The Board Members are responsible for the overall governance of PlantBio Trust in order to achieve its strategic objectives. In order for the Board to exercise its responsibility, management has developed and continues to maintain financial policies and delegation of authority processes. The financial policies are designed to set guidelines on financial management and are compliant with the Public Finance Management Act. The activities of the Board itself are governed by the Board and Committee charter which was drafted in using the King Commission on Corporate Governance as guidelines
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(CEO)
B.A. and M.S. (Biology) (University of Seville, Spain) PhD (Biological Sciences) (University of Seville, Spain)
Antonio Llobell is the Chief Executive Officer of PlantBio Trust, having joined in April 2004 as the Chief Operations Officer. Antonio has played and integral role in building the PlantBio team and growing the portfolio of projects funded by the trust. He has been instrumental in establishing the wide base of strategic initiatives, both locally and internationally. With more than 12 years of senior management experience in research in the plant and microbial biotechnology field, Antonio was a professor of Plant Biotechnology at the African Centre for Crop Improvement, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg before joining PlantBio. He has also been a Professor Titular at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis, University of Seville and CSIC (Spain). Antonio has a strong entrepreneurial background and was co-founder and scientific consultant in Newbiotechnic, S.A. (NBT), a biotech company specialising in the development of applications for the agri-food and industrial sectors, and in NBT Diagen, S.A., a biotech company commercialising molecular diagnosis services for the medical sector. Antonio has published more than sixty scientific articles in books and first rated peer-reviewed international journals and more than one hundred communications to national and international congresses. He has also been referee for a number of international journals and is the inventor of six Spanish patent applications and four international patent applications on antifungal genes and proteins, gene expression systems and biocontrol formulations.
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(Chairperson of Board of Trustees, Chairperson of the Remuneration Committee)
B. Proc (UNP), LLM (course work completed - thesis outstanding)
Ilan Lax is a practicing attorney admitted in 1985. His practice has been varied and focused on human rights issues. He was appointed to the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in March 1996 as a member of the Human Rights Violations Committee and later the Amnesty Committee and served in this capacity until the end of May 2000 when the committee was disbanded. Since that time he has continued to practice for his own account as an attorney and has been involved in community-based land rights, development, environmental, governance and organisational development issues as well as general legal practice. Ilan has facilitated many strategic planning and evaluation sessions with NGO's and other organisations, advising around governance problems and change management issues as well as developing vision and mission statements. He has also consulted abroad and within SA for the UNHCHR and the EU. He has experience in alternative dispute resolution and arbitration processes. Ilan is involved with and serves on professional bodies, the boards of a range of Statutory Bodies, NGO's and Community Organisations.
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(Member of the Remuneration Committee)
MBChB (UCT), BSc. (Med) (Hons) Sports Medicine (UCT), FACSM, SEP (Harvard), MBA (UCT)
Dr Surve is a medical doctor, a successful and influential African entrepreneur, a Global business leader and a recognized philanthropist. He is the Founder and Chairman of the Sekunjalo Group. The Sekunjalo Group is an Investment Holding Conglomerate with investments in more than 70 Private and Public companies in Africa in areas of Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Industrials, Fishing, Information Technology, Telecommunications, Resources and Financial Services. The Sekunjalo Group is the recipient of many awards. Sekunjalo Group was nominated by the WEF in 2007 as one of the 125 “New Champions” also called the Community of Global Growth Companies Dr Surve is the recipient of numerous and significant awards for business excellence and business performance and has been recognized by the authoritative Business in Africa Magazine as one of the 10 most influential business leaders that will “shape the future of the African continent”. Dr Surve is a philanthropist and serves as Chairman of a number of NGO’s. These are strongly supportive of social entrepreneurs and young people in education, arts, sports and music. Dr Surve has a strong commitment to education and academia and is Chairman of the UCT Graduate School of Business and a Governor of the UCT Foundation. Dr Surve has been appointed to many prestigious Presidential Ministerial and Public Institutions and Advisory boards. Dr Surve is a Global leader, a Fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative, a Fellow of the HRH the Prince of Wales Business & Environment Programme as well as being appointed by President Bill Clinton to the Board of Governance on the Clinton Global Initiative. He is a participant member of the World Economic Forum. Dr Surve’s life has been profiled on television as an inspiration to other Africans and a case study about him and the Sekunjalo Group is taught at Harvard Business School. His case is an example of someone who has shown outstanding moral leadership in the face of numerous challenges. Prior to founding the Sekunjalo Group in 1997, Dr Surve was affectionately known as the “Struggle Doctor” as a result of his medical work with victims of apartheid and provision of medical care to a number of prominent South Africans after their release from Robin Island. In 1989, at UNESCO in Paris, he was honoured by Amnesty International for his medical and ethical work with victims of detention and torture.
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(Chairperson of the Project Investment Committee, Deputy Chairperson of Board of Trustees)
BSc (UNP), BSc Med. (Hons) (UCT), MSc (Minnesota, USA), PhD (UniStel)
Brenda Diana Wingfield was born in Livingstone, Zambia. Her family relocated to Zimbabwe just after she started school and she completed her primary and secondary education in this country. Brenda discovered a passion for Genetics in High School and chose to attend the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus for her Bachelors degree where she majored in Genetics and Biochemistry. After that she moved to Cape Town to obtain her Honours degree in Medical Biochemistry at UCT. She worked briefly for the Medical Research Council’s Institute for Electron Microscopy in 1980. She then enrolled for an M.Sc. degree in Biochemistry at the University of Minnesota (USA) in 1981 studying replication and transcription of the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus. On completing her M.Sc. she returned to South Africa and worked for two years in a research position in the Dept of Biochemistry at UCT. She subsequently joined the Microbiology Dept at the University of Stellenbosch as a Research Officer. Shortly there after she registered for her PhD studying yet another virus system, this time in yeasts. Brenda started her academic career when she accepted a position in the Dept of Microbiology at the University of the Orange Free State in 1989. During her stay in Bloemfontein she developed a research programme with a focus on the Molecular Phylogeny and Taxonomy of Tree Pathogenic fungi. It was at this stage that she joined forces with her husband Mike Wingfield who was already recognised internationally for his research in Mycology and Plant Pathology. The couple moved their collective research programmes to the University of Pretoria in 1998 where they started the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI). Brenda joined the Dept of Genetics in Pretoria and has continued to nurture her research programme which focuses on the Molecular Genetics of Plant Pathogenic fungi. Brenda has been an NRF rated Scientist for many years and is internationally recognised for her research. She has published more than 200 peer reviewed scientific articles and trained 28 Masters and 27 PhD students. She travels internationally on a regular basis and has active research collaborations with Scientists in her field all over the world. She is currently the Programme Leader of the DST / NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology. Brenda is also very active in the scientific community promoting Science and Science Excellence at every level. She has served on a number of committees and panels nationally in this context. Most recently she was elected Chairman of the NSTF (National Science and Technology Forum) and is currently the vice chairman of the board of Trustees of PlantBio one of the national Biotechnology Innovation centres.
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(Member of the Project Investment Committee)
BSc. (Agric) (Stellenbosch), PhD (UCT)
Professor Johan Burger is currently the chair of the department of Genetics at Stellenbosch University. He obtained a PhD from UCT before pursuing an active research career at the ARC and later the CSIR in Pretoria. His research projects include the development of plant expression vectors for mono- and dicotyledonous plants, the transformation of maize and the development of transformation/regeneration systems for several crops. Johan joined the Genetics department of Stellenbosch University in 1997 and started a research programme in grapevine viruses, with the focus to introduce resistance against these pathogens in grapevines. Professor Burger and his research team have published several papers in peer reviewed journals. He also regularly reviews publications for a number of local and international journals. He is a member of a number of professional organisations and serves on the executive boards of a few of these – most notably the International Grape Genome Programme and the International Council for the Study of Viruses and Virus-like Organisms of Grapevine. Professor Burger also serves on the Advisory Committee of the GMO Act.
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(Member of the Audit Committee)
BSc Hons and UED (Fort Hare) MSc and PhD (Microbiology) (University of Notre Dame, USA)
Dr Mjoli is the managing director of her own consulting company, Hlathi Development Services, which she established in January 2003. The company focuses on research and consulting in the fields of water services and water resources management. She is current leading projects on the sanitation policy evaluation funded by the Water Research Commission and development of business plans for Water User Association funded by the Department of Water Affairs & Forestry. Prior to setting up her own company, Dr Mjoli was employed by the Water Research Commission for 8 years as a research manager. During this period she managed research in the field of water supply and sanitation; the research she managed has guided the development of national water and sanitation policy. In January 2002 she was appointed Director of the Water Resource Management Key Strategic Area, where she was responsible for the development of a strategic plan for the Water Resource Management Key Strategic Area and an associated business plan. During her employment at the WRC, she served on several national and international advisory bodies responsible for strategic direction in the field of water resources management and water supply sanitation (Chairperson of the National Water Advisory Council, member of the World Bank- Water and Sanitation Program Advisory Committee, World Humanity Action Trust- International Water Commission, Global Water Partnership- Southern Africa Technical Advisory Committee and Coordinator of the South African Chapter of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council). She has served as a Board member for Mintek and she was also the chairperson for Human Resource Committee of the Board (2004-2007). She is a member of several project reference groups of the Water Research Commission. She has academic and research experience obtained from national and international institutions, namely, University of Bophuthatswana, University of Cape Town, University of Durban-Westville and University of Notre Dame, USA and the CSIR-Division of Water Technology. She also studied Project Management, Manager Development, and Sales and Marketing Management with Damelin Management School, and has published and presented more than 27 papers in the field of Microbiology, sanitation, gender and water.
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(Member of the Project Investment Committee)
BSc (Eng), MSc (Eng), LLB LLM-Commercial
McLean Sibanda holds BSc(Eng) and MSc(Eng) degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg), and LLB and LLM (Commercial Law) degrees from UNISA. He has been admitted as an attorney to the High Court of South Africa, and is also a qualified patent attorney, the first Black African to qualify as a patent attorney. He has wide legal experience in intellectual property and intellectual property management, with particular interests in patents, copyright, interface of intellectual property and traditional knowledge systems, technology transfer, and commercialization of intellectual property. He is currently a Senior Patent Attorney for the Innovation Fund, a business unit of the Department of Science and Technology, managed by the NRF, where he is mainly responsible for managing the Intellectual Property Management Office and providing intellectual property expertise to commercialization of Innovation Fund funded projects and investments. He is also involved with the establishment of technology transfer offices and intellectual property capacity in South African public sector, including the development of black patent attorneys. McLean has also led the public consultation process on the Policy Framework for IP from Publicly Financed Research and is part of a team headed by the Department of Science and Technology that is looking at legislation regarding this Policy Framework. Prior to joining the Innovation Fund, McLean spent a number of years with Adams & Adams attorneys, after having spent close to seven years at De Beers Industrial Diamonds Division (now Element 6) being a Senior Research Scientist working on various diamond synthesis processes and Intellectual Property Team Leader. Whilst at De Beers Industrial Diamonds Division, he also worked on a number of management projects. McLean has authored and co-authored a number of scientific articles and has been an invited speaker at both local and international conferences on both scientific and intellectual property issues.
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