Board of Directors
Click on a board member to read their bio
Fareedah Benjamin has over 23 years’ experience in the short-term insurance industry. She joined Old Mutual Insure as Head of Specialty Claims in February 2023. Her previous experience includes roles as the Executive Manager for Insurance Operations at Sasria SOC Ltd where she was accountable for the Underwriting, Reinsurance and Claims divisions. She held various senior roles in the industry at Santam, AIG and Hollard with a brief tenure at TransUnion as Insurance Industry Manager. Her roles in Underwriting, Reinsurance and Claims gives her the ability to have an overview of managing risks from product development to claim efficiency. Fareedah is a keen strategist, with a passion for data and analytics and is driven by the development of people while delivering to the highest standards of satisfaction for clients.
John Lomberg has worked in the financial services industry for the last 25 years, occupying various senior and executive roles at Old Mutual, Sanlam, Metropolitan and Santam.
He is currently the director for Market and Business Development for ROTOCON. His role is to grow ROTOCON’s footprint in new markets in South Africa, East and West Africa. John is also responsible for positioning ROTOCON as a relevant and responsible corporate citizen in relation to all key stakeholders in South Africa.
John’s wide-ranging expertise includes business strategy development, sales management, and leadership development. He serves on various boards and forums within the business sector in Southern Africa.
Alize le Roux works for the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) in the African Futures and Innovation programme, where she focuses on the long-term development trajectory of African countries. Before joining the ISS, she worked as a principal geo-informatics researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Here she supported various local, regional and national policy- and decision-makers with long-term planning support.
Alize has played a critical role in a dozen high-profile projects, including the Human Settlements Spatial Investment Framework, South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas, The Sustainable Human Settlements Atlas, The National Overview of Spatial Trends and Settlement Characteristics, The Presidency Territorial Review, and South Africa’s Green Book. She has 16 years’ experience in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and holds a Master’s Degree in Geographical Sciences from the University of Utrecht, Netherlands. She has authored and co-authored more than 30 book chapters, journals and conference papers dealing with multi-hazard risk assessments and long-term planning support.
Bode Olajumoke is a marketing actuary and Client Manager for Middle East and Africa with Swiss Re’s Public Sector Solutions team, a unit dedicated to supporting governments at all levels to strengthen their resilience strategies.
Bode assists public sector stakeholders with addressing their risk management needs by co-creating innovative insurance solutions within a public-private-partnership framework. For the past five years he has also been supporting private sector clients in sourcing solutions for their Medical Insurance Portfolio at Swiss Re.
Bode obtained a Bachelor’s Degree at the College of Insurance New York in Actuarial Sciences and further developed his academic qualifications by successfully completing an MBA Degree in International Finance at Fordham University, New York.
Bode is widely travelled, having begun his career in the USA in the pensions and medical actuarial fields, and then consulting to various clients across Europe, Asia and Africa. He has subsequently built strong networks across the globe.
Dewald van Niekerk is a professor in geography and the founder and head of the African Centre for Disaster Studies at North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus. He obtained his PhD in 2005 and was promoted to full professor in 2012. Dewald is a South African B3 National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researcher and he has authored and co-authored more than 100 publications, including peer-reviewed articles, books, book chapters, and national and international research reports. Dewald’s research is motivated by a desire to reduce the possible impacts of natural hazards and climate change on at-risk communities. His interests include disaster risk governance, resilience building, complexity and complexity theory, anticipatory governance, building institutional capacities for disaster risk reduction, and transdisciplinary disaster risk reduction.
Dewald has been project leader for local, national, as well as international disaster risk reduction projects, and has undertaken disaster risk reduction research and consultancy in numerous countries worldwide. At present he is the programme leader for the Disaster Risk Sciences research group and the PhD in Disaster Risk Sciences in the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the accredited journal Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies. In 2012 he played a significant role in the establishment of the Southern Africa Society for Disaster Reduction.
Chief Director: Local Government Operations and Support (Western Cape)
Ané Bruwer has in excess of 30 years of experience in a government environment of which 23 years are in a disaster management capacity. Determining strategies, establishing structures and facilitating multi-disciplinary cooperation and cooperative partnerships to implement the function has been part of her key objectives over the years.
Ané has recently been appointed as Chief Director: Local Government Operations and Support responsible for Western Cape in the Department of Cooperative Governance.During her tenure in the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), she has made a measurable impact advancing the implementation of disaster management policy and legislation across the sectors and spheres of government. She spearheaded the review and amendment of the Disaster Management Act, 2002. She has been committed to enhance disaster risk reduction through monitoring compliance to disaster management legislation and the development of appropriate policies, guidelines and standards.
Her extensive experience in disaster management and facilitating multi-disciplinary collaboration will greatly contribute towards realising the vision that Southern African citizens are better prepared for risks associated with climate change and disasters in the context of municipal capacity.
In terms of academic qualifications, she obtained her Masters Degree in Management and Development with a research focus area in disaster management information. She also holds both a B.Proc-degree (legal) as well as a BA-degree (Science of Human Movement) and obtained numerous Certificates in Disaster Management and a certificate in legislative drafting. She has also successfully completed several management programmes.
Ané strives to play an active role in building resilient communities and addressing the pressing developmental challenges that we face as a society through effective implementation of the District Development Model process and by also bringing on board our government, private, international, and civil society partners.
Nkateko Mayimele is currently the Executive Manager: Claims at Sasria, prior to this she fulfilled the role of Chief Audit Executive. In her current role she is involved in the development of Sasria’s overall strategy, responsible for the strategic direction of the claims division and ensuring implementation.
Nkateko is a registered Charted Accountant with over 13 years of experience in insurance, finance, internal and external audit, risk management as well as forensic investigations. She has over 8 years in senior leadership positions and completed a variety of courses that focus on leadership and management, including an Advanced Management Program (AMP) through INSEAD an international business school.