Directors

Gordon Hulley (37), CEO

BCom, CA (SA), PGDA (Cape Town)

Appointed: 23 February 2006

After completing his articles with Arthur Andersen in 1997, Gordon entered the merchant banking fraternity with Barclays, first in Harare, Zimbabwe, and later in London. In 2000 he returned to Africa to focus on specialised finance and private equity as a founding partner of 4D Investments Africa and later as a founding partner at boutique finance and equity group Eton Capital. He joined Excellerate as Operations Director in February 2006 and was appointed CEO in November 2006.

Nick Christodoulou (63), Chairman

BSc.Eng, MBA

Appointed: 13 April 2011

Nick holds a BSc. Eng (Industrial) degree and an MBA, and has held prior positions that include Chief Executive Officer of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, General Manager of Sanlam Asset Management, Chief Executive: Sanlam Employee Benefits, and Chief Executive: Independent Financial Services. He continues to serve on various Boards within the Sanlam and JHI Property Management Groups. Nick was appointed independent Chairman of Excellerate in April 2011.

James Wellsted (36), FD

Bcompt, CA (SA)

Appointed: 6 April 2009

James completed his articles with Ernst & Young in 1996, qualifying as a CA (SA). On completion of his articles, he joined Ernst & Young’s Corporate and Structured Finance Divisions, specialising in Debt Origination, Mergers and Acquisitions and Valuations. Following a short period working for a boutique facilitating project finance within sub-Saharan Africa, James became a founding partner of the boutique finance and equity group, Eton Capital. He joined Excellerate in June 2007 as the Head of Acquisitions and Special Projects and was appointed as the Financial Director in March 2009.

Athol Stewart (58)

Appointed: 6 February, 1998

After completing a diploma in sales and sales management, and a short time in sales for Mega Plastics, Athol took a 10 percent stake in a truck rental business, where he remained for four years. He left to start his own business and in 1981 established FoodServ, which holds several leading agencies in fast food catering equipment from the USA, Holland and Italy. Athol joined Excellerate in 1998 as Managing Director of FoodServ when it was sold to the Excellerate Group.

Graham Davel (38)

BCom, CA (SA)

Appointed: 12 September, 2003

Graham Davel is a non-executive director of Excellerate Holdings Limited. Graham is an investment manager with Nedbank Capital Private Equity, having joined the BoE private equity team in October 2001 prior to the merger with Nedbank Limited. Prior to BoE Graham worked for National Westminster Bank in London, where he was involved in providing mezzanine debt and private equity in a range of UK mid-corporate expansion and LBO transactions. Graham also spent two years with Harvest Capital in London where he was involved in corporate finance advisory work and in raising capital for a new venture capital fund. Prior to that Graham was a manager at KPMG with audit and corporate finance responsibilities.

Clive Howell – alternate director (46)

BCom, CA (SA)

Appointed: 12 September, 2003

Clive Howell is a non-executive director of Excellerate Holdings Limited. Clive is joint head of Nedbank Capital Private Equity since the merger of Nedbank Limited and BoE, and prior to that was head of BoE Investment Partners since April 1996. Clive has extensive experience in MBO, expansion capital, empowerment and mezzanine transactions in South Africa. Prior to joining BoE, Clive worked for McCarthy Retail and Unicorn Shipping as the Group Treasury and Tax Manager. There he was responsible for managing and closing out all foreign exchange and interest rate risks as well as all taxation matters.

Rudi Stumpf (38)

BCom (Hons), FIA

Appointed: 25 November, 2003

Rudi Stumpf is a qualified actuary and heads up the private equity division of Buffet Investments. Prior to joining Buffet Investments he was CEO of Citadel Investment Services, a subsidiary of Peregrine Holdings and also served on the Board of Peregrine Holdings. Rudi is a director of a number of private companies and also serves on the Board of Trematon Capitol Investments, another JSE listed entity.

Michael Mohohlo (62)

BCom, MBA (USA)

Appointed: 5 May 2005

Mike is a seasoned businessman who gives selflessly of his time and expertise to the community. He is the Chairman of Excellerate’s Audit Committee and has chaired both the National Ports Authority Tender Board and the Transnet Properties Audit Committee. He was also the Chairman of the Spoornet and Protekon Tender Boards. In addition to serving as Executive Director of MDM-Mohohlo and of Tsela-Tshweu Tourism Corporation, Mike lends his expertise to a number of other corporations, including the South African Excellence Foundation (SAEF) where he served as a judge from 1999 to 2002. Mike gained extensive corporate and developmental experience during his time as General Manager of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Chairman of Multisource Telecoms, Executive of NAFCOC, Managing Director of Coopers and Lybrand Business Development Services, founding member of the Black Management Forum and the founding Chairman of the NHBRC. He was the lead judge on the 2003 Eastern Cape Premier’s Good Governance Awards. Mike gained valuable business and community development experience in the United States from 1986 to 1991 and also during a five-year stint as political prisoner on Robben Island. He was appointed an independent non-executive director of Excellerate in May 2005.

Arnold Meyer (38)

N. Dip, MBA

Appointed: 25 November 2009

Arnold Meyer started his career at RMB Properties as a shopping centre manager and later joined Domayne Properties which was acquired by Broll Property Group. At Broll, Arnold served as Senior Portfolio Manager before becoming COO in 2002 and Group CEO in 2004. Arnold represented London & Regional in the acquisition of the V&A Waterfront from Transnet and acted as MD of the V&A in 2007. In 2008 Arnold joined Renaissance Capital in the startup of an African Real Estate initiative. He has significant experience in starting property and services businesses in Africa.