Don is a well known business man with 22 years experience of working at management level in Anglo American Corporation. He is a pioneer of BEE having been the driving force behind the establishment of Real Africa Holdings. He was formerly the chairman of African Life Assurance, Sun International Limited, Oceana Fishing Limited and Real Africa Investments Limited. He has also been appointed chairman of the Atomic Energy Corporation and South African Airways. Don is currently the executive chairman of Cincinnati Mine Machines (RSA) and non-executive chairman of Badimo Gas and GlobeTom. He also sits on the board of Gold Fields Limited. Last but not least, he serves as the chairman of the Rare Remuneration and Transformation Committee.

 

David entered the industry in Durban as a trainee with the Stewarts & Lloyds Group of companies in 1974. In 1977 he joined Van Leeuwen in Durban as a Representative, a position he held until 1979, when he was promoted to head the Export Department. In 1980 the company opened the Cape Town operation and David was promoted to Branch Manager. In 1984 Van Leeuwen Buizen negotiated the sale of the Cape Town operation to David in the form of a management buy-out. In 1986 a similar decision was taken with the remaining domestic operations with David being invited to participate as Group Sales Director. In 1996 David took over the position of Managing Director. Since then, David has been instrumental in the growth of Rare. In 2003 he negotiated a Black Economic Empowerment transaction with Don Ncube that led to the transformation of Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube into the Rare group.

Pierre is a Chartered Accountant, and was Financial Director of the Van Leeuwen group till 1997 before leaving to start his own practice and information technology company. Because of his experience, qualifications and abilities, Pierre was approached to fulfil the role of Financial Director of the various Pipe Specials companies. At the same time he had remained actively involved in the financial management of Rare, and has taken full responsibility for the entire financial function of the various companies in the Group, introducing an ERP software package, with all accounting and manufacturing procedures now fully computerised. Pierre is a permanent member of the Audit Committee.

 

Mike started his business career as a Chartered Accountant in practice in Durban but the lure of shipping lead to his spending 23 years in the Grindrod Group where he was a main board director as well as CEO of the ship owning subsidiaries one of which Griffin Shipping Holdings was also listed. He co-founded Trematon Capital Investments a listed private equity company on which he also served as joint CEO. He is currently involved in property and trading in Durban and acts as a consultant and business strategist to a number of companies. He is also a non-executive director of William Tell Holdings listed on Altx. 

 

Bongi holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree with majors in accounting and financial management and completed the USA-SA Leadership and Entrepreneurship Programme, at the Wharton School of Business in the United States. She has been instrumental in numerous investments in the financial services sector including the pioneering of "early" BEE transactions. Bongi currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer and is one of the founding members of Afropulse Group, a woman-led investment and corporate advisory house established in 2006 to create a sustainable and meaningful contribution to corportate South Africa.

 

Abel is a Chartered Accountant and the Chief Executive Officer of Sekela Consulting. He was instrumental in the successful turnaround of 2 government parastatals in the North West Province to profitability and has been actively involved in the training of financial management skills for the government in the North West province. Abel has also monitored over 225 projects in terms of the National Social Development Project Fund for poverty alleviation and successfully set up various audit committees for amongs opthers the University of Durban-Westville, the Medical Research Council and the South African National Biodiversity Institution.