Thokozile Mahlangu
IISA
DMs Thokozile Mahlangu is an experienced executive with 25 years' experience in the insurance industry, 10 years of which at executive management and 7 years as a Chief Executive Officer.
She holds a Masters Degree in Business Leadership (MBL) from UNISA’s School of Business Leadership, she also holds a bachelor of law (BJuris) from (UNISA). She completed a Management Development Programme from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) as well as various certificates in scenario planning and strategic thinking, strategic marketing and game changing strategies from GIBS. She also completed various insurance related courses.
Thokozile is a groundbreaking business leader who is redefining industry standards with her innovative approach and creative mindset. With background skills in strategic marketing and scenario planning, Thokozile has a unique ability to think outside the box and develop strategic solutions that drive success. She is innovative in nature and a transformational leader that identifies business opportunities that elevate the financial status as well as creating shared value for all stakeholders. She has excellent stakeholder management and networking skills, she commands the respect of colleagues within and outside the insurance industry.
In her career she has successfully delivered various skills development programmes such as the Insurance Leadership Development Program which has produced over 200 graduates since inception in 2014, an executive development programme that equipped graduates with practical skills in executive management, insurance director training programme, and various programmes focused on technical insurance skills.
In addition to her impressive business acumen, Thokozile is also known for her commitment to social responsibility and sustainability. She is a strong advocate for ethical business practices and actively seeks out opportunities to give back to the community. Overall, Thokozile Mahlangu is a trailblazing business leader who continues to inspire others with her creativity, innovation, and unwavering commitment to excellence.
She is a member of the Fire Protection Association (FPA) Board of Directors and is a Chairperson of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee at the same organisation. She is also a member of the board of directors at the Vehicle Damage Quantification Governance Body. Ms Mahlangu is also a member of the Department of Finance, Risk Management and Banking Advisory Board at the University of South Africa.
Opening Address
Peter Temple
General Reinsurance
The Risk of New Risk
Dynamic Propositions For An Unprecedented Time
Head of Segment: Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland and Caribbean (CUSAC)
Peter Temple is responsible for Gen Re's CUSAC Segment. He plays a critical role in linking the South African team to our international units, facilitating fast and close collaboration, access to the latest developments, and quick decision making on significant risks. He has a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Actuarial Science, is a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa(ASSA), and a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries. He has previously held the position President of the Actuarial Society of South Africa. Peter is also an independent NON-Executive Director of African Bank and the chair of the Risk & Capital Management Committee of the bank.
Donald Dinnie
Norton Rose Fulbright
Lessons For Loss Adjusters
Learnings from Recent Judgments
Donald is a senior litigation lawyer practicing in insurance and reinsurance law.
He is highly regarded in the industry for his disputes and coverage work in insurance and reinsurance and medical malpractice and healthcare disputes.
He has over 32 years' experience in insurance and reinsurance litigation in South Africa, and regularly advises the major short-term insurers and reinsurers in South Africa. He also advised Lloyds and Lloyd's syndicates and international reinsurers.
His insurance law specialisation includes regulatory work and complex disputes and coverage with respect to subrogated defences and recoveries and defence work for insurers and reinsurers regarding policy response, interpretation and wording.
Donald was previously the Managing Director, then CEO of Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa and before that head of the Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa's Disputes Group before leaving to join the Natmed Group as their CEO.
Donald has been selected as one of the world’s leading practitioners in the Who’s Who Legal: Insurance & Reinsurance 2024 report. This prestigious recognition highlights Donald’s outstanding expertise and dedication to the field.
He is also recognised as the 2024 Edition “Lawyer of the Year” in Insurance Law in Johannesburg, in the Best Lawyers in South Africa. He is also further listed in Best Lawyers in South Africa 2024 for his expertise in insurance law and litigation. He is consistently listed in, amongst others, Who's Who; Insurance and Reinsurance as a leading insurance and reinsurance practitioner; Legal 500 as a leading disputes practitioner; and Chambers Global. He was recognised as Insurance Lawyer of the Year 2015 by Best Lawyers in South Africa.
Donald is a knowledge resource to our insurance and medical law clients. In providing ongoing support to the insurance and healthcare industries, he frequently publishes and lectures on all aspects of insurance, reinsurance and medical law. Donald is a regular blogger on insurance law issues in the Financial Institutions Legal Snapshot.
He devised and implemented the Big Read Book Series. He has championed many of the insurance practices' industry events.
In 2020 Donald was elected an Honorary Member of the Institute of Loss Adjusters of Southern Africa in recognition of services rendered to the Institute.
In 2021 Donald became a non-executive director of the Insurance Institute of South Africa.
Donald obtained his BA LLB and HDip Company Law from the University of the Witwatersrand, and CML from Unisa/UP. He is a member of the Law Societies of the Northern Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, and Cape Province.
He has acted as a Commissioner of the Small Court for over 20 years
Jean Naude
Independent Claims
White Collar Crime
Motivation + Opportunity + Rationalisation = Payday!
Jean holds a B. Proc degree from the University of Pretoria, where he also completed his practical legal training before embarking on a career on the complex claims side of casualty insurance at Specialised Risk Underwriters (Pty) Limited, which later became Stalker Hutchison Admiral (Pty) Limited (“SHA”).
In addition to Jean's legal degree, he has obtained a Certificate in Economic Crime Schemes (at NQF8 level), passed Level 1 of the regulatory examinations and travelled throughout Africa to investigate large and complex commercial crime-related cases.
Jean has been entrusted by his Principals with some of the insurance industry’s most complex and contentious claims, which included the listeriosis outbreak and consequent product recall plus class action, as well as the Steinhoff Directors and Officers investigations launched by local and London-based risk carriers.
Jean has presented on a variety of topics at various forums and has authored several technical articles.
Kudzanayi Manhiwa
Associated Loss Adjusters
Kudzanayi Manhuwa is a qualified Chartered Accountant CA(SA) who joined ALA in 2021, bringing additional expertise to the team. He has since worked on a wide range of complex business interruption claims. His financial background has also proved valuable in formulating stock and property damage claims.
Before joining ALA, Kudzanayi worked as an External auditor, Finance Consultant, Tax Practitioner, Facilitator, Assessor, and Moderator. In addition, he has managed a portfolio of clients within different industries such as manufacturing, Agriculture, Food processing, Manufacturing, Aviation, National and Local Government, Higher education, and Real Estate.
He holds a BCompt Accounting Degree, a Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Accounting (CTA), and he specialises in:
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Business Interruption
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Property Damage
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Stock Losses
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Insurance and Reinsurance Audits.
Business Interruption
Jolene Visser
Forensure
Business Interruption
Jolene is the founder of Forensure and brings over 16 years of expertise in forensic accounting and related investigations, loss adjusting, and business impact analysis.
As a qualified Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor’s degree in Law, she is recognized for her ability to navigate complex financial landscapes and deliver results in high-stakes scenarios.
She has successfully led intricate, high-value claims and investigations across a wide range of industries, regions and beyond South African borders and has provided expert testimony in the High Court of South Africa on numerous matters.
She also holds the professional accreditation as an Associate with the Insurance Institute of South Africa and a Licentiate with the Institute of Loss Adjusters of Southern Africa.
Rob McNeil
GRS Complex Claims UK
Risks Linked To Aging Assets
Rob is an experienced energy loss adjuster with 18 years’ involvement in major projects and complex infrastructure. His work involves downstream energy, power, and large-scale infrastructure claims.
Prior to joining loss adjusting in 2015, Rob worked for an engineering management consultancy in the UK and in South Africa, where he developed a wealth of experience in onshore infrastructure planning, strategy, modelling, construction, and operations.
Rob is now based in London, where he services a global portfolio of claims.
Trevor Manas
Blitz Detect
Changing Weather Patterns
The effect on renewable energy sites
With more than 28 years of experience, Trevor has established himself as a leading expert in lightning protection. His experience, insight, and in-depth knowledge as well as his ability to stay abreast of the latest developments in the earthing and lightning protection industry has assisted him in establishing his reputation as an expert in lightning protection.
His work in introducing new technologies such as isolated lightning protection systems through insulated cabling into South Africa has been one of many significant milestones in Trevor`s career. Over the past 20 years, Trevor has been the chief lightning protection designer for over 5000 projects worldwide.
Trevor has served as National Director of ELPA in 2017 and 2018 where he developed the accreditation courses for lightning protection installers, designers, and inspectors. Trevor is also a member and active advisor of the SABS TC067/SC06 & SANS 10313 lightning protection committees.
He is also one of the founders and principles of The Lightning College, a fully comprehensive online earthing and lightning protection training platform for engineers and lightning protection practitioners alike.
Trevor, was appointed as managing director of Blitz-Detect in January 2021.
Ivor Mumford
Independent Claims
Changing Weather Patterns
The effect on renewable energy sites
Ivor has practical field engineering experience gained in South Africa, the Middle and Far East, Australia, and Europe.
After a career working for a large corporate engineering company Ivor started the Apple Group, an internationally recognised Engineering Services company that has designed and implemented industrial facilities throughout the world. In 2011 Ivor chose to restructure the Apple Group and transfer the businesses within the Group to the control of experienced Management Teams. Following a brief sabbatical period during early 2011 he established Maskil Technical Services to assist corporate clients with the strategic review, investigation and interpretation of complex engineering and production matters.
Ivor’s engineering experience coupled with nearly two decades of flying both fixed and rotor wing aircraft has enabled him to provide unique insight to aviation technical matters.
Johan van Heever
EFI Global
Photo-Voltaic Systems, Lithium & Fire
Johan is the Head of EFI Global Africa, which was launched in South Africa on 1 July 2019. Since then, EFI Global Africa has grown into a fully-fledged team, rendering the following services: Fire & Explosion Investigations, Environmental Specialist Services, Specialty Consulting and Forensic Engineering.
Johan started his career in the Fire Services in 1984 and at the young age of 31, he was appointed as Chief Fire Officer. He was deployed as Executive Manager of Operations, after the amalgamation of the East Rand Fire Departments, with the establishment of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Emergency Services, managing 27 operational fire stations at the time. He responded to countless fire incidents of all types such as multi-story buildings, technical industrial plants, vehicle accidents, aviation accidents, and technical rescue scenes, and rendered airport fire and rescue services. He provided Fire Safety Technical Services to the Building Control Officers during building plan approval and issuing of occupancy certificates.
Johan completed the National Higher Diploma Fire Technology (T4) at the erstwhile Pretoria Technicon, a 4,5-year tertiary education which included fire technology subjects relating to fire investigations, building regulations, science and explosives. Johan also completed numerous in-service training courses and holds certifications in amongst others, structural firefighting, vehicle rescue, swift water rescue, lift rescue, high angle rescue, fire engine hydraulics, pump operations, multi-cultural training, specialized rescue diver, specialized deep diver, technical deep diver, advance firefighting and is also a qualified Intermediate Life Support Paramedic (ILS).
Johan has conducted numerous fire risk assessments of large-scale mining operations, complex industrial occupancies, storage and warehousing, and numerous commercial occupancies such as large shopping centres and multi-story buildings.
Furthermore, Johan has decades of experience in conducting Forensic Fire and Explosion investigations and determining the root cause thereof, including numerous international fire losses. He assesses compliance with Building Regulations, Fire By-laws, and applicable codes and standards.
Johan receives case instructions from various sectors, including Insurers, large Law Firms, numerous Corporate Clients, requesting his expertise, and to provide comprehensive court reports, loss mitigation proposals and consultation on future precautions.
Johan has strong moral principles and fundamental leadership skills and constantly strives to take EFI Global Africa to new heights.
Werner Sieburg
EFI Global
Photo-Voltaic Systems, Lithium & Fire
As a licensed professional Electrical Engineer, with over a decade of experience in post-loss electrical investigations, Werner is well versed in the failure mode and comprehensive root cause analysis of complex and integrated engineering systems.
Within the electrical utility industry, his experience includes all aspects of power system failures at high, medium, and low voltages, large power station multi-unit failures, electrical protection, transformers, current and voltage transformers, switchgear, power lines, earthing, and lightning.
His expertise also includes power quality and integration of renewable energy onto the power grid, and he is up for any challenging problem to solve. Werner is well-equipped to work at all levels of expertise with insurers, specialists, business owners, manufacturers, authorities, and operators.
Werner brings positive energy to any team and takes the lead with critical analytical thinking and confidence whenever required, always relishing an opportunity to learn something new.