Annual IHS Africa Economic Outlook Conference 2011

Frans Barker

Senior Executive, Chamber of Mines, South Africa

Dr. Barker was deputy president of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) and represented business in the National Economic, Development, and Labour Council (NEDLAC) and the Commission for Employment Equity. He is the former chairperson of the National Manpower Commission (NMC), which preceded NEDLAC. He was president of the Industrial Relations Association of South Africa (IRasa) and deputy president of the Economic Society of South Africa. He has authored numerous publications, including The South African Labour Market (Van Schaik Academic, 5th ed, 2007). He obtained his doctorate from the University of South Africa (Unisa).

Nariman Behravesh

Chief Economist, IHS

Behravesh is Chief Economist of IHS and author of the recently published book Spin-Free Economics: A No-Nonsense, Nonpartisan Guide to Today's Global Economic Debates (McGraw-Hill). Directing IHS' entire economic forecasting process, he is responsible for developing the economic outlook and risk analysis for the United States, Europe, Japan, China and other emerging markets. He oversees the work of over 400 professionals, located in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa who cover economic, financial, and political developments in over 200 countries.

Behravesh and his team were designated #1 in USA Today's 2004 ranking of top economic forecasters, and in Reuters' 2004 survey of major currency exchange rate forecasters. In 2008, he was ranked #2 by USA Today. In The Wall Street Journal's annual ranking of U.S. forecasters, Behravesh was ranked #3 (out of 56) for 2006, and was the only forecaster to place in the top six for 2003, 2004 and 2006.

As IHS' chief economics spokesperson, Behravesh is quoted extensively in the media on such topics as the outlook for the US and global economies, oil prices, exchange rates, the budget deficit, the trade deficit, globalization, country risk, and emerging markets crises. He is cited frequently in leading business publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times, USA Today, Investor's Business Daily, Business Week, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes and U.S. News and World Report. He also regularly appears on national radio and television programs including BBC World Business Report, NBC Nightly News, CNN Headline News, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer (PBS), Fox News, CNBC, Bloomberg TV and Radio, and All Things Considered and Market Place on National Public Radio.

Behravesh was the host of the PBS television series "Inside the Global Economy." In addition to his recent book, he has authored numerous articles in such publications as European Affairs and Credit Week, co-authored two books—Economics U$A and Microcomputers, Corporate Planning and Decision Support Systems—and was a contributing author to a book on scenario analysis, entitled Learning From the Future. His Op-Ed pieces have also appeared in the Financial Times, Newsweek International and the London Times.

Before joining IHS, Behravesh was chief economist for Global Insight (now an IHS company). Prior to that, he was chief international economist for Standard & Poor's. He also held a number of other positions, including president and CEO of Oxford Economics U.S.A. and Group Senior Vice President of WEFA. Early in his career Behravesh worked at the Congressional Budget Office and the Federal Reserve. He has been covering the global economy for over 35 years.

Behravesh holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has lived in Europe and the Middle East, and is fluent in several languages. He travels extensively to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Gerhard Bijker

Country Manager, South Africa, IHS

Gerhard has contributed significantly to the IHS South Africa product offering, most recently to the South African Regional eXplorer product, which is a consolidated platform of integrated databases that provide accurate and up-to-date economic, socio-economic, demographic, and development information on a spatial geographic level. He has extensive experience in a range of spatial economics disciplines, ranging from regional demographics to complex regional econometric modelling. Mr. Bijker has also been engaged in a number of high level consulting projects in both the public and private sectors, helping to inform crucial decisions across a wide array of industries and sectors. He studied at the University of Pretoria, and holds a BSc honours degree (cum laude) in Mathematical and Computer Science.

Theo de Jager

Deputy President, AgriSA

Dr. de Jager served as president of Agri Limporo from 2007–08 and was an executive member of Agri Letaba from 2003–07. He was the chairman of the Trichardtsdal farmer association from 2000–07 and has farmed in the Tzaneen district since 1997.

Dr. Theo de Jager obtained his B.A. in political science from Stellenbosch in 1984, B.A. (Hons) in philosophy and M.A. in philosophy in Pretoria (Cum Laude) in 1985 and 1986, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in philosophy in Pretoria in 1988 on "Black Consciousness."

He is the co-owner of a real estate agency, compost plant, and local newspaper in Tzaneen and Hoedspruit. He began his career with the South African Air Force in 1981. His career path includes the National Intelligence Service from 1984–2001, chief information co-ordinator in the Office of the State President from 1987–1989, and negotiation consultant for Gencor, Nuclear Energy Corporation from 1991–1997. De Jager has contributed to seven solo volumes in the book of verse.

Petrus de Kock

Senior Researcher, Governance of Africa's Resources Programme, South African Institute of International Affairs

His research focuses on the intersection between political dynamics, economic trends, social change, and conflict within the sphere of resource extraction (mining, oil, and gas). His work aims to develop holistic analyses of market trends, political dynamics, and the social impact of resource extraction.

As an analyst, he often engages with issues of conflict, political change, and political risk dynamics and its impact on societies and economic actors. He is a regular contributor to media debates on contemporary trends in African and Middle Eastern politics, while he also maintains an active interest in the geopolitics of change in the contemporary world political economic system.

Petrus holds a Ph.D. in philosophy, with a focus on political philosophy and revolutionary change, from the University of Limpopo. He also holds a Masters degree in political science (Cum Laude) from the University of Pretoria.

Thea Fourie

Economist II, Sub-Saharan Africa Economics, IHS

Thea is responsible for analysing and forecasting economic developments in Mozambique, Madagascar, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Seychelles. She is also responsible for sovereign risk analysis and the day-to-day economic coverage of these economies. Prior to joining IHS Global Insight, Fourie was a financial economist at ING Barings, BOE NatWest Securities, and ABSA Bank, specializing in macro and financial economic analysis of the South African economy. Her expertise also includes macroeconometric modelling and macroeconomic analysis.

Fourie holds a B.Econ (Hons.) degree from the University of Pretoria and is fluent in both Afrikaans and English. With 15 years of experience in the financial and consulting industry, she is an expert in analysing strategically important economies in the sub-Saharan region.

Karanta Kalley

Managing Director, Country Intelligence Africa Group

Mr. Kalley is responsible for coordinating macroeconomic forecasts and risk analysis for countries in sub-Saharan Africa. He authors the Overview of the quarterly forecast and contributes to the World Economic Executive Summary—an analysis of the world economic outlook, policy trends, and key issues facing the global economy. Kalley has over 15 years of experience as a professional economist in business/macroeconomic forecasting, consulting, and teaching. He has detailed knowledge of economic methods and development macroeconomics, as well as a good knowledge of applied econometrics and global issues.

Prior to joining IHS Global Insight, Kalley taught macroeconomics at Florida International University, did macroeconomic forecasting for the finance department of the city of Philadelphia, and did econometric modelling for Glo-Chem, an international marketing research company. Karanta also currently serves as an adjunct professor of economics at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He received his M.A. degree at the State University of New York, and did his doctoral work at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University.

Jaco le Roux

Head Lending, Absa Africa and Structured Trade and Commodity Finance

Mr. le Roux joined Absa in 1997 and has been with the group for the past 14 years. In 2010, he spent some time with Standard Bank as the head of Commercial Agricultural Business Africa before rejoining Absa in 2011. Prior to joining Standard Bank in 2010, he was the head of Absa’s Agricultural Credit team for nine years. During this period, processes and strategies were put in place that led to Absa becoming the absolute market leader in South Africa in terms of agricultural financing, both for primary producers and secondary agricultural businesses and food processors.

His experience in Africa includes financing of the first commercial agricultural cooperative in Zambia, as well as several large commercial agricultural operations in countries such as Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana, and Tanzania. Mr. le Roux holds a Master’s degree in business administration; NH Dip in Management; and attended several short courses in finance, management, agricultural commodity financing, and derivatives.

Burger Muller

Head, Africa Unit, Specialized Funding Solutions, ABSA Business Bank

Mr. Muller was the Head of Emerging Market Special Projects at Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank (1995-1999) and Managing Director of the On-line Wealth Management Component of Citadel Investment Management (1999-2001).

After joining Deloitte and Touche in 2001, Burger was given the responsibility of managing the Business Linkages Challenge Fund on behalf of the British Government. It is managed as a private equity fund, and Burger was the regional manager for the African region, which comprised 60% of global investments of this fund.

In addition, Burger provided thought leadership to the design team of the Investment Client Facility for Africa (ICF) and has produced the prospectus for this US$550 million multi-donor facility. He has also consulted to the ICF and has designed fund management processes and codes of practise for this facility. He also had the responsibility for identifying and structuring capital markets projects for the ICF.

On an international level he presented a paper on Private Investment Strategy for Development at the UNDP in New York and was published in the Global Compact of the United Nations. Burger was also a guest speaker and consultant at the launch of the Global Exchange for Social Investment (GEXSI) in Berlin. Burger is currently responsible for the African footprint of ABSA’s Specialised Funding Solutions and as such has originated deals to the value of more than R3bn on the continent. In addition to this, he was instrumental in identifying and implementing the IFC Global Trade Programme for ABSA, whereby bank to bank trade finance risk is mitigated though a World Bank Guarantee. He was also part of the ABSA team that negotiated a US$200m standby facility with the African Development Bank.

Ronel Oberholzer

Principal Economist, IHS Global Insight

Clint Rynners

Eurasia Africa Group Knowledge and Insight Manager, the Coca-Cola Company

Clint is responsible for market research across 90 markets, including South Africa, Nigeria, Turkey, India, and Russia. Prior to joining Coca-Cola Company, Mr. Rynners worked for Research International, first working on the Unilever account and then in the Marketing Science division. His early work focused on non-governmental organizations and as a lecturer at the University of Durban Westville.

Mr. Rynners has a Master’s in psychology, specializing in research and neuropsychology from the University of Natal.

Zbyszko Tabernacki

Vice President, Economics and Country Risk

Tabernacki is Vice President, Economics and Country Risk at IHS, overseeing a team of economists and analysts responsible for daily coverage, forecasting and risk assessment of 204 countries around the world. A native of Poland, he holds a graduate degree in economics from the Warsaw School of Economics and has continued his post-graduate studies in international finance and global markets at the Georgetown University Business School. He is also a charterholder of CFA certification.

Ayodele Teriba

CEO, Economic Associates, Nigeria

Dr. Teriba is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Guardian newspaper and chairs the PTA of Corona Secondary School Agbara and the Childville Schools in Ogudu and Yaba. He has worked as an economist at Lagos Business School, Lagos Chamber of Commerce, This Day Newspaper Group, and UAC of Nigeria. He has also worked as a consultant to Coca-Cola Nigeria, DfID, Federal Ministry of Information, Senate Committee on Banking and Finance, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Lagos state governments, USAID, and World Bank, and as a visiting scholar at the IMF Research Department in Washington, DC.

Dr. Teriba has received research grants from the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation, and chaired the steering committee of the Money, Macroeconomic, and Finance Research Group of the Money Market Association of Nigeria. He holds a B.Sc. in economics from the University of Ibadan with the Sir James Robertson Prize and Medal, UAC Prize in Economics, Economics Departmental Prize as all-round best economics graduate in 1988, M. Sc. in economics from Ibadan in 1990, M.Phil. in economics of developing countries as a Cambridge-DfID Scholar at the University of Cambridge in 1992, and a Ph.D. in applied econometrics and monetary economics from the University of Durham in 2003.

Carel van Aardt

Income and Expenditure Research Division, Bureau of Market Research, University of South Africa

Professor van Aardt's research focuses on the changing income, expenditure, savings, asset, debt, and financial vulnerability dynamics of South Africans. He studied at the University of Pretoria and the University of Stellenbosch business schools and obtained a Ph.D. in business administration (DBA) from the University of Pretoria.

Thereafter, he completed post-doctoral research projects at the University of Michigan in the United States and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, specializing in economic, mathematical, demographic, and econometric modelling.

He has completed several large-scale research projects funded by local and international institutions. Professor van Aardt is a member of the advisory councils of Development Southern Africa, the SA Journal of Labor Relations, and the South African Business Review, as well as a member of the Economic Society of South Africa and the Royal Economic Society. He has published a large number of articles in national and international journals, presented papers at national and international conferences, and has authored several books.

David Wilson

Senior Researcher, IHS

Wilson has contributed to a number of groundbreaking projects on the measurement of social and development variables, and has consulted in the private and public sector on various socioeconomic issues. His knowledge of South African developmental data and his experience in quantifying social issues allows him to analyse and present on a number of findings in this field. David holds an honours degree in econometrics from UJ, with undergraduate studies in economics and informatics.