Monitor, the healthcare sector regulator in England, she acted as deputy director of pricing, implementing large-scale reform of the payment system for the National Health Service. She has since worked with healthcare providers and payers in the UK and South Africa on a range of pricing and contracting issues, including the development of alternative reimbursement mechanisms to support the delivery of value-based healthcare.

Her recent clients include the World Health Organization, Jhpiego, Icon Oncology, Sizwe Medical Fund, Innovative Pharmaceutical Association South Africa, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa and National Treasury of South Africa.

Dr Ntuthuko Bhengu is the founder of Alchemy Health Technologies, a health policy advisor and director of companies. Alchemy, a health data management company, hosts a health sector provider directory and provides advisory services to premier medical schemes and corporations on funding and delivery of health services.

He is serving his second term as a national planning commissioner and was a panellist of the Health Market Inquiry, which was established by the Competition Commission to probe the private health sector to determine factors that restrict, prevent or distort competition. He is a chartered director with many years’ experience and has served on the boards of Nestle (SA), the Institute of Directors of South Africa and the Road Accident Fund, among others.

He obtained his MBChB degree from Natal University and his Diploma in Anaesthetics from the College of Medicine of SA. His business management qualifications include an MBA (Wales, Cardiff) and an MPH Healthcare Management (Harvard).

He has participated as an invited speaker at various prestigious local and international platforms, including the Harvard Global Health Institute, Harvard Business School, Imperial College, the BHF, the Gordon Institute of Business Science and the Blockchain Africa Conference. He is a Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative.

Lee Callakoppen is currently principal officer of Bonitas Medical Fund, the second-largest open medical scheme in South Africa with approximately 338 000 members. A master HR professional (SABPP) and MPhil graduate (UJ), he has a wealth of experience at executive level, specialising in human capital, transformation and operational management. He began his career in operational management within the retail sector, and has held positions in various industries including the media and telecommunications.

He was HR executive for Primedia’s content division before joining Medscheme in 2007. He spent 11 years at Medscheme, where his responsibilities included leading and managing international operations. He developed strong networks in the healthcare industry, which enabled him to drive change and facilitate/manage multiple amalgamations and scheme take-ons for Medscheme and AfroCentric

Vishal Brijlal is an economist who specialises in health policy, health financing and economics, public-private partnerships and health insurance, with over 25 years of experience advising national governments across 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and India. He is currently a senior director at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).

In 2012, he was seconded as the advisor to the Minister of Health on health care financing and from 2016 was the National Health Insurance (NHI) coordinator. He previously held positions at the Centre for Health Policy (Wits) and served as the director of Health Financing and Economics at the national Department of Health. He was the executive for research and development at the BHF.

At CHAI, he served as country director for India, regional director for Southern Africa and country director for South Africa.

He has served on various ministerial committees. In December 2015, he was appointed by the Minister of Health to lead Work Stream 4: The Future of Medical Schemes as part of the six NHI work streams. In May 2016, the Minister of Health appointed him as NHI coordinator.

Professor Thuli Madonsela is an advocate of the High Court of South Africa and a lifelong activist for social justice, constitutionalism, human rights, good governance and the rule of law.

She served as the Public Protector of South Africa from 19 October 2009 to 14 October 2016. Named one of the ‘TIME100 Influential People’ in 2014 and Forbes Africa’s ‘Person of the Year’ 2016, she is one of the drafters of South Africa’s Constitution and co-architect of several laws that have sought to illuminate South Africa’s democracy. Previously, she was a member of a task team that prepared constitutional inputs for the African National Congress with regard to Gauteng. She presented the final document at the African National Congress’ Gauteng Constitutional Conference in 1995.

She is also a human rights lawyer and equality expert, and co-architect and founding chairperson of the African Ombudsman Research Centre.

The Thuli Madonsela Foundation (THUMA) has partnered with Khulisa Social Solutions. The initiative is also supported by Stellenbosch University Law School, where Madonsela is Chairperson of Social Justice.

In 2017 she was a resident at Harvard University as an advanced leadership fellow. Her many accolades include Transparency International’s Integrity Award and the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Truth and Justice Award.

Dr Rajesh Narwal is the health systems advisor and coordinator of the health system team at the World Health Organization’s country office for South Africa. Besides supporting the COVID-19 response, his current work is focused on strengthening health governance and financing policies, integrated people-centred service delivery, health workforce and health intelligence aimed at promoting universal health coverage.

In the past, Dr Narwal worked at leadership positions in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, with the WHO and Ministry of Health: India, Medical Emergency Relief International: UK, Centers for Disease Control: USA and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is a medical doctor and earned a Master’s Degree in Public Health from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Professor Solomon Tshimong Rataemane has held the following positions:

• President: African Association of Psychiatrists and Allied Professions (2014-2017)
• Chairperson of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Mental Health in South Africa (2015-2020)
• International Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association
• Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at SMU (2003-2019)
• Central Drug Authority of South Africa (Deputy Chair: 1995-2000; Chair: 2000-2005)
• WPA Zone 14 Representative and Board Member (2008-2014)
• Secretary General: World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (2015-2021)
• Chair of Conflict Management and Conflict Resolution Section of WPA (2011-2017)
• Chair: Ministerial Advisory Committee on Mental Health (2015-2020)
• Chair: MDB of the HPCSA (2020-2025).

A highly seasoned executive, Mark Bayley is a senior member of the Universal Healthcare team. He has experience in strategy, managing people, processes, systems and operational infrastructure. During his career he has run a number of complex businesses, where he was

Vuyo Mafata is the commissioner of the Compensation Fund, a public entity of the Department of Labour. The Compensation Fund is a healthcare funder in the area of occupational injuries and diseases, and provides a social security safety net in the event of an injury in the workplace.

He was appointed to this role in June 2015 on an assignment that was meant to be for a short period, and confirmed to stay on permanently in April 2016. Prior to this he was the chief financial officer of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, another entity of the Department of Labour, where he had spent 10 years in various roles.

Together with his management team, he has embarked on a process to improve the fortunes of the Compensation Fund and to ensure that it lives up to the important role that it has been established to play in the South African labour market. There are already signs that he and his team are achieving the desired results in a short space of time, though the complete turnaround will only be realised over a longer period.

Christoff Raath has pursued his actuarial career for over 20 years in the healthcare financing arena, acting as an actuarial consultant for some of South Africa’s largest and most prominent medical schemes, managed care companies and administrators. After heading up the Health Monitor Company for seven years, he merged this company with two other entities to form Insight Actuaries in 2014.

He obtained his Honours in BCom Actuarial Science at the University of Pretoria, where he also lectured in actuarial mathematics. He is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the UK and a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa. He is actively involved in the actuarial profession and was recently elected to serve on the Council of the Actuarial Society of South Africa. He also chairs the Board of Examiners and serves on various committees in the actuarial profession. Furthermore, he has participated in and chaired various committees established by the Council for Medical Schemes over the past two decades.

Proficient in product development, strategic consulting, risk mitigation, competitive positioning and financial monitoring, he aims to apply his experience towards building a fair and equitable health financing system that is both affordable and sustainable in the long term.

Thulani Mkhungo worked at Transnet Freight Rail as senior manage: risk, driving infrastructure capital projects risks for more than six years. He joined the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in February 2016 as head of internal risk and governance, where he successfully established the Enterprise Risk Management, Internal Audit and Governance Unit. In November 2018, he was appointed chief risk officer (CRO) at the SIU after the SIU underwent organisational structure review. One of his responsibilities as CRO at SIU is fraud and ethics management.

One of his greatest achievements in his current position is the sector vulnerability risk assessment, which identified the health sector as one of the key vulnerable sectors through corruption risk assessment. This led to the establishment of the Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum (HSACF), which was official launched by the President on 1 October 2019.

He participates in various anti-corruption bodies, fighting corruption in South Africa, the African Union, SADAC, Commonwealth and the United Nations. He presented papers at the Commonwealth heads of anti-corruption agencies forum in 2020 and 2021.

This award-winning journalist hosts the daily 702 Breakfast Show. Formerly he was with weekly current affairs show, Carte Blanche, on MNet.

He is much in demand as an MC at corporate functions. From The Gary Player Invitational to the Inyathelo Awards, he has hosted events for some of the country’s biggest corporate names including Standard Bank, the Development Bank, the CRF-Business Report Leading Managers and the FNB Tourism Indaba.

His background as a journalist includes a previous stint on 702, where he began as a news anchor and progressed to hosting his own show, Talk at Nine. He then hosted Afternoon Drive and now anchors that station’s biggest prime time show.

Dr Odwa Mazwai currently serves as the managing director of Universal Care (Pty) Ltd. As a qualified medical doctor with experience in managed care, he has a keen understanding of the pressing need for equitable and sustainable healthcare in South Africa.

His career spans the spectrum of medical care from clinical work to policy development at the National Department of Health. While he still has a keen interest in clinical medicine, his passion lies in the realisation of access to quality healthcare for the citizens of Africa.

He remains excited about the changes on the horizon for healthcare in South Africa and believes the ripples of these changes will permeate through the continent for the better.

Dr Stanley Moloabi is a qualified medical practitioner registered with the Health Professions Council of Southern Africa (HPCSA).He obtained his primary medical degree, an MB ChB, from Medunsa.

His other qualifications are a Diploma in Business Management from Damelin Management School, a Certificate in HIV Management and an Advanced Certificate in Private Health Sector Funding from CE at Pretoria University. He also studied postgraduate family medicine at Wits University. He is a member of the Institute of Directors of South Africa (IODSA) and a board member of the BHF, where he is also chairperson of the Universal Healthcare Committee.

He completed a ‘Harvard Global Health Delivery’ online short course through Harvard University. He also attended a course on metanalysis leadership at Harvard’s Boston Campus USA in 2019.

He started his medical career as a general practitioner, running a clinical private practice for 13 years. He joined the corporate sector in August 2005. He worked at Medscheme as medical advisor, senior manager: hospital benefit management and senior manager: client liaison for the GEMS account, where he served on the Exco. He then joined GEMS as executive of healthcare management and also served as acting principal officer for just over a year from mid-2013 to mid-2014. He left GEMS to become principal officer of Medshield Medical Scheme, a position he held until 15 May 2018.

On 1 June 2018 he re-joined GEMS as chief operations officer until 31 January 2020. On 1 February 2020 he became principal officer of GEMS, the position he currently occupies.

Nyasha Masuka is a specialist community physician, health systems consultant, a member of the WHO Health Financing Technical Network and a member of the Zimbabwe College of Public Health Physicians. He is currently the group chief medical officer of Cimas Medical Aid Society. He was previously a special services assignment consultant at the WHO’s Zimbabwe country office in the Health Systems Strengthening Unit.

He holds a Master’s in Public Health: Health Systems Management and Policy from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) degrees from the University of Zimbabwe, a Diploma in HIV Management from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa and a certificate in social health insurance from the National Health Insurance Company of South Korea. He has more than 20 years’ experience working at every level of the Zimbabwean health system (District Medical Officer, Provincial Medical Director and CEO of a central hospital). He was a member of the Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe from 2016 to 2019. He has worked as a consultant for the WHO, the World Bank and UNFPA, developing health policies and strategies in Zimbabwe and the Gambia.

Dr Vuyane Mhlomi studied medicine at the University of Cape Town, where he completed his degree with distinction. In 2014, he was awarded a Rhodes scholarship and at the age of 29, he completed his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil/PhD) at the University of Oxford. The University for Poets & Quants selected him as one of the top 100 most promising MBA graduates in the world.

Fascinated by the intersection of healthcare, science and business, he evaded the conventional career path in medicine in order to explore new frontiers in healthcare delivery. In 2018, he set about building a team that would launch an innovative digital healthcare company pioneering premium hospital-at-home services, Quro Medical.

He is also the founder of MH Foundation, an educational non-profit organisation that identifies and nurtures academically talented learners from socio-economically underprivileged neighbourhoods in South Africa.

Dr Sivuyile Madikana holds a MB BCh (Wits, 2012) MBA (Wits, 2017) and NYU (MPH, 2019). He is the commercial executive and telehealth project lead at First Care Solutions. In this role he is responsible for new business and product development across the group, strategy and leading the growth of virtual healthcare. He is passionate about the use of technology in healthcare delivery and the role of telemedicine in equitable health across the country and the continent.

Prior to joining First Care, he held a tenure at UN Women (New York) in the Policy and Governance Division, where he explored the role of digital innovation for youth engagement in HIV/AIDS. He has received the BHF Young Achiever Award and the Gauteng Excellence Youth Award from Premier David Makhura.

Mike Sathekge is Professor and Head of the Nuclear Medicine Department at the University of Pretoria and Steve Biko Academic Hospital. He heads the South African nuclear medicine research infrastructure. He has published over 220 peer-reviewed articles, excluding abstracts and book chapters. He is a global leader on the treatment of prostate cancer using targeted radiopharmaceuticals. He also led and introduced several targeted molecular imaging and therapeutic probes in infection and oncology in Africa.

He is the editor-in-chief of Seminars in Nuclear Medicine and an associate editor of the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging and the Journal of Nuclear Medicine (top journals in nuclear medicine). He is president of the World Association of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Therapy, the past chair of the South African Medical Research Council and past president of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. Some of his significant awards include: the award to host the Main Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure Facility (NuMeRI) in South Africa, the South African Clinician Society Research Excellence Award, Science of Medicine Award, Golden Pen Award, SAMA Leadership Award, and the Medical Research Council’s prestigious President’s Award for exceptional lifelong contribution to medical research and public health.

Professor Sathekge is the chair of the ASSAf panel on research, development and innovation of peaceful uses of nuclear technologies in South Africa. He holds the highest honour of the CMSA, Honorary Fellowship, and was also admitted as a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore.

Chancellor Dr Mokgokong is a co-founder and executive chairperson of Community Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd, a 100% black-owned company founded in 1995. She is a renowned business figure in corporate South Africa and globally, with widespread experience in healthcare, academia, commerce and governance.

She is recognised as a senior director of companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and serves as non-executive chairperson of Afrocentric Investment Corporation, Rebosis Property Fund Limited and Jasco Electronics Holdings Limited. She is the first female director of Shoprite Holdings Limited. She served on the board of Adcock Ingram Holdings Limited from 2014 to 2019, and also serves on the boards of numerous non-listed entities, including as non-executive chairman of Seriti Coal Holdings, Larimar Limited and Putco Holdings.

She has received numerous local and international accolades as a community and business leader, including SA Businesswoman of the Year (1999). More recently she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Gauteng Premier David Makhura at the 2018 Township Entrepreneurship Awards.

She has served on numerous councils of academic institutions as well as civil society commissions such as the Independent Commission for Remuneration of Public Office Bearers, where she was appointed deputy chairperson by former President Thabo Mbeki. She was also a commissioner of the Interim National Defense Force Commission from 2009 to 2013.

She is a social activist and passionate about women empowerment. She was appointed Honorary Consul General of Iceland in Pretoria in 2017. North-West University appointed her its first female chancellor in November 2019.

Dr Ali Hamdulay is currently CEO, Metropolitan Health (a division of Momentum Health Solutions). He has also served as a former chairperson of the BHF. He is a qualified family physician and business leader, having trained at institutions that include the University of Cape Town, the University of Stellenbosch and Harvard University. Having served the healthcare industry for over 20 years in leadership roles, he has developed vast expertise in healthcare business, administration, and health solutions. He is a strategic thinker and thought-leader, having led the turnaround strategy at Metropolitan Health. He is passionate about leadership development, building effective teams and the potential of human impact.

After 30 years at Radio702, this media personality is highly ranked among IT speakers. He addresses the corporate world on tech trends and is much in demand as an MC. He also shares his passion for IT on his weekly television show TechHub on eNCA.

On the corporate stage, his talk in the business skills arena – ‘Disruptions’ – illustrates how, because technology is evolving at such a blistering pace, businesses are struggling to keep up with this tsunami of change, and he explores these challenges by making sense of the technologies hurtling towards us. He says: “We are moving towards a society that will be automated by robotics and where humans will be replaced by technology. What will be the impact on humanity in the coming decades?”

One of the first South African personalities to use Twitter, he continues to lead in this field and is consistently ranked as one of the most influential Twitter users. Cosmopolitan named him one of their Twitter Kings.

The Consumer Electronics Expo in Las Vegas and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona are two of the many international conferences he attends to stay ahead of the IoT and to earmark future trends.

Tiego Malibe is the head of client insights and service monitoring, responsible for driving and reimagining client experience and innovation at MH.

A seasoned client management and solutions professional, she has over 12 years of experience in the financial services industry and has held various roles, including head of client solutions at Sanlam, head of client fulfilment for Nestlife Assurance and client management at Discovery’s UK subsidiary, Vitality Life.

Rebone Segoale is a seasoned corporate strategist, scenario planner and technology advisor with seven years of experience in the public sector to digitise government. She has been instrumental in business development and carving a niche to accelerate the health industry scenarios and capabilities of technology to provide solutions for private and public health. She has astutely advised customers on the journey of digital transformation towards connected health using the Microsoft cloud for health.

Prior to joining Microsoft as public sector health lead, she spent nearly 15 years in the energy, oil and gas sector with a career that included being policy advisor on energy scenarios. Her career started as a deputy director (petroleum policy) at the Department of Minerals and Energy in 2002, after graduating with a Master’s in Environmental Management from the University of Sussex (England).

She then joined the petrochemical company, Sasol, assuming various roles including senior business analyst and senior business development manager, providing an advisory role on the policy and regulatory framework for the oil and energy business, as well as the commercialisation of alternative sources of energy.

She served as an Exco board member of the Information Technology Association between 2014 and 2015, representing Microsoft SA.

Geraldine Bartlett is chief professional officer at Universal Healthcare, responsible for strategic healthcare policy, healthcare quality initiatives, clinical risk management policies and provider relations for the Universal Group of companies.

A pharmacist by qualification, she has a master’s degree in pharmacy and over 30 years’ experience in managed care at senior management and executive level within the medical schemes industry. She has been responsible for pioneering a number of managed care initiatives in South Africa, including disease management programmes, medicine formularies, chronic medicine management programmes and medicine reference pricing. She has presented both internationally and locally on managed care.

George is a Senior Lecturer in Practice in Health Policy, with an academic background in International Relations (BSc, LSE) and Health Policy (MSc, Imperial). George is most interested in questions of how to improve governance and equity in international health systems, and the range of his work at LSE reflects this.

George began his career at Deutsche Bank before joining the Civil Service as a ‘Fast Streamer’. George worked in a variety of policy roles before joining Healthcare UK, a government agency which promotes the UK’s health and life sciences sectors overseas. As COO, he managed the organisation’s launch and its programme of work in its first three years, working with partners across sectors in the UK, governments and health care providers around the world to develop UK-based solutions to address health care challenges. George went on to join Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, as Head of International Business Development before joining LSE in 2018 with the launch of the Department of Health Policy.

At LSE, George teaches and mentors MSc students in international health policy, and works on a variety of teaching, research and advisory partnerships. He has consulted and written for WHO, the Commonwealth Fund, philanthropic foundations and pharmaceutical companies, and has co-authored articles on health systems and policies in The BMJ and The Lancet, among others. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Healthcare Management, and is a Board Trustee of the Paul Strickland Scanner Centre, a charity which provides leading-edge radiology services at the NHS Mount Vernon Cancer Centre.

Dr Hleli Nhlapo qualified with a BChD from Medunsa in July 1991. He obtained a postgraduate diploma in forensic dentistry and an MSc Dent Sc (Forensic Dentistry) from Stellenbosch University in 1999 and 2002, respectively.

He is registered with the HPCSA as a general dental practitioner. He served as a director of Oralnet from 1998 until January 2005 and as an executive member of the South African Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Association (SAMDP) from 1996 to 2001. He is currently the managing director of the medical schemes division of Dental Information Systems (Pty) Ltd (DENIS), a position he has held since January 2005. He serves as chairman of the HFMU within the BHF.

He practised as a dental surgeon for 14 years before joining DENIS. He has attended various dental specialty postgraduate courses and received certificates. He has served as dental advisor for Medscheme (1998-2004) and Managed Health Systems (2002-2004), and as a local area manager for Bankmed under MHS.

He was part of the SAMDP yearly tariff increase negotiation team with the then RAMS and was also involved in the negotiations with the Dental Technicians Council that made it possible for dental technicians to claim directly from medical schemes. He has attended international conferences and facilitated sessions at the GHCAN on fraud, waste and abuse. He has spoken on the latter subject at previous BHF conferences. He is an annual invitee of the University of the Western Cape’s dental faculty and speaks to final year students on the subject of private health funding in South Africa.

Dr Rajesh Patel is registered with the HPCSA as a specialist family physician with 34 years’ experience in the health sector. He is the Head of Health Systems Strengthening at the BHF. He advises the body on medical scheme benefits, healthcare quality and affordability.

His career includes working as a GP/family physician for seven years, from 1988 to 1995. After leaving private practice he joined the medical aid industry.

His roles in the medical sector include having served as a medical advisor, scheme manager and in clinical risk management. Prior to joining the BHF in 2005, he spent two and a half years in the pharmaceutical industry. His special interests are quality assurance, value-based medicine and the application of public health principles in health risk management in the private sector.

He is a member of the ministerial Health Data Advisory and Co-ordinating Committee (HDACC), and he was appointed as a commissioner to the Lancet National Commission (SA). He was a non-executive director of the Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA) and Health Quality Assessment (HQA), as well as a former chairperson of the Clinical Review Committee of HQA. He holds a MB ChB from the University of Natal, an MPH from Medunsa, an FCFP from the College of Medicine and a Diploma in Business Management from Damelin.

Chris Adams is a Medical Technologist, trained at SAIMR. He spent 17 years at Clinical / Lancet labs in Johannesburg   He is qualified and registered in both Chemical Pathology and Clinical Pathology (med tech) and holds an NDT in Microbiology. He holds a B Com from Unisa, An MBA from Henley Management School / Brunel university (London) and a post Grad certificate in Health Economics at UCT. His MBA dissertation was entitled “Pathology billing styles in South Africa. The necessity for transparency in the billing relationship”.   

He is a Director of Verirad (Pty) ltd and Verimed Africa Pty) Ltd (Botswana). These companies provide Health Risks management services to funders of medical services in the sectors of Pathology and Radiology.

Verirad (Pty) Ltd is listed on the Technology Top 100 companies as recognised by the Department of Science and Technology and has won awards for, Innovation , People Management , Systems Management and Sustainable Management . The company has since 2002 regularly won PMR awards as the top-rated specialist Pathology and Radiology management company in SA. Verirad was a finalist in the 2017 and 2019 Titanium Awards run by BHF

Chris serves on the steering committee of the Health Fraud Management Unit (HFMU) of BHF. The company Verirad was a contributor to the Health Market inquiry and has presented at BHF , SASMLT and Case managers of South Africa conferences in South Africa and at AFHoZ conferences in Zimbabwe

Chris is married with three children and lives in Johannesburg

Andrew Good is co-founder of OMRC (the Outcome Measurement and Reporting Conference of South Africa), as well as being a managed care, clinical governance, health system and funding consultant. He holds a MBChB (University of Stellenbosch) and MBA (UCT).

His board affiliations include:

• Director of Lifechoice – clinical data warehousing and health informatics consultancy
• Managing Director of Prognosys – actuaries and healthcare consultants
• Clinical Governance Committee – Medshield Medical Scheme: Independent Expert
• Cape Medical Plan – previously served as a trustee.

He has practised clinically in the South African public and private sectors, the UK’s NHS, and in New Zealand. He has worked in health funding for the last 24 years, played an executive role at MHG for 10 years and at Lifechoice and Prognosys for the last 11 years. He is a consultant to Optimal Managed Care.

Dr Pardon Maluleke currently holds the position of clinical executive: stakeholder engagement at Dental Information Systems (DENIS).

He completed his bachelor’s degree in dental surgery at Medunsa and worked as a private dental practitioner around Gauteng for a period of approximately12 years. He also worked as a sessional dentist for West Rand Oral Health.

He holds a Master’s in Public Health from Medunsa, a Master’s of Science in Bioethics and Health from the University of Witwatersrand, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration.

He has worked for various organisations in the managed care environment for almost 15 years. He is currently the chairperson of the BHF Dental Advisory Forum, and is also an honorary lecturer in the Department of Community Dentistry at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Dr Joanna Samsonowicz is currently the medical advisor for Medscheme’s healthcare forensics department. She obtained her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees at the University of Cape Town in 1999. After completing her internship and community service, she obtained her Diploma in Obstetrics from the College of Medicine (SA).

She spent three years working in the UK as a medical officer in obstetrics and gynaecology, before returning to Cape Town and joining the Medicross GP Group.

She worked as a general practitioner in private practice for five years, developing a special interest in oncology and palliative care. She returned to England in 2009, to take up the position of oncology medical officer at Weston Park Oncology Hospital, Sheffield, UK.

She was appointed oncology/clinical haematology medical advisor for Medscheme in 2010 – a position she held for 10 years. In May 2020, Dr Samsonowicz joined Medscheme’s healthcare fraud and abuse department as medical advisor, and is currently enrolled in the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) course.

Nomo Khumalo holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, a certificate in business project management from Wits Business School, and an MBA (cum laude) from the Recanati School of Business, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

She is currently executive head of solutions and a director at Momentum Health Services Africa/India, a position she has held since late 2018. Her responsibilities embrace managing the actuarial, product development, health risk management, analytics and commercial teams that support MHS. As a member of the Momentum Metropolitan Group Innovation Panel, she led the team through the difficulties of a novel pandemic with the introduction of digital care solutions and the product development required to keep up with a changing environment.           

For the five years immediately prior to her current position she was managing director of the Fortune 300 company, Henry Schein Southern Africa. She oversaw its entry into Africa and doubled its business during her first three years as MD.

Grace Chardin Murray holds an MSc in Health Policy from Imperial College London, UK. Her expertise in global market access and pricing strategy development, with a focus on value-based healthcare, has been developed over 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry.

She is currently Payer Analytics Lead, Oncology, at AstraZeneca. In this role she is responsible for global-level value-based pricing and access strategy development for key AZ oncology brands, and partnerships with AZ country teams to develop and implement value-based agreements with payer organisations – Europe, LATAM and Asia region.

Her past positions include Senior Consultant, DRG Consulting, and Senior Research Analyst, DRG Abacus.

Juan-David Rueda holds a PhD, an MS Epidemiology and Preventive Health and an MS Pharmaceutical Health Services Research, all from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore, USA. Prior to that, he qualified as a medical doctor in Bogota, Colombia.

He is currently Astra-Zeneca’s International Oncology Market Access Lead for Emerging Markets, based in Singapore, a position he has held since May 2021. His proven experience includes creating innovative and compelling business cases that enable business success. He has a deep knowledge of and insights into the healthcare system, funding flows and payer landscape (across multiple markets) and has developed real-world data analysis using machine-learning algorithms to support the value messages in emerging markets. He has a broad experience and understanding of the specialty care business environment related to the AZ Oncology product portfolio.

He has published extensively, both books and journal articles.

Alison Horsfield is an experienced pharmaceutical marketing professional, whose current focus is on global oncology value-based market access strategy, shaping new ways to secure access to innovation. She holds a BA Hons First Class in German and Business Studies from the University of Hull, UK.

She is currently the Global Strategy & Innovation Director, Oncology, at AstraZeneca, addressing the evolving challenges of access to oncology innovation and shaping policy through collaboration. Prior to this she was Global Pricing and Reimbursement Director (ovarian/multiple cancer).

Dr Rufaro Machiri is an independent medical practitioner currently working at Polmed in a senior managerial capacity within the operations department. In addition, he is studying towards a Master’s in Public Health: Health Economics at the University of the Witwatersrand.

His role at Polmed is to develop and implement compliant benefits to provide optimal healthcare services to members in a financially sustainable manner. The role involves developing and implementing an effective, data analytics-driven, evidence-based healthcare delivery strategy to ensure optimal healthcare provision coverage and health outcomes. In addition, he identifies opportunities for optimisation of healthcare costs, while ensuring delivery of quality healthcare services to members, and monitors the implementation of healthcare provision, including risk assessment, managed care and clinical support programmes, and provider networks.

His prior working history comprises five years of clinical practice with the Eastern Cape and Gauteng Departments of Health, almost four years in general private practice, three years as a medical advisor at Discovery Health and just over three years as medical advisor within clinical risk at Medshield Medical Scheme.

He is passionate about universal health coverage and methods to address inefficiency and inequity in South Africa’s dichotomous health system. As a consequence he is highly interested in health economics and the various tools utilized to assess various medications and devices in terms of cost and benefits, including research, evidence-based medicine and health technology assessments.

The provision and delivery of necessary social services in South Africa has left a lot to be desired. This is primarily due to the legacy of Apartheid as well as a combination of developmental, leadership and management challenges. Healthcare in particular strikes a chord in this regard, and many commentators and analysts have for a number of years been concerned about the extent of fragmentation as well the notion that the quality of and ability to access healthcare are dependent on how well off one is financially.

Vuyo Mokoena has had considerable exposure in the South African healthcare industry in various capacities and has had the opportunity to interact with colleagues from other countries who have been battling similar issues.

Some of the major milestones he has achieved are:

• Customer service and legislation compliance – South African Pharmacy Council, 2010-2016
• Contributing to research in healthcare by ensuring legislative compliance of the facilities of the International Partnership for Microbicides in 2008
• Expanding the availability of pharmaceutical services by setting up a chain of pharmacies through the Transmed Pharmacies management buy-out 2001-2003.

With the advent of the National Health Insurance (NHI) and the promise to offer universal coverage for all members of the population, irrespective of their socio-economic standing, it is his intention to contribute to the development of best practices that will ensure that the implementation of the NHI and related policies takes off with few glitches as well as ensure that these approaches are sustainable over a reasonably long period of time.

He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree (UL, former University of the North), a Master’s of Business Leadership (UNISA) and various management development programme certificates.

Precious Ncayiyana holds a B Pharm, UKZN (2001); PDBA, GIBS (2006); MBA: Finance, City University London (2008) and MSc Med: Bioethics and Health Law, Wits (2017). She’s a deputy pharmacy manager at 1 Military Hospital. She is currently deployed at the Mobile Military Health Formation as a staff officer for pharmaceutical support to external operations. She has over 20 years of experience in pharmacy. She is a deputy chairperson of the South African Military Health Services (SAMHS) Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Committee and SAMHS Formulary Committee. She’s a former consumer representative at the United Nations Development Program’s Standard and Labelling Project Steering Committee. Her interests include AMS, polypharmacy, bioethics and health law. She’s presented in countries like Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. She also has television and radio experience as a guest or co-producer. She co-produced The Health Talk for Bongi Gwala at SAFM from 2019 to 2020.

In 2021, Insight Actuaries & Consultants’ Joint CEO, Barry Childs, received the Actuarial Society of South Africa’s (ASSA) Presidential Award at its annual convention for service to the profession. He was recognised for fostering a greater understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as leading the ASSA coronavirus working group and providing technical and analytical support for the vaccine rollout programme across South Africa. His COVID-19 work supported Business4SA’s efforts in pandemic monitoring and the vaccine rollout.

Insight is the leading provider of actuarial services and analytics in healthcare in South Africa, operating across all sectors of the market. It now also offers services in the life insurance market and has opened offices in Australia. He enjoys exploring new ways of applying data and analytics to solve health system problems and has a keen interest in wellness programmes and engagement, behaviour change, value-based care, technology in healthcare and promoting system improvement.

Fatima Suleman works in pharmaceutical policy. Her focus has been on ensuring affordability and access to medicines, and the pandemic has exposed these inequities. She was appointed by the Minister of Health as member (2010) and then chair (2014-2020) of the Medicines Pricing Committee. She is appointed to the World Health Organization’s Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Evaluation (2017 – 2025); member of WHO Technical Consultation on Universal access to core malaria interventions (12-15 February 2018 )in Geneva, Switzerland; appointed as Chair of the WHO informal advisory group on Availability and Affordability of Cancer Medicines for 2018; Chair and convener of a Pharmaceutical Policy Think Tank meeting in Zimbali, Durban (25-27 June 2018); Technical consultant for WHO-Euro on project on country collaborations on medicines (January 2018 – December 2018); Technical Expert to Rwanda on pricing policies for medicines for the country (November 2018 to June 2019); Technical Consultation on Selection of Health Products, WHO Headquarters, Geneva (21-22 January 2019); Member and Rapporteur of the 22nd WHO Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines (1 to 5 April 2019) in Geneva; member (and co-Chair) of the WHO Guideline Review Committee on WHO Guidelines for Country Pharmaceutical Policies (2019 – 2020). As of April 2019, she have been designated as Director: World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Evidence Based She has served as a technical advisor on pharmaceutical policy for several countries in Africa and Asia in the last 17 years. In 2021, she was co-winner of the Helen Clark-Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice Award.

Susan Lin holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from Rhodes University. She has 20 years’ of experience in the healthcare industry, with 12 years spent in managed care. She began her career in the public sector and subsequently joined Metropolitan Health Risk Management, where she managed several portfolios. Her positions included executive manager: medicines risk & electronic benefit management and specialist: business modelling & coordination.

In 2018, she started consulting privately for a number of segments within the healthcare industry, focusing on streamlining access to primary healthcare and the development of technology in facilitating this process. She recently joined Medscheme as Senior Manager: health policy development – medicine and is responsible for the development of strategies for medicine risk management.

Head of research and development at GEMS, Dr Selaelo Mametja is a public health medicine specialist with experience in health economics and financing, health policy, management and the medical aid industry. She is passionate about access to quality healthcare and a long disability-free life for all South Africans. Her qualifications include a degree in medicine, MMed in Public Health Medicine, Fellow of the College of Public Health Medicine of South Africa, a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Management and a Postgraduate Certificate in Business Management. Dr Mametja was also a member of the ministerial-appointed Tertiary/Quaternary Essential Medicine Committee, a member of the Clinical Advisory Board at HQA, and a member of the ministerial-appointed Pricing Committee (2011-2013), involved in the regulation of medicine prices in accordance with the Medicine and Related Substances Act.        

Her responsibilities as head of KMRD include knowledge management, health policy evaluation and support and guideline development. She also has five years’ experience as health economist at the Council for Medical Schemes, mainly responsible for minimum benefits definitions; she has experience in the management and implementation of HIV, women’s, maternal and child health programmes, as well as various other programmes at primary healthcare level. She was instrumental in the successful implementation of cervical cancer screening programmes and expansion of the HIV treatment rollout in government clinics.

Her academic experience includes serving as a course convenor, undergraduate and postgraduate teacher in public health, financial management, health financing and health economics.

Dr Ritesh Nandkoomar is passionate about quality universal health care. He is currently head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Madadeni Provincial Hospital. He is also a trustee of Medshield Medical Scheme and a director of the BHF.

His qualifications include an MBBCh from Wits University (2002), a Fellowship in Ophthalmology from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow (2013) and a Master’s in Surgery from the University of Edinburgh (2021). He is also a member of the Institute of Directors of South Africa.

Shivani Ranchod is an experienced healthcare actuary, having worked across both the public and private health systems with funders, providers, policymakers, regulators and international agencies. She has co-founded four firms: Percept (a trans-disciplinary advisory firm), Alignd (a provider of value-based financing solutions for complex patients), Swansong (a provider of digitally facilitated advance care planning) and Yugma (a strategic investor into solutions for a healthier and more financially resilient world).

She has also been a long-term advisor to the Government Technical Advisory Centre. She is an adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Management Studies at UCT, where she was previously Head of Actuarial Science. She brings academic rigour, a deep commitment to the health system and patients, and personal courage to everything that she does.

She sees her work life as an extension of her meditation and yoga practice: an imperfect (but always evolving) attempt to bring careful attention to bear on socially meaningful problems.

Dr Peter Hill is a chronic diseases of lifestyle self-care consultant. He earned a doctorate in patient behaviour in type 2 diabetes mellitus at Rhodes University, South Africa, and was subsequently appointed to the position of Visiting Fellow. Part of his doctoral studies included undergoing training in chronic disease self-management at the Patient Education Centre at Stanford University, USA. His post-doctoral studies, practice, teaching and research are focused on the role of self-care in preventing and treating chronic diseases of lifestyle, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

He taught a number elective courses focused on chronic disease self-care at Rhodes University during the period 2003-2017. He has conducted a number of self-care workshops and mentored more than 150 nurses and health coaches employed in the private healthcare sector in South Africa. In 2014 he was elected a member of the American College of Nutrition. Today much of his practice, teaching and research remains focused on helping people with chronic diseases improve their self-care capabilities in a holistic manner.

He believes that telehealth (mHealth), a developing healthcare trend, offers much promise in advancing the cause of cost-effectively improving the health of people at risk for lifestyle-related chronic diseases. To this end, he published a review in the Journal of Medicine and Therapeutics in June 2018 entitled: mHealth: A cost-effective solution to chronic problems?

CJ Umunnakwe obtained his PhD from Iowa State University, USA, in 2014, where he majored in genetics and minored in bioinformatics. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship within the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, Maryland, USA, in 2020, with a focus on HIV replication.

He is currently senior research scientist at Ndlovu Research Centre in Limpopo, South Africa. Working with a multidisciplinary group of collaborators, he aims to directly translate acquired research knowledge into improved public health polices and health and wellness in rural South African communities.

His current research areas include HIV and STI monitoring, HIV reservoir and cure studies, and surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens. He is passionate about capacitating and mentoring aspiring African scientists with a view towards expanding the continent’s research and scientific potential.

Manthati Phomane is the principal officer of Mamoth Health, a medical aid scheme in Maseru, Lesotho, and a director of the Board of Healthcare Funders.

Her varied expertise and experience in leadership and social behaviour change communication spans various sectors, including academia, NGOs, financial services, the automobile industry and creative agencies in Lesotho and South Africa. She is also an avid professional MC for mega-events and a thought leadership speaker on service excellence.

Her academic studies in health communication, marketing management and business management previously afforded her opportunities to occupy c-suite portfolios, including chief operations officer at Mamoth Employee Benefits, executive head of marketing, communications and service at FNB Lesotho, chief operations officer at Tangerine Co, communications manager at PSI-Lesotho and communications coordinator at Mercedes Benz (SAFRI Project) in Munich, Germany.

She is a World Vision Lesotho Advisory Council member, currently chairing the Ministry, Strategy, Fundraising and Finance Committee, and has previously served on the Audit & Risk Committee. She is passionate about people, customer-centricity, change management and skills development as a coach and mentor of young people aspiring to be executives of impact.

Thembi Ncube pioneered the setting up of Bonvie Medical Aid, seeing it through its registration, product design and launch to market in 2010. Under her leadership, the scheme has registered steady growth over the years as more products were introduced. By 2021 Bonvie Medical Aid was one of the top four medical schemes as measured by lives covered.

Innovation, prevention and wellness remain Bonvie’s competitive edge. In 2017 she led her team to set up primary healthcare facilities. To date they have established seven general practitioner-manned clinics, seven retail pharmacies, two optometry centres, one pharmaceutical wholesale company, two emergency centres and two hospitals. She is a true leader, who enjoys empowering her management team to excel and fly the Bonvie flag higher each day. She admires the Kaiser Permanente model of healthcare, which she aims to emulate in the context of Zimbabwean healthcare.

She has over 23 years of work experience, with 15 of those years in the medical aid industry. She holds a Certificate of Compliance from the Insurance Institute of Zimbabwe, an Executive Diploma in Business and Leadership from the Institute of Management in Zimbabwe. She sits on various boards of health institutions in Zimbabwe, a micro-finance company, the Association of Healthcare Funders of Zimbabwe and the Board of Healthcare Funders of Southern Africa.

Dr Kate Tulenko is a physician and health systems and health workforce expert. In 2020 she founded the Centre for Health Professional Schools and launched the 500 Health Professional Schools Initiative to train an additional one million new health workers. Dr Tulenko’s team is currently launching Bethesda Education, a global nursing school with campuses in high-, middle- and low-income countries.

She is also the founder and CEO of Corvus Health, a global health workforce firm that aims to give all people access to skilled health workers. Previously, she served as director of the US government’s global health workforce project and was the former coordinator of the World Bank’s Africa Health Workforce programme. She was named one of ‘50 Women in Global Health Security’ by Women in Global Health and one of ‘300 Women Leaders in Global Health’ by the Geneva Graduate Institute. She received her Bachelors of Biochemistry from Harvard, her Master of History and Philosophy of Science from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, her MD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and her Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she serves as an adjunct professor.

Roland Moyo started his career in the personal lines insurance broking industry, specialising in underwriting, claims administration and customer care. He worked in the medical aid industry for a cumulative period of five years in Zimbabwe. He is currently working as a lecturer in one of the top business colleges in Botswana.

He is a PhD candidate and holds an MSc in Risk Management and Insurance and a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) in Risk Management and Insurance. He is an associate member of ACFE and the Institute of Risk Management (SA).

Josua Joubert is the chief executive officer and principal officer of CompCare Medical Scheme with extensive experience in the healthcare industry going back 17 years. He was appointed as a director to the BHF in July 2018 and is currently its deputy chairperson.

He started his career in the healthcare arena when he joined the former Resolution Health as a director. During his tenure at Resolution Health he was responsible for the national operations of the scheme, including in Mozambique. He has held various senior positions in the healthcare services environment, including medical scheme administration. He was very proud when CompCare Medical Scheme won the BHF Titanium Award for best open medical scheme in 2016. Over the past five years, since he joined CompCare, the scheme has not only increased its membership substantially, but its solvency ratio has increased to well above the legislated requirement.

Charlton Murove is an actuary with a strong 17-year track record in healthcare and retirement funds. He is currently the Head of Research for the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) specialised research unit, a position he has held since 2018.   

Murove’s early work experience includes working as a trainee actuary at Quantum Consultants and Actuaries before joining QED Actuaries and Consultants. In 2009 he was appointed as a mid-level actuarial specialist by Metropolitan, where he managed projects in the product development department. He also developed tools to sell the product offering and oversaw rationalisation of performance reporting on fund fact sheets across the group.

After a short stint at Metropolitan, he was appointed as a senior actuarial analyst at Alexander Forbes Financial Services in the Retirement Funds Section. He was later appointed as an actuarial specialist, where he was managing technical work for medical schemes and post-retirement medical aid subsidy valuations.

In 2014 he decided to pursue his passion for creating access to affordable healthcare by joining the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) as a senior researcher. At CMS, Murove worked on issues affecting the medical scheme environment such as medical inflation, prescribed minimum benefits, solvency, and managed healthcare.

Murove holds a Bachelor of Commerce Honours Degree in Actuarial Science from the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Zimbabwe. He recently completed his Master (MA) of science in epidemiology, specialising in implementation science at the University of Witwatersrand.

Mapato Ramokgopa is an economist with over 15 years’ experience in the field of economics, business and economic regulation. She holds a Master’s in Economics and Financial Management and an MSc in Public Health. She is currently a candidate student for doctoral studies in global health/health economics, with the aim of influencing policy direction towards achieving equity in access to healthcare in South Africa.

She is currently employed in an executive position by the Competition Commission South Africa, both as an economist and as a manager in the market conduct division, responsible for managing competition investigations in different sectors, including healthcare. She was a senior technical member of the Health Market Inquiry, which conducted comprehensive research into the South African private health sector, and recently managed several investigations into COVID-19-related market conduct.