Our Team

Chief Executive Officer

Audrey Verhaeghe

30 years experience
An active Angel investor in South Africa. Leveraging three decades of global expertise in science, technology and innovation, Audrey has provided innovative consulting services to the public and private sectors. She has directed the design and implementation of ground-breaking programs and developed strategic policies and frameworks to ensure that start-up entrepreneurs move forward. She embarked on a 10-year journey to establish the SA Innovation Summit which is now recognised as the largest start-up event in Africa, integrating business, academia and government. She enjoys identifying, investing in and growing business opportunities.

Chief Operating Officer

Saskia Nysschens

Saskia is a systems thinker with over 15 years of experience across a range of industries, focusing on operations, implementing & streamlining processes and identifying inefficiencies. A successful professional with a wealth of transferable skills gained in business. Possesses a commitment to delivering operational excellence and a reputation for ensuring complete customer satisfaction. Able to reduce costs by implementing processes that are more efficient. 

Obtained two bachelor degrees – BCompt Accounting & BCom Corporate Communication (Cum Laude)
Demonstrated history of working in the medical device industry, skilled in eHealth and online and remote support, device manufacturing and distribution with a focus on operations, business development, marketing, finance, customer relations and engagement and communications.

Head of Investment

Van-Lee Gunyere

Van-Lee has over 15 years’ experience in private equity, corporate finance, M&As, business turnaround and restructuring in Spain, South Africa, and rest of the SADC region. He worked as an Investment Officer at ASOCapital and Sovereignty Capital leading fundraising, deal sourcing, investments analysis, due diligence, portfolio companies monitoring, and exits for deals ranging between R50million and R1billion. He successfully worked on over 15 deals and exited 3 investments achieving the funds’ target return of 2x – 4x ROI, he also led M&As for mining and general industrial companies valued over Rand 2 billlion and advised executives and board of directors for a property fund with over Rand 3billion assets. He holds an International MBA from IE Business School, and Bachelor of Commerce honours in Finance from National University of Science and Technology.

CEO of a private equity Fund Manager

Cathy Goddard

20+ years experience
Cathy is the CEO and founding partner in a South African-based BEE women-owned private equity fund manager FyreFem Fund Managers which was founded in 2017, a Category 2 FSCA-registered fund manager with a focus on SME’s, Gender and Jobs. Cathy is a board member of the Southern African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (“SAVCA”) since September 2016 and the Turnaround Management Association (“TMA”) since August 2020.  She is an Investment Committee member of Spear Capital, a Scandinavian-backed fund which provides growth capital funding of $2-10 million in Africa.  Cathy is a registered Key Individual for Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) registration purposes and helps to incubate venture capital funds, impact funds and first time fund managers. She works with I’M IN incubator as a board member. Cathy is a registered senior business rescue practitioner and has experience in working with distressed assets and turnarounds. She completed the University of Pretoria’s first Certified Rescue Analyst course in 2016 and Impact Measurement and Management at the University of Cape Town’s Grad School of Business short course in 2019.  Cathy is very interested in how to manage impact and gender issues in business rescue.  Cathy is a member of the TMA,  South African Restructuring and Insolvency Pract. Assoc, the Institute of Directors and WomenOnBoards UK. 

Founder & MD: Savant Venture Fund

Nick Allen

20+ years experience 
Nick Allen is an engineer with an MBA and additional education in IP management, Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Corporate Governance. Nick is drawn to helping inventors and innovators turn their ideas and concepts into products and businesses that make people’s lives better and/or solve some of the world’s problems. He has a passion for building businesses from first principles. He is a founder of Savant and has been commercialising technology businesses for 17 years, taking food tech, medical devices and renewable energy businesses from concept stage to the international market. 

Ex CEO: MEST (Africa)

Ashwin Ravishandran

15+ years experience
Ashwin joined MEST in 2015 as a Technology Teaching Fellow and has since served as the Incubator Manager for MEST Accra and Director of Portfolio Support and Country Director of Ghana. With a background in Computer Science and Engineering and previous experience working in the innovation team at Honeywell and building startups in India, Ashwin brings extensive technical knowledge to his executive management experience at MEST. In his role as Director of Portfolio Support, Ashwin has overseen the growth and development of highly successful MEST portfolio companies such as Complete Farmer, Asoriba, Leti Arts and Kudobuzz, working to maximize their growth and success in terms of business development, product management and raising further rounds of funding. Ashwin is greatly inspired to nurture and guide the African entrepreneurship Space with a talented team so that these entrepreneurs can take on new challenges. 

Innovation Strategy Technology VC Mining Energy

Roby Stancel

28 years experience​
Roby advises a number of VC, corporate VC and private equity funds on technical, cultural and financial due diligence and deal flow with a diverse network on five continents including Spike Stanford Alumni Ventures, Chrysalix VC, NewLab, the EU’s EIT Raw Materials or Wayra. He is an angel investor or board member for start-ups in the US, CA, UK, EU, CH, ZA and OZ. As a partner in the global consultancy VCI, Roby has been connecting the spaces of design thinking innovation and business strategy for over a hundred clients in dozens of industries, and advises large corporates and national institutions on innovation and strategy. While at Stanford and IDEO, he was part of the small team that invented Design Thinking. He also was part of the exco at Nanosolar, with half a billion dollars the best funded start-up of its time and an early unicorn. 

Patricia Norris

20 years experience 
Patricia is founder of Commuter Transport Engineering, she has broken glass ceilings and succeeded in male dominated industries for over 20 years in South Africa. She was the first female to be granted preferred supplier status within the nuclear environment, to establish a rolling stock refurbishment company and to sit on the board of a farming co-op. She also heads the first and only company wholly owned by a black woman that was successfully contracted for rail infrastructure repairs in South Africa. Patricia is the Co-Founder of Earhart Consulting which specializes in offering end to end business support, at the highest level. Earhart Consulting is a start-up company focused on providing the South African Commercial and Industrial Environment with professional coaching as well as financial and outsourced business services.

Mayowa Ayodele

Mayowa’s experience covers finance & investments – specific focus on financial advisory, private equity and venture capital. He is a former Director of Standard Chartered Private Equity Africa (now Affirma Capital) with responsibility for a $200m portfolio. His experience covers various sectors including Manufacturing, Retail, Logistics, Fintech and Agribusiness. He has worked with other leading institutions like the International Finance Corporation and Deloitte. He is on the board of an Agritech company; an Advisory and structured finance business in Nigeria and is co-founder of Arkana Partners.  He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and alumni of the IESE Global Executive MBA.

Nick Robertson

10 years experience
Nic Robertson is a well-connected CEO with 10+ years in building and expanding businesses in emerging markets, with experience in corporate strategy, business development, organisational management and finance.  A result-oriented executive with a collaborative leadership style, his background in leading business expansion for Uber Eats across Middle East and Africa within difficult environments through a creative, analytical and people-led approach.  Robertson founded an investment business Afribloom Capital, focusing on Food and Beverage in 2020. 

Reisiger

Corporate Structuring | Business Architecture | Solutions Architecture | Target Operating Model | Financial Modeling

The Delta

Validate, build, and scale a high-impact venture.​

Equate Advisory

Accountants bringing sense, confidence, courage and resources to entrepreneurs who are changing the world.