Directors

Board composition

Omnia Holdings has a unitary board structure, comprising a majority of non-executive directors independent of management. The board comprised 13 directors: ten independent non-executive directors, one non-executive directors and two executive directors. The board as a whole selects and appoints new directors. Formal procedure is followed with all appointments, which are confirmed by shareholders at the following annual general meeting.

Group directorate

Independent Non-executive directors

Ronald Clifford Bowen

Age: 66
Qualifications: BSc (Hons)
Designation: Independent non-executive director
Date of appointment: 28 September 2011 - Board
: 13 April 2017 - Audit committee
Board Committee membership: Audit committee
Significant directorships: None

Skills and expertise: Business management, strategy, global & local governance, Chemicals industry

Experience: Former senior executive, managing speciality chemical businesses on 5 continents for Süd-Chemie AG, Germany for 30 years. He also worked for Ashland Chemicals Inc. of the United States. He has served on several boards, both locally and internationally, as managing director, executive director and chairman with joint-venture shareholders such as Sasol Limited, the Industrial Development Corporation, Central Energy Fund (CEF) Limited and PetroSA. He is a council member of a large global marketing consultancy.

Prof. Nick Binedell

Age: 65
Qualifications: BCom; MBA; PhD
Designation: Independent non-executive director
Date of appointment: 24 February 2017 - Board
Board Committee membership: None
Significant directorships: None

Skills and expertise: Business management, strategy, governance, finance

Experience: Nick is currently a professor of strategy and leadership at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) in South Africa. In 1998, he was appointed to establish GIBS where he was Director and Dean from 2000 – 2015. He was a board member of the International Management Board of the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and served two terms as president of the Association of SA Business Schools (SABSA).

Frank Desmond Butler

Age: 65
Qualifications: BSc (Chem Eng); MBA
Designation: Independent non-executive director
Date of appointment: 27 September 2002 - Board
: 30 September 2010 - Social, ethics and risk committee
Board Committee membership: Social, ethics and risk committee (chairman)
Significant directorships: None

Skills and expertise: Risk management, strategy and chemical industry

Experience: Frank is a private consultant in risk management and business strategies, previously a professional engineer, fellow of IRMSA, he has occupied senior positions, including chairman of CRM International from 1980 to 2001.

Tina Eboka

Age: 59
Qualifications: BSc (Industrial Eng, Textile Eng), MBA
Designation: Independent non-executive director
Date of appointment: 25 February 2016 - Board
: 14 March 2018 - Audit committee
Board Committee membership: Audit committee
Significant directorships: NTP Radiosotopes (SOC) Limited
Number of non-significant directorships: 2

Skills and expertise:Business management, strategy, engineering, corporate and social affairs

Experience: Tina is currently Group managing director of NTP Radiosotopes (SOC) Limited, the commercial subsidiary of NECSA. She is the current vice chair of the OECD -NEA committee of medical radioisotopes. Her work experience in private and public sectors includes banking, science/technology research, retail and manufacturing sectors.

She is a recognised business turnaround specialist who has served as executive director of Standard Bank responsible for setting up group corporate affairs, previously was vice president at CSIR; a senior manager in textiles and stakeholder management at Woolworths and as head of engineering in a manufacturing firm in the USA. Tina has served on other listed boards previously.

Ralph Havenstein

Age: 60
Qualifications: BCom; MSc (Chem Eng)
Designation: Lead independent non-executive director
Date of appointment: 6 November 2007 - Board
: 30 March 2011 - Social, ethics and risk committee
: 24 February 2017 - Remuneration and nominations committee
Board Committee membership: Social, ethics and risk committee and Remuneration and nominations committee (chairman)
Significant directorships: Northam Platinum Limited, Murray & Roberts Holdings Limited
Number of non-significant directorships: 6

Skills and expertise: Engineering, governance, risk management, strategy, chemicals and mining industry

Experience: Previously served as director of Anglo Platinum, Simmer and Jack, Mintek and Sasol and on councils of Chamber of Mines and Chemical and Allied Industries' Association (CAIA).

Linda De Beer

Age: 49
Qualifications: Chartered Director (SA); Chartered Accountant (SA); MCOM Tax (Pretoria),
Professor (UJ)
Designation: Independent non-executive director
Date of appointment: 30 November 2017 - Board
: 30 November 2017 - Audit committee
Board Committee membership: Audit committee (chairman)
Significant directorships: Aspen Finance, Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Safin Holdings, Sasfin Bank
Number of non-significant directorships: 1

Skills and expertise: Finance, governance

Experience:Linda is a reporting and corporate governance advisor. She also serves as chair of the JSE’s Financial Reporting Investigations Panel, member of the King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa (served on the King IV Task Team) and JSE’s Issuers’ Regulatory Advisory Committee.

Sizwe Mncwango

Age: 52
Qualifications: BSc; MSc (Civ Eng); MBA
Designation: Independent non-executive director
Date of appointment: 29 July 2010 - Board
Board Committee membership: None
Significant directorships: Shell Downstream South Africa, Sekelo Oil Trading, Science, Technology and Innovation for Africa (STISA) Oil Trading, Safripol, Thebe Unico, Thebe Mining Resources, Timrite, Turnstone
Number of non-significant directorships: 8

Skills and expertise: Business management, engineering, governance and strategy

Experience: Sizwe is currently the Group Chief Executive Officer of Thebe Investment Corporation, one of the leading investment holding companies that came into being shortly before South Africa’s formal political transition to democracy. Prior to that, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Thebe Energy & Resources since 01 April 2015, a role he assumed after serving for two years as the Chief Executive Officer of the Central Energy Fund. The CEF is a state owned SA entity focusing on oil, gas, coal, renewable and alternative primary energy sources.

Sizwe has served on numerous boards the past 15 years and brings along with him extensive experience in energy and energy related investments acquired over the last 28 years

Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe

Age: 57
Qualifications: BSc; MSc (Medicinal Chemistry); Teaching Diploma
Designation: Independent non-executive director
Date of appointment: 1 June 2018 - Board
: 1 August 2018 - Remuneration committee and nominations committee
Board Committee membership: Remuneration and nominations committee
Significant other directorships: Vodacom Group, Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Old Mutual
Number of non-significant directorships: 8

Skills and expertise: Business management, chemistry, information systems, strategy

Experience:Thoko holds a BSc and Teaching Diploma from Swaziland and a master’s degree in Medicinal Chemistry from Loughborough University in the UK. She serves as an independent non-executive director on the boards of a number of JSE listed companies. In 2005 she was named finalist for IT Personality, winner of Top ICT Individual and winner of Top ICT Businesswoman in Africa. In 2007, she was named the Businesswoman of the year in the Corporate Category.

Willem Plaizier (Wim)

Age: 57
Qualifications: BSc, MBA
Designation: Independent non-executive director
Date of appointment: 11 February 2019 - Board
Board Committee membership: None
Significant other directorships: None

Skills and expertise: Business management, strategy, supply chain operations, chemicals & mining industry

Experience: Wim has over 35 years’ industry and strategic management consulting experience across predominantly the Chemicals, Energy, Oil & Gas, Agriculture, Pulp & Paper and Metals & Mining sectors. He also brings significant international experience to the board, with more than 10 years’ in Africa. Among other roles during his career, Wim most recently served as a Partner at A.T Kearney where he was responsible for, inter alia, the African region and at a global level strategy, business planning, productivity and operations. He retired in 2017 after 21 years within the group and serves currently as interim COO of African Parks, a nature conservancy.

Non-executive directors

Rod Humphris

Age: 61
Qualifications: BSc (Chem Eng); BCom
Title: Non-executive chairman (appointed 1 June 2017)
Date of appointment: 11 March 1999 - Board (Executive managing director)
: 30 September 2010 - Social, ethics and risk committee
: 1 June 2017 - Remuneration and nominations committee
Date of resignation: 31 May 2017 as managing director
Board Committee membership: Remuneration and nominations committee and Social, ethics and risk committee
Significant directorships: Chairman of Chemical and Allied Industries’ Association (CAIA)
Number of non-significant directorships: None

Skills and expertise: Business management, strategy, engineering, financial, chemical industry, risk management

Experience: After an initial period in the gold mining industry, Rod joined Omnia as a project engineer in 1982. After occupying various positions within the Omnia Group, he was appointed as the managing director of Omnia Fertilizer in 1995 and Group managing director of Omnia Holdings Limited in 1999. Appointed as non-independent, non-executive chairman of the Group on 1 June 2017. He also served the president of the Fertilizer Society of South Africa.

Executive directors and company secretary

Adriaan de Lange

Age: 42
Qualifications: Chartered Accountant (SA)
Designation: Group managing director
Date of appointment: 1 June 2017 - Board
: 1 June 2017 - Social, ethics and risk committee
Board Committee membership: Social, ethics and risk committee
Significant directorships: None

Experience: Adriaan joined the Group in 2003 as financial controller for BME and was promoted to financial manager, where he played an important part in developing and implementing the Mining division’s business strategy. In 2007, he was transferred to Omnia Fertilizer as financial manager and was soon thereafter promoted to financial director of Omnia Fertilizer. He thereafter held various positions in Omnia Fertilizer, including the position of director: Supply Chain, before he was appointed as managing director of Omnia Fertilizer: RSA in 2012. He was appointed as Group managing director with effect from 1 June 2017.

Thanaseelan Gobalsamy (Seelan)

Age: 42
Qualifications: Chartered Accountant (SA) AMP (Harvard)
Designation: Group finance director
Date of appointment:: 10 September 2018 - Board
: 10 September 2018 - Audit committee
Board Committee membership: Audit committee
Significant directorships: Bidvest Life Limited
Number of non-significant directorships: 2

Skills and expertise: Finance, business management, strategy, mergers and acquisitions.

Experience:He is an accomplished, internationally experienced business leader, from the financial services sector. He has assumed senior leadership roles across Emerging Markets for close to 20 years including key leadership roles as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director. He served as Chief Executive of Emerging Markets for Liberty Holdings and previously the Group Chief Executive of STANLIB Group.

Prior to this he was Managing Director of Old Mutual Corporate.

Michelle Nana

Age: 50
Qualifications: FCIS, BA (Industrial Psychology and Sociology), Certified Director of the Institute of Directors South Africa
Title: Group Company Secretary
Date of appointment: 1 July 2018

Experience:25 years in Company Secretarial and Corporate Governance, in both JSE-listed and unlisted companies. Sectors include telecommunications and construction.