Dr. Alistair Mokoena is the Country Director for Google South Africa. His academic qualifications include Bcomm, LLB, Management Development Programme (MDP), Executive Development Programme (EDP), MBA and PhD in Business Administration. He is a qualified Chartered Marketer with 25 years corporate experience. He spent the first half of his career in the following roles: Brand Manager at Unilever, Senior Brand Manager at Tiger Brands, Marketing Manager SAB Miller, Marketing Director at Mondelez and Absa bank respectively.

Dr. Mokoena has dedicated the second half of his career to executive roles in the advertising, media and technology industries, as well as academia. He was previously Managing Director of FCB Advertising Agency and Group Chief Executive Officer of Ogilvy South Africa where he spearheaded their digital transformation journey and presided over Ogilvy’s record-setting award wins. He has received many industry awards over the years including the Global Brands’ Best Advertising and Marketing Leader in South Africa in 2019.

He joined Google in April 2020 as Country Director for South Africa. His role involves managing Google’s commercial operations in Southern Africa and collaborating with customers and social partners in accelerating Africa’s digital transformation. Bridging the digital divide is an ideal that inspires Dr. Mokoena to ensure that Africa benefits from Google’s technology.

Dr. Mokoena previously served on a number of Marketing and Advertising industry bodies in the following capacities: Deputy Chairman of the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA), Chairman of the Integrated Advertising Bureau (IAB), member of the Advertising Regulatory Board’s (ARB) Final Appeal Committee, founding member of the Johannesburg Business School’s International Advisory Board, and member of the University of Johannesburg’s Institute for Intelligent Systems’ Advisory Board. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the North West University Business School, and is a board member for the American Society of South Africa.

Dr. Mokoena is an Extraordinary Professor of Practice at the North-West University Business School, an external examiner for Botho University in Botswana, a postgraduate supervisor at Vega School and a Council member at the University of Johannesburg. He has published articles in academic journals, contributed book chapters, reviewed several books and delivered papers at international academic conferences. He recently launched his first book, “Servings of self-mastery” which is in the top 50 fastest selling books across all book genres in South Africa. He coaches young professionals, mentors Small Micro and Medium Enterprises and is a regular guest speaker at international business schools and at industry events. He is passionate about the role that responsible Artificial Intelligence can play in making the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals a reality in our lifetime

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Barry van Zyl is a world-renowned musician with over 30 years experience in thecreative sector, from performance and production to executive education,strategy and business development. Having toured the world for 21 years withSouth Africa’s most famous export, Johnny Clegg, and while working with artistslike Annie Lennox, Carlos Santana, Peter Gabriel and Die Antwoord, Barrycompleted an MBA at Henley Business School and is now focused on the businessof music, creativity, and culture. Since 2018 Barry has been growing newbusiness for Henley Business School, starting in Nigeria and then in otherareas of west and east Africa, with the aim of ‘building the people, that buildthe businesses that build Africa’. As the Chair of Henley’s pan-African Alumnicommunity, Barry is leveraging Henley’s network of 80,000 alumni to build thebrand in new territories, develop the offer in existing markets, and createinnovative new revenue streams. Barry is partnering with premium organizationslike the Temple Management & Ogidi Studios group, and developing excitingprojects focused on creativity, content production, the future of music andeducation. In addition to this work, Barry embraces his passion for themarriage of the creative sector and executive leadership by designing anddelivering corporate leadership programs in creativity and innovation,entrepreneurship, and the business of rhythm. His clients include major SouthAfrican companies in financial and professional services, energy, travel andeducation. Despite his immense success in the creative industry, Barry’s mostimportant job is being a role model to his teenage daughter.

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Andrew is Chief Executive of AMBA &BGA – the Association of MBAs and the Business Graduates Association.

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Andrew commenced his career with Thomson Holidays (now TUI), then the world’s largest travel tour operator. He progressed to become Marketing and Commercial Director of Thomas Cook and then Sales and Marketing Director of Citibank Diners Club. He subsequently joined the Institute of Directors (IoD) as Chief Operating Officer.

Andrew has a strong interest in global leadership excellence. He has interviewed more than 100 of the world’s most influential leaders, in the fields of business, politics, sport and entertainment, including Bill Gates, Baroness Thatcher, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jack Welch, Sir Richard Branson and Sir David Attenborough. 

John is an integrative entrepreneur working across society, business and education to catalyse the development of global responsibility. During his undergraduate studies John founded two internet companies and went on to complete an MBA degree at the University of Pretoria's Graduate School of Management. He then worked at Discovery Health before joining Accenture's Strategy consulting division where he later set up the Sustainability practice in Dublin, Ireland. His passion to make a difference in his home country brought him back to SA in 2009 where he combines local advisory work with an international role as Executive Director of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI). The GRLI is held in strategic partnership with EFMD, AACSB International, oikos international and was co-founded with endorsement from the UN Global Compact.

Karen Basiye is a keen Sustainability Practitioner and a Corporate Environment Manager with 15 years’ experience. Over the years she has worked at the National Environment Management Authority and Safaricom where she developed competencies in Leadership, Governance, Strategic Thinking, Sustainability Reporting (both Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), Social Policy, Corporate Environmental Management, Environmental Management Systems including ISO certification and Environmental policies, Environment Risk Management, Environmental Compliance Assessment, Energy and Climate change policies, Strategies for Sustainable Development, Integrated Product Policies, Sustainable Consumption and Production and integration of Sustainable Development Goals into company strategies.

Karen holds a Joint Master of Environmental Science, Policy and Management degree from Lund University (Sweden), University of Manchester (UK), Central European University (Hungary) and University of the Aegean (Greece) www.mespom.eu and a Bachelor of Environment Science degree from Kenyatta University.

Currently at Safaricom, Karen is the Director Sustainable Business Social Impact and The Foundations. She is passionate about the interplay between People, Purpose and Profits.

She has served at various University Councils, seats on the Governing Council of KEPSA as the Vice chair of the Environment Sector Board and is a Strategic Advisor on various Boards. She has been recognised as an SDG Pioneer by the Global Compact Kenya.

Mario is the Institutional Relations Manager for ETS-GRE in EMEA. ETS stands for Educational Testing Service and is the largest private, not-for-profit educational testing and assessment organization and the creator of the GRE® General Test - the world's most widely used graduate and professional school admissions test. Previously, Mario held similar positions at other international assessment organizations such as Instituto Cervantes (Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and Cambridge Assessment English (University of Cambridge).

In his current role, Mario works closely with universities, colleges and business schools in the region to help them attract top talent to their master's and doctoral programs by using GRE® scores as part of their holistic admissions process. Mario also works closely with student organizations to promote ETS's mission of advancing quality and equity in education for all learners worldwide.

Nicola Kleyn is an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). Nicola was the dean of GIBS from 2015 to 2020 and the former dean of Post-Experience Education at the Rotterdam School of Management between 2020 and 2023. Nicola now lives in Atlanta (USA) and is an active researcher in the fields of corporate branding and academic leadership. She also regularly travels to South Africa to teach a number of marketing and branding courses at GIBS and is an active supporter of a number of business school organisations including AABS.

Ralph is professor at the UCT Graduate School of Business. He works on business sustainability and social innovation and entrepreneurship and his papers address topics such as environmental strategy of wine firms, corporate responsibility and irresponsibility in mining, and social innovation through cross-sector collaboration. Previously, he was Research Director at the UCT Graduate School of Business, and Research Chair at the African Climate and Development Institute. Among his other roles, he is the co-founder of the South African leg of the Embedding Project and the Southern Africa Food Lab, two award-winning initiatives bridging research and practice. He is an executive editor of Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, and a member of the editorial board of Strategic Organization. Ralph has been a visiting scholar or consultant in different parts of the world, most recently as Pearson Visiting Professor of Engineering and Entrepreneurship at Brown University.