Speakers 2019

Becky Opdyke, Chief Marketing Officer, Tiger Brands

Becky’s focus at Tiger Brands is to relentlessly drive marketing strategy based on understanding consumer needs and connecting with them through product innovation that has an uncompromising focus on quality, nutrition and food safety.  Underpinning the portfolio of iconic South African brands she is responsible for is to drive Africa’s largest FMCG food manufacturers core purpose of nourishing and nurturing more lives every day.  Becky is a committed and versatile leader with over 18 years broad marketing experience in growth-oriented international businesses.  She has held senior brand leadership roles and been responsible for several global and regional portfolios with Anheuser-Busch InBev/South African Breweries and General Mills.  She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Tim London joined the GSB in 2014 as a full time faculty member teaching and supervising students in the areas of leadership and organizational design across the full range of existing programmes (PhD, MBA, MPhil, PGDip, and Executive Education).

His previous work in higher education includes academic and leadership roles at the University of Cambridge (Director of Programmes); Queen’s University, Belfast (Director of Education and Teaching Fellow); and Kennesaw State University (Assistant Professor).

Prior to moving into higher education, he worked in schools, a non-profit, and for one of the largest unions in the United States. He has worked in a number of US states, Northern Ireland, England, Egypt, and Saipan prior to moving to South Africa. Along with his research and teaching, Dr. London works with the Business Development Unit and Executive Education team to develop and run new courses.

His research interests are broad and multi-disciplinary which reflects his diverse experiences around the globe and his training in a variety of disciplines. He is generally interested in better understanding and developing leaders, organizations, and systems both in the public and private sector. Recently, he has published work on collaboration, crisis, triple bottom line accounting, accountability systems, and the teaching of ethics.

Gavin has deep experience in Business Process Management and Enterprise Content Management, particularly in the

financial services industry. An accredited Robotic Operating Model Architect, he is DigiBlu’s point man; in first to identify

initial candidate processes, conduct opportunity assessments and design process solutions that leverage the power of

Intelligent Automation.

Gavin holds an Honours degree in Civil Engineering (Wits)

Billie-Clare, Founding Member, Director and Creator of the Bumbles brand, single-handedly built Bumbles into a national brand that offers superfood based healthy baby food in leading retailers.  Passionate and driven to create employment and develop skills in the industry she has taken Bumbles from outsourcing all packing to becoming a co-independent manufacturer with a fully owned pouch filling line, with a vision to offer affordable healthy baby food to all.  Billie-Clare has been recognised as one of South African’s TOP 100 Female Entrepreneurs but it is her vast experience with babies and with her passion for healthy food alike, that she is the driving force behind brand.

Gregory (Greg) Jackson was born on 1^st June 1980 in Johannesburg. Greg Grew up in Mayfair whilst attending EP Baumann Primary and then moved to the south of Johannesburg and attended Sir John Adamson High School. Greg Completed National Diploma Electrical Engineering Light Current in 2002 and in 2005 obtained a BTech Electrical Engineering from University of Johannesburg. Greg’s career in Electrical Control Systems started in 2002 and up until now has filled roles such as Proposals Engineer, Technical Support Engineer, Senior Systems Engineer and currently serving as Business Development Manager System Sales Engineer at ABB South Africa. Greg can be reached on twitter: jacksongreg007 or instagram:gregjackson_abb.

Francois Knowles is Registrar of the Agricultural Produce Agents Council (APAC). A statutory body regulating the occupations of fresh produce, export and livestock agents in South Africa (an industry worth more than R100 Billion per year) in terms of the Agricultural Produce Agents Act (APA Act), 12 of 1992. He has 24 years’ experience in the fresh produce market environment backed up by a degree in accountancy & economics, a post-grad qualification in management and a Masters Degree in Environmental Management from the University of Pretoria. He has a passion for agriculture in SA and believes that “the best is yet to come”.

Hema is the Director of the Food Evolution Research Laboratory (FERL) and Senior Lecturer at the School of Tourism and Hospitality (STH), in the College of Business and Economics at the University of Johannesburg, where she supervises postgraduate research projects and lectures on Research Methodologies, Culinary Studies and Nutrition. She is a key contributor in the Research Collaboration between Penn State University and the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) in food service and nutrition. Hema has recently been appointed as an area consultant representing the Southern African regions of EuroChrie, the official federation for Europe, the Mediterranean basin and Africa of the International Council for Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education.

Ms. Matlou Setati is the FSI Executive. She oversees advocacy and liaison of sustainable initiatives, forums, projects and/or programmes within the precincts of food science, safety, quality, nutrition, health & wellness, regulatory and related matters for the consumer goods and retail industries.

Matlou has 18 years of experience in the South African food and agricultural industry, which includes various food production companies, and ten (10) years’ service in public office at the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, where she served as Chief Agricultural Food and Quarantine Technician (Food Quality Inspector) and Chief Food Safety & Quality Assurance Officer (Food Regulations).

Matlou actively participates in national and international food regulatory bodies such as the Food Legislation Advisory Group and the Food Safety Forum of the National Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. She has also participated at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, where she was Vice Chairperson of the Dry and Dried Produce Committee from 2014 – 2016 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Matlou has in-depth knowledge of the food industry from raw material, processing, quality control and assurance, and food legislation. Her public service experience has equipped her with a vast understanding of the national and international food law spheres such as national food control, Codex Alimentarius and World Trade Organisation agreements such as the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS).

She holds a National Diploma in Food Technology from Pretoria Technikon, a Bachelor of Technology in Food Technology from the Tshwane University of Technology and a Post Graduate Diploma Applied Science from the Lincoln University, New Zealand.

As Co-Founder and Director at Daily Fruit and Bledid, Justin has been involved in the food and beverage space for the past decade, helping a team grow from a 3 man band in the basement, to close on a hundred employees out of two regional offices. Getting healthy food to customers conveniently is what we do.

My journey with chocolate ….

It all started when I was 5 years old and I fell in love with food and told my Dad I wanted to become a chef, years later he told me:  “To make what I love my work!”

I managed  private dinner parties for my Mom`s friends in high school to make extra money, and when I had finished  high school I successfully landed a position as a chef  at the 5 star Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton .

I was given the opportunity to make chocolates and started out by making truffles and wedding cakes, then I got was offered the opportunity to work in in a boutique hotel in Scotland. This experience taught me about food and I worked with a menu that altered every day.

I returned to South Africa to peruse my entrepreneurial experience, at the young age of 22, when everything on the menu had chocolate in it.

All of this was done through my absolute passion for what I love most. I am a self-taught chef and most of my learnings are from reading many cooking books and watching cooking shows on TV.

In 2009 I opened a catering company called `A Thyme to Dine`. My career experience expanded to catering for Sir Richard Branson and I was tasked with making chocolates for him, as well as for Prince Charles.

In 2012 I started creating unique products for all foodies out there and due to my absolute love for chocolate, all the food I cooked contained chocolate.

In 2013 I was chosen to be one of 40 Chefs on Chopped South Africa. I proudly won my round with my main course as Guinea Fowl with Dark Chocolate – The judges where blown away!!

In 2017 I met Mark and Heidi and shared my passion for a healthy chocolate that tasted great and that stood out as unique, healthier and vegan with a twist of fun… Nova Chocolate was born!

Nadéne is a fulltime lecturer at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Experience in both the retail and hospitality industry fueled her passion for consumer research that transpired in her Master’s and PhD. She is currently an active research member of the DST/NRF centre of excellence in food security. Other collaborative relationships and industry partners include key retail groups and their respective supply chain members, the CSIR, as well as prominent international Universities.

With a background in chemistry and microbiology, Linda Jackson began her career working in quality control and quality assurance in food manufacturing.  She holds a M. Tech in Environmental health, specialising in food safety from the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Linda has assisted many food manufacturing companies with the implementation of ISO 9001, HACCP and FSSC 22000. She has audited many suppliers on behalf of major retailers and conducted thousands of hours of food safety training at all levels. She pioneered food safety auditor training in South Africa having developed the first SAATCA registered course. She has conducted IRCA registered training for several certification bodies including BSi – South Africa and BSi – Qatar.

She started FoodFocus in 2016 with two friends Bridget day and Adele Krogh and its been a great journey helping the food industry which is a shared passion, using a digital platform.

Linda Drummond RD (SA) holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical, Molecular and Cellular Sciences and a Bachelor of Science Medical (Honours) degree in Nutrition and Dietetics, both from the University of Cape Town. She also has a Programme & Project Management in Public Development Management certificate, which she obtained through the University of the Witwatersrand Business School. She is currently completing her Masters in Medical Science: Dietetics through the University of Cape Town. Linda is currently an Associate at the Nutritional Solutions practice in Bryanston where she runs her clinical practice and is the Nutrition Consultant to the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa’s Food Safety Initiative, which focuses on compliance to food & nutrition-related regulations and industry-wide public health initiatives.

“In the past few years that I have been with Unilever Food Solutions – a company that provides culinary solutions to you our valued customers, I have had the great privilege of working with a great team of dedicated and creative chefs.