The Board of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has elected Mandla Madwara as its new president, and Neil Hart as deputy president at its meeting on 31 May 2012.
In line with the Chamber constitution, the Board has elected its new office-bearers at its first meeting following the Chamber’s annual general meeting last week.
Madwara succeeds Bryan Dowley of KFML Holdings as president. He is the CEO of BEDEVCO, a local BEE company involved in IT and energy. He is chairman of Zonwabise Holdings, a BEE partner with Sun International in Emfuleni Resorts which runs the Boardwalk Casino Entertainment World, and a director of Triangle Events SA, organisers of the Spec-savers Ironman South Africa. Madwara has studied locally and overseas, in Scotland and the USA.
“I will bring a lot of entrepreneurial spirit and experience, carry the interests of the members, and my network as well as reputation with other stakeholders such as Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, PetroSA, Provincial leadership both at Government and ruling party levels, to serve the interests of the region in growing our economy with quality jobs,” he said last night.
Elected as deputy president, Neil Hart is MD of Boomtown Strategic Brand Agency, a business he founded in Port Elizabeth 18 years ago and has grown to a staff of 57 people with branches in Johannesburg and Cape Town. He consults on strategy for the likes of SAB, Avis, NMMU and Plascon. He chairs the Marketers Executive Forum and is a trustee of the Raymond Mhlaba Trust through which he has worked personally with Nelson Mandela. He has spoken at several national marketing industry conferences and is a published writer.
“Stepping into the chairman role at Boomtown as of 1 August, opens up more time for adding value to the city and selected visionary and entrepreneurial projects that are close to my heart,” he said.
