Gavin Strydom, Managing Director of KwaZuluNatal-based Edstan & Sons Group, is an eminent leader in construction. He is President of the Master Builders Association KZN, a Board Member of Master Builders Association South Africa (MBSA) and represents MBSA on the Construction Education and Training Agency (CETA). He has contributed to the development of the Construction Charter as a representative of the MBSA on the Construction Transformation Charter Group.

He is passionate about education, training and development, leading the Building Industry Standards Generating Body (SGB) as its Chairperson and also serving on the SGB for the quantity Surveying Profession and the NSB12 Inter SGB committees. Gavin is a qualified quantity surveyor, a member of the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors, and of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. He is also a registered project manager.

Cecil Rose, Director of Kantey and Templer and its former Managing Director, has played a leading role in the development of South Africa’s roads and transport infrastructure in a career that spans decades of planning, design and construction of roads and transport. A civil engineer by profession, Cecil is immediate past president of the South African Association of Consulting Engineers (SAACE) and of the South African Roads Federation.

He has been very active in important construction industry bodies in a variety of leadership positions and has contributed widely to the development of the engineering profession. He has worked extensively in both the public and private sectors.

Nyeleti Makhubele is Director for Water Services with the Bushbuckridge Water Board. She has worked for various public and private sector organisations including Bigen Africa Services, Ehlanzeni District Municipality and the Department of Public Works-Mpumalanga in various technical and managerial positions. During her directorship with the Mpumalanga Provincial Department of Public Works, Nyeleti was instrumental in the piloting of the Infrastructure Delivery Improvement Programme (IDIP), a flagship programme of government that is leading the effort to improve public service budget expenditure on infrastructure, and is being implemented in partnership by the cidb, National Treasury, Public Works and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

She is a recognised leader and has, among her many accomplishments, BSc (Natural Sciences), BSc Honours (Microbiology) and BSc Honours Civil Engineering (Applied Sciences).

Sisa Ngebulana, the founder of Billion Group, is a life long entrepreneur and a brilliant strategist. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Law from Fort Hare, an LLB post graduate degree from Natal University, and LLM degree from RAU. He is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa. He also has qualifications in financial markets, as well as being qualified as an Estate Agent. He has been in the property market since 1992.

Around 1996 Sisa established a construction company, Afcon, which specialised in construction and development of upmarket homes. In 1997 the vision of Billion Group was conceived and formalised. The business of Afcon was consolidated into the Billion Group and this entity expanded into other property sectors such as commercial and retail properties. Sisa has previously set up and run various diverse businesses in transport, coal mining and gold mine dumps reclamation among others.

He was voted Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006 in the Eastern Cape. Sisa is also an independent director of Truworths International (an SA listed fashion retail company) and of Attfund (a public unlisted property fund).

Greg Steele is the Executive Director of East Cape Master Builders and Allied Industries Association, a position he has held for the past 13 years. He originally qualified with a National Higher Diploma as a quantity surveyor from the Port Elizabeth Technikon and gained valuable industry experience in a professional practise for 11 years, Greg was one of the first Technikon graduates awarded corporate membership of the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors after completing further studies and examinations through UNISA and UPE (now NMMU).

He joined the Master Builders Association as its Executive Director in 1995. Among key achievements of the Master Builders Association under Greg’s leadership are the establishment of a successful training department to serve the needs of the Eastern Cape industry, the formation of the MBA’s own health and safety department with the support of FEM and involvement in the establishment of the initial Coega Development’s Section 21 Company leading to the establishment of the Coega Development Corporation which has lead to significant growth and confidence in the region.

Greg has also served on the Building Industry Bargaining Council, the Board of Master Builders South Africa and the Board of the Port Elizabeth Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Nyiko Gudlhuza is Chief Director for the 2010 Soccer World Cup at the National Department of Public Works in charge of monitoring the construction of the 2010 soccer stadia and a project manager for related infrastructure. Nyiko has broad knowledge and experience in public sector infrastructure delivery and has contributed to the success of key industry development programmes such as the Service Delivery Improvement Programme (SDIP) and the Infrastructure Delivery Improvement Programme (IDIP). He is also a full time member of the National Bid Adjudication Committee at the Department of Public Works.

Nyiko has a Bachelor of Science degree in Town and Regional Planning and a B.Com. He is former Executive Manager of Lesedi Local Municipality.

A civil engineer by profession, Lungile Mchunu is Deputy Director-General for Roads and Transport in the Free State province. She is former National Coordinator for the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and has previously worked as District Roads Engineer in the Northern Cape, Transport Systems Planner in the Eastern Cape and for V3 consulting engineers. She has been involved in planning, design and construction of roads and other infrastructure projects. As an industry leader she has been at the forefront of key Government delivery programmes on roads and transport infrastructure at national and provincial level. She is Free State provincial chairperson of the 2010 FIFA World Cup transport and other infrastructure sub committee.

She has done a lot of transportation studies especially in rural communities of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape. She has extensive knowledge in transportation engineering, roads construction and maintenance, and public service administration. She has a B Sc Honours in Civil Engineering (Applied Sciences).

Shereen Tebogo Bogosing is Chief Executive Officer of INIMBA Group Holdings. She is a civil engineering technologist with a passion for skills and community development, especially women in construction and engineering. She has extensive experience in the design of roads, water and sanitation, transport plans as well as project management. She has worked closely with contractors taking part in many successful projects.

She is a recognised business leader and the 2007/8 Black Business Quarterly (BBQ) business woman of the year and 2007/8 Torch Bearer for Woman in infrastructure Development. She has among her many accomplishments, National Diploma in Civil Engineering and a Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering. She is also a member of various industry bodies including, IPET, SAWIC, IoD, BWA.

Marten Govender is Chief Executive Officer of Synergy M&A, a Mergers and Acquisitions, Management and Transformation Consultancy Company based in the Western Cape. He is former Business Development Director of Amandla Holdings and Financial Manager of Iris Software Solutions.

He has a Diploma in Financial Management, a Diploma in Business Management and has worked extensively with local and international organisations. Marten is also a non executive Director of K-Commercial College (Training Institution for Business and the Construction sector, a partner of Synergex Retail Consulting. He is a member of the Board of the Happy Children of God Aid Orphanage, the Advisory Committee of Cape Town Routes Unlimited and Chairperson of Cape Town National African Federated Chamber of Commerce.

Lwandile Kona is Project Manager and shareholder of JHI. He is qualified as a professional architectural technologist, having attained a Bachelor of Technology degree in Architectural Management with the University of Johannesburg, National Diploma in Architectural Technology at Technikon Northern Transvaal and other qualifications. He has worked on various infrastructure projects from which he has gained experience on the construction sector whilst contributing to its development.

He is a member of the South African Council for the Architectural Profession.

Nazir Alli is Chief Executive Officer of the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) and former chief director of the National Department of Transport. In this capacity and as a Chartered Engineer, he has provided client leadership for an improving industry. He has been instrumental in developing the public-private partnership concept in South Africa. He has been involved in large diverse infrastructural projects such as urban highways and water supply schemes including the Lesotho Highlands (Water) Scheme.

An activist for transformation, Nazir served on the Transitional Working Teams on transport and local government during the negotiations which led to South Africa’s first democratic government. He also served on the Strategic Management Team to establish the Department of Public Transport and Roads in Gauteng, and was a member of the Inter-ministerial Task Team on Construction Industry Development. He was a member of the second Board of the Construction Industry Development Board.

Professor Raymond Nkado is a director at Letchmiah Daya Mandindi (Johannesburg) Inc., a consulting firm of professional quantity surveyors and project managers. Prior to this he was the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of the Witwatersrand. As a leading built environment practitioner, academic and researcher, he has played an active part in the construction industry Stakeholder Forum. He has co-authored over 40 refereed journals and conference articles locally and internationally.

Raymond has conducted, supervised and published research on management issues in the built environment, including the challenges faced by SMMEs. He has received awards for academic excellence including the Old Mutual gold medal for best MBA (Wits). Raymond is a member of the South African Council for the Quantity Surveying Profession, of which he is president (2005-2009), the Chartered Institute of Building, the South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Profession and a visiting professor at Wits University.

Cannon Noyana is Managing Director of Noyana’s Management Consultancy (Pty) Ltd, a company that provides construction mentoring and project management services. He holds a Diploma in Project Management and is also a Contractor. He has made an invaluable contribution to construction industry development through his active participation and leadership in various transformation processes, including development of the White Paper on Construction Development, Inter-Ministerial Task Team and leadership of the emerging sector organisations. He has served on the first Board of the cidb.

Through training and mentorship of emerging contractors Cannon has made a major contribution to the development of black contractors across the country. He is a registered Construction Project Manager and an accredited Construction Mentor. Among his achievements, Cannon has developed, in collaboration with the CSIR, the strategy for integrated and sustainable development of emerging contractors in the Alexandra Renewal Project.