Johannesburg Speakers

Sine Ndlela is a founder and creator of Yococo. She studied TV writing and postproduction. She has interned at the Cannes Film Festival and has had her work featured in the South African Fashion Handbook. She started Yococo to serve love through scoops.

Solly Molepo is a Deputy Director at South African Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), under Industrial Development Division (IDD). He is responsible for agro-processing sector and specifically is spearheading industrial development of niche industries. Prior to joining the dti, he was the Senior Agricultural Economist at Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and Western Cape Provincial Department of Agriculture. At DAFF Solly worked on Africa bilateral trade issues and also involved in agricultural trade research. He spearheaded the market access of both smallholder and commercial agricultural producers in the Western Cape Province.

Solly was involved in graduate programme with Cargill South Africa and Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). He qualified, at the top of his class, as an agricultural economist at the University of Limpopo (UL). He completed Masters of Agricultural Economics at the University of Limpopo and is currently completing Masters of Industrial Policy (IP) with the University of Johannesburg.

Inspired by reading the ingredients list on the side of cereal boxes, Uriel Filiba pursued a degree in Food Science. While learning, he realised that working with heavily processed food is actually uninspiring.Uriel has worked in the craft cheese industry and is currently working with cold-pressed juice. He has made it his mission to work with real food only and his life objective is to instill health into broader society.  Uriel also plays the banjo & synthesizer and gives great high-fives!

Simon holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics and Politics and is a chartered Accountant, having gained his qualification through KPMG in London in 2005. Subsequent to KPMG, he spent four and a half years in Investment Banking at Canaccord Genuity (formerly Hawkpoint Partners), a leading UK Mergers and Acquisitions advisory firm with a focus on mid-cap and private equity deals. Simon joined Leaf Capital in 2012 where he was a member of the Leaf Private Equity Management team that now manages Infinitus Holdings as a stand-alone business. Simon’s broad transaction experience spans equity and debt capital raisings, M&A, corporate restructurings and BEE deals across multiple sectors.

Simon is a Director of Infinitus Holdings and a member of the Boards of Vital Health Foods, Wellness Warehouse, TrenStar and Energy Amplified.

Philippa Rodseth is the Executive Director of the Manufacturing Circle. Her career began as an Architect working on commercial projects in South Africa and Hong Kong. After obtaining an MBA from WITS Business School, she joined First National Bank’s Commercial Division in 2003 and spent seven years working first in a private equity team funding black youth empowered business, and then as a leveraged finance deal maker.

In 2012 Philippa established Spoke Consulting, which identifies and accesses funding for projects in Africa. She then joined the Manufacturing Circle in 2015 to elevate the voice of manufacturing in South Africa, promoting the sector’s development as South Africa’s greatest opportunity for job-rich growth

My name is Xolile Mbatha. I am the Research, Nutrition and Technology Director at Kelloggs SA. I have 13+ years in the FMCG industry, mainly in the Research and Development area.  My passion is to see product ideas come to live through technology, and to create food that enjoyed and nutritionally beneficial to consumers.

My qualifications are as follows:

• MBA (Henley Business School)
• Bcom Marketing (UNISA)
• BTech Food Technology (DUT)
• ND Food Technology (DUT)