“PERFECTION IS NOT ATTAINABLE, BUT IF WE CHASE PERFECTION, WE CAN CATCH EXCELLENCE.” ―VINCE LOMBARDI

OUR TEAM OF FANTASTIC PROFESSIONALS

Lonwabo Sambudla

Group CEO

Mkasiri Msebenzi

Group CFO

Muthoni Kirumbi

CTO

BIO
A technology professional with over 8 years’ experience in Financial Inclusion, Product Management, Project Management, Design and Architecture. She has created partnerships and offered services to the biggest telecommunication companies in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Martin Zogbhy

CMO

BIO

Founder of Aquarius Consulting Group (Pty) Ltd. Martin is an accomplished executive and businessman, working extensively in-and-around Africa, with significant experience in Marketing Management, Telecommunications, Sales and Negotiation.

Josphat Kinyua

CCO

BIO

Founder and Group Commercial Director of MODE. Josphat has over 10 years’ experience, in various capacities, with Renaissance Group of Russia, Standard Bank of South Africa and UBS. His investment banking experience is largely in the Telecoms, Media and Technology Sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Andy Wilson

Programme Executive 

Bio

Prior to taking on this role he led the Digital Transformation, Financial Services Technology Consulting, and Experience Consulting businesses for PwC in Africa. His deep understanding of the critical link between established and emerging disruptive technologies, human beings, strategic agility methodologies and the shaping of business strategies, enables him to deliver significant value and differentiated experiences for his clients.

Kevin Fick

Head of Digital

BIO

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Kevin is an experienced Strategy, Finance, Payments, Innovation, Fintech and Telco professional. He is the Head of Digital at IMS Global Ventures. His focus is on the optimisation and expansion of existing digital financial services, products and platforms across South Africa, rest of Africa and the Middle East, Core products include Airtime Credit Services, Mobile Money and Wallets.

Brenda Morgan

Head: PMO

BIO

Brenda is a Certified Project Manager predominantly within the IT, Infrastructure and Banking sectors, for over 12 years; working with companies such as Absa, Accenture and BP. As a certified ‘Scrum Master’, Brenda has been involved in projects such as the successful roll out of new software and hardware to all Sasol and Excel service stations across the country.

Blayne Thorne

Client Retention Manager

BIO
Blayne has been involved with Telecommunications for over 25 years and has gained valuable experience in Retail, Field Marketing, Account Management, Client Retention Management, Product Marketing & Merchandising and Customer Relationship Management.

Oloff Marais

Head of Analytics

Nomathamsanqa Tshabalala

Regional Manager

BIO
Nomathamsanqa is an experienced professional within the Telecommunications and Financial Services industries; skilled in Marketing, Negotiation, Business Planning, Product and Operations Management.

Mlungisi Mbele

Client Quality Assurance Analyst

BIO
With an impressive 17 certifications, Mlungisi has occupied roles such as Business Analyst, Software Developer and Test Automation Engineer; and has worked with global companies such as Software Quality Systems (Expleo), VHI (Ireland’s largest health insurer), EOH on Old Mutual, and CyberPro.

Juandre Van Zyl

Snr Predictive Analyst

BIO
Juandre has held titles such as Investment Analyst and Risk Analyst at Finbond Mutual Bank and PSG Wealth respectively. Juandre is currently completing his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification.

Bashi Makhafola

Team Lead IT operations

Jo-Anne Pretorius

Product Manager

Catherine Lee-Holmquist

Personal Assistant

BIO
Catherine has 5 years’ experience working with JSE listed companies, and has recently become part of the IMS team as Personal Assistant to our Directors. She is currently completing her Financial Accounting Degree.

Sibongile Malgas

HR Administrator

BIO
Sibongile joined IMS Ventures as a Human Resource Administrator and previously was an HR Graduate Trainee with Nando’s SA. Prior to that she looked after the Data Science Portfolio as a Recruitment consultant for a boutique recruitment firm.

Charles Amon

IT Security Specialist

BIO
A technology professional with over 8 years’ experience in Financial Inclusion, Product Management, Project Management, Design and Architecture. She has created partnerships and offered services to the biggest telecommunication companies in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Arnold Musadziruma

Financial Analyst

BIO
Arnold joined IMS as a Financial Analyst in 2019. Prior to this, he worked as an M&A Investment Banking Analyst and has deal origination and execution experience in sectors including Telecoms, Agriculture, Manufacturing and Specialty Chemicals across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Reginald Dichane

IT Application Support

Mukudzei Msebenzi

Marketing Associate

BIO
Mukudzei joined IMS as a Marketing Intern in 2019. Prior to this, he worked as a Brand Ambassador with Tribe SA, working with brands such as Mercedes Benz SA and Ford SA.

Marie Van Straten

Senior Predictive Analyst 

Bio

Marié has over 8 years’ experience in the credit industry. Over the course of this time she has gained experience in Business Intelligence, Marketing Services & Credit Risk Modelling. She has recently become part of the IMS team as Senior Predictive Analyst.

Justin Nimmerhout

Financial Accountant 

BIO

Justin Nimmerhout joint IMS Ventures as a Financial Accountant on 1st April 2020 and previously served as a Group Financial Accountant at Zimco Group (Pty) Ltd. Prior to that he completed his SAIPA articles and passed his PE exam to become a Professional Accountant (SA).

Sipesande Mnyaka 

Support Engineer 

BIO

An experienced application support professional within the telecommunications industry. He implemented and supported various high revenue Telkom solutions, and lead his team during the successful implementation of the Call Completion Emergency Top Up solution prior to joining IMS. Sipesande is currently completing his Linux Red Hat Administration certification.

Mulalo Raphasha

Support Engineer

BIO

Certified in Red hat Linux Administration and holding a bachelor’s degree in Computer Sciences and information systems, with experience in Supporting VoWiFi at CellC for three years. Mulalo also lead the SMSC and VoWifi teams for 6 months before he joined IMS, gaining extensive experience in the telecoms industry.

Leandi Schmidt

Data Scientist 

BIO

Leandi graduated from the University of Potchefstroom holding her Honours degree in Quantitative Risk Management. Since then she has been a Data Scientist in both a Marketing and Modelling Team within TransUnion, gaining 4 years of credit bureau experience. She has recently become part of the IMS Team as a Data Scientist, building models and optimizing markets

Jonathan Du Plessis

Head of Application Management

BIO

Holds a Bachelor of Science in ‘Applied Information Technology’ and has been active within the telecommunications industry for more than 16 years.  His expertise is in Automation of Processes, Solution Architecture, Quality Assurance, DevOps and Business Intelligence

Dexter Thenjwayo

Head of Sales and Distribution

BIO

A seasoned professional with extensive experience in FMCG and Retail in various leadership roles with British American Tobacco, SAB, Edcon, Coca Cola and Tiger brands, both in South Africa and internationally. His experience is largely in Sales and Distribution, Trade Marketing, Customer Relations, Manufacturing and Logistics Management in both formal and informal markets

Zukiswa Sigwabe

Client liaison officer 

BIO

Worked 10 years in the IT Banking Sector. Specializing in Business Application Support, IT Service Management and Assisting in Projects, in varies IT Service Delivery Departments. Working and supporting internal business and Third-party vendors and maintaining those relationships.

Badi Weru

Senior Devops Engineer 

BIO

Badi understands the importance of system uptime to the customer journey. This is his 12th year working with systems providing essential services to their customers. He is passionate about DevOps, having gained a very good understanding of popular cloud platforms, CI/CD tools, version control platforms, containerization and orchestration tools

Desmond Govender 

Product Manager 

BIO

Desmond has been in the Telecommunication industry for over a decade with a history in Financial Services. His core competencies are Product Management, Training and Technical Project Management

Gillian Geldenhuys 

 

BIO

With a First-Class Bachelor of Science degree from Bath Spa University, Gillian has a broad platform of experience spanning multiple sectors including personal insurance, mobile payments, social networking and ICT. She has over 10 years’ experience in Agile product management/ownership, for companies such as Lime Global, Visa Inc., Mxit and Storm Voice and Data

 

 

Edwin Amakobe

Support Engineer 

Edwin is an IT professional with over 5 years’ experience administering and managing IT infrastructure and business production systems to create and deliver solutions tied to business growth, organizational development and network optimization. He is Skilled in problem identification, troubleshooting and applying client focused solutions to achieve high availability and performance of IT systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and has worked in various capacities with the latest being an IT manager at Mawingu Networks.