The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has appointed six new board members at its 13th Annual General Meeting held at the Southern Sun, Marine Hotel, today, as part of its efforts to further strengthen its capacity and reach in achieving high priority strategic goals.
The new board members are Martina Biene, the Chairperson and Managing Director at Volkswagen Group South Africa; Siyolo Dick, Managing Director of SPAR Eastern Cape; Cumesh Moodliar, Head of Investec’s Private Bank; Kelvin Naidoo, the Manufacturing and Technical Director at AutoX; Celestin Ndhlovu, Vice President for Strategy, Business Planning and Marketing at Isuzu Motors South Africa; and Christiaan Theron, currently the SA Operations Executive at Aspen Pharmaceuticals.
Commenting on the appointments, Chamber President Loyiso Dotwana says: “The Chamber remains a leading organisation at the forefront of lobbying and advocating for ease of doing business in Nelson Mandela and also to retain investment and employment. As such, we are excited about the strong new additions to our board as they bring a wealth of industry experience from different sectors, which will help infuse new energy into the team. On behalf of the board, we are happy that they have volunteered to step into their new roles to help steer the Chamber to its next developmental trajectory.”
More about the new Board Members
Martina Biene
Martina Biene, Chairperson and Managing Director of Volkswagen South Africa, has over 20 years of automotive industry experience. She began her career at Volkswagen in 2001 and held multiple roles at in the company’s head office in Wolfsburg, Germany. In 2018, she was assigned to Volkswagen Group South Africa in the role of Head of Volkswagen Passenger Cars Brand. Her responsibilities included sales, marketing, dealer network management, product marketing and motorsport. In 2019, Biene steered the Volkswagen brand to achieve a 20.4% market share, which at the time, was the brand’s highest since 1996.
Volkswagen is an active participant in the Chamber’s task teams and clusters.
Siyolo Dick
Siyolo Dick has built his career with the group from the ground up, starting as a freshly graduated human resources trainee in 2000. He is a seasoned executive with strong leadership experience in human resources, information technology and distribution/logistics, and an in-depth understanding of retail operations, marketing and finance.
After completing his MBA degree at Nelson Mandela University Business School in 2013, he shifted his career focus and was appointed Divisional Information Technology Director for SPAR Eastern Cape in 2015. Under his leadership, the Eastern Cape team was awarded as the best performing IT team in the SPAR group nationally for three consecutive years.
He served as Divisional Distribution Director from 2019 to October 2022, when he was appointed to his current position as Managing Director of SPAR Eastern Cape. He is currently the Chairperson of the Perseverance Cluster.
Cumesh Moodliar
Cumesh Moodliar has been with Investec Private Banking since 2012, as Head of Investec Private Bank in the Eastern Cape and then National Head of Banking in 2016. He has been the Head of Private Bank) since 2018 and Head of Private Client since October 2022.
Before joining Investec, he was the managing partner at Goldberg & Villiers, an established Eastern Cape-based law firm.
He has a BA, LLB, LLM (Tax) and completed a Programme for Leadership Development (PLD) at Harvard Business School in 2015, and the Archbishop Tutu Fellowship in 2016.
He was previously a Vice President of the Chamber Board (2016-2018) and served on the Board for three years.
Kelvin Naidoo
As an active member of the Chamber through its Task Teams and Clusters, Naidoo is aligned in terms of the Chamber’s action and activist-orientated approach.
As a member of the Auto X Executive Committee, his role is flexible and requires involvement in all aspects of the business from technical to sales and marketing to finance. Major changes to the manufacturing business, product technology and product quality have been made in the fifteen years bringing the business up to date with current international standards and customer demands from the prior state of a 20-year technology lag.
He has a Bachelors and Master Degrees in Electrical Engineering and post graduate certificates in management.
Celestin Ndhlovu
Ndhlovu holds a Master’s in business administration from Nelson Mandela University and his career objectives are to expand his leadership responsibilities and improve organisational ability to exceed corporate goals. He is currently employed at Isuzu Motors South Africa in the position of Vice President – Strategy, Business Planning and Marketing. He will bring valuable knowledge and insights to Chamber initiatives, particularly in the transport and logistics areas.
Christiaan Theron
An astute and experienced manufacturing and engineering executive, Theron leads Aspen Pharmacare’s operations in Nelson Mandela Bay. He has an MBA from Ashridge in the UK, including various degrees in engineering. He currently plays an active and leading role in the Chamber’s service delivery interventions. He successfully led the Adopt-A-Leak initiative and together with his team, is involved in the Chamber’s Task Teams, Renewable Energy and North End Clusters.