African Rainbow Energy
Board of directors and management team
African Rainbow Energy upholds the highest standards of governance which includes the concepts of ethical leadership, the oganisation in society, corporate citizenship, sustainable development, stakeholder inclusivity, integrated thinking and integrated reporting.
African Rainbow Energy has a diversified and majority independent Board of Directors who are supported by Sub-Committees.
Board of Directors
Dr Patrice Motsepe
Non Executive Chairperson BA (Legal), LLB, D.Com (Honoris Causa), Doctorate of Management and Commerce.
Dr Motsepe is the founder and Chairperson of UBI, ARC and African Rainbow Energy and Power (AREP). He is also Executive Chairperson of African Rainbow Minerals, Chairperson of Harmony and Deputy Chairperson of Sanlam. His past business responsibilities include being the Founding President of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), and Chairperson of the BRICS Council for 2013.
Dr Motsepe is also President of Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.
He plays an active role in the international business arena where he is a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, which is made up of 100 of the most highly respected and influential chief executives from all industries.
Brian Dames
Mr Dames is Chief Executive of African Rainbow Energy and previously served as the Chief Executive of Eskom Holdings SOC Limited. He has extensive experience relating to global (and specifically African and South African) energy and resource issues.
Brian serves as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Governors of the Electricity Industry, a trustee of the WWF Trust SA, and as a non-executive director of the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited and Nedbank Limited.
Nakedi Ramaphakela
Tom Boardman
Non Executive Director Bcom, CA(SA)
Tom Boardman was chief executive of Nedbank Group Limited from 2003 to 2010. Before that, he was chief executive and executive director of BoE Limited, which was acquired by Nedbank in 2002. He was the founding shareholder and managing director of retail housewares chain, Boardmans.
He was also previously managing director of Sam Newman Limited and worked for the Anglo American Corporation. He served his articles at Deloitte. He was a non-executive director of Nedbank Limited from 2010 to 2017, chairing the credit and capital and risk committees.
He was a director of listed Swedish investment company, Kinnevik, from 2011 to 2018, and chairman for the last two years. He was also a non-executive director and chairman of Millicom International Cellular, one of the major mobile and cable network operators in Central and South America listed on the NASDAQ and Swedish stock exchanges.
He is currently a non-executive director of Royal Bafokeng Holdings, Ubuntu-Botho Investments, African Rainbow Capital Proprietary Limited, African Rainbow Energy and Power Proprietary Limited and TymeBank Proprietary Limited. He is a director of The Peace Parks Foundation and trustee for a number of charitable foundations.
Dr Rejoice Simelane
Rejoice has been with Ubuntu-Botho Investments since 2004 when she assumed the position of CEO.
Prior to this she spent several years in government, culminating in serving as a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Panel under President Thabo Mbeki.
Dr Johan van Zyl
Johan is the co-CEO of African Rainbow Capital as well as the CEO of UbuntuBotho Investments. He previously served as group CEO of Sanlam for a period of 12 years
David Renwick
David is the Head of Investment Banking Division at Absa Corporate & Investment Banking which includes the following areas of responsibility: advisory, capital raising and financing solutions to targeted Pan African corporates and government entities. He drives business with local, regional, and international investors supporting many of Africa’s high growth sectors including Renewable Energy, Technology Media Telecom, Natural Resources and Consumer.
Snenhlanhla Dlamini
Chartered Accountant (SA)
Snenhlanhla Dlamini is a CA(SA) with over a decade of experience in auditing, assurance, and financial services. She began her career at PwC in the Energy, Utilities and Resources (EU&R) Division where she served her articles and stayed on as an Audit Manager before joining Absa Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) Finance team.
Snenhlanhla is currently the Head of Financial Decision Support for CIB Africa at Absa, where she leads strategic financial planning, performance management and reporting within the Absa CIB business.
Management team
Brian Dames
Mr Dames is Chief Executive of African Rainbow Energy and previously served as the Chief Executive of Eskom Holdings SOC Limited. He has extensive experience relating to global (and specifically African and South African) energy and resource issues.
Brian serves as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Governors of the Electricity Industry, a trustee of the WWF Trust SA, and as a non-executive director of the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited and Nedbank Limited.
André Dippenaar
Chartered Accountant with 17 years of financial reporting and management experience in energy and mining.
Previously worked at BioTherm Energy, Barrick Gold and PwC.
13 years of dedicated project finance, renewable energy development and investment experience.
Nakedi Ramaphakela
Aloysius Jacobs
Chartered Accountant and CFA Charterholder.
Previously worked at Sanlam Investment, Ubuntu-Botho Investment Holdings and PwC.
17 years of management, financial reporting, investment management and project related management experience mainly in energy, private equity and listed equities.
Lena Chirwa
Head of Legal and Company Secretary
Qualified attorney with 17 years post qualification experience and 14 years experience in the renewable energy and infrastructure sector. Expertise in full scale inhouse legal management of renewable energy projects and structured finance transactions.
Previously worked at Enel Green Power South Africa as Head of Legal & Corporate Affairs and at Absa Bank and Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa as legal counsel in project and structured finance.
Investment Committe
Dr Johan van Zyl
Johan is the co-CEO of African Rainbow Capital as well as the CEO of UbuntuBotho Investments. He previously served as group CEO of Sanlam for a period of 12 years
Brian Dames
Mr Dames is Chief Executive of African Rainbow Energy and previously served as the Chief Executive of Eskom Holdings SOC Limited. He has extensive experience relating to global (and specifically African and South African) energy and resource issues.
Brian serves as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Governors of the Electricity Industry, a trustee of the WWF Trust SA, and as a non-executive director of the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited and Nedbank Limited.
Nakedi Ramaphakela
Tom Boardman
Non Executive Director Bcom, CA(SA)
Tom Boardman was chief executive of Nedbank Group Limited from 2003 to 2010. Before that, he was chief executive and executive director of BoE Limited, which was acquired by Nedbank in 2002. He was the founding shareholder and managing director of retail housewares chain, Boardmans.
He was also previously managing director of Sam Newman Limited and worked for the Anglo American Corporation. He served his articles at Deloitte. He was a non-executive director of Nedbank Limited from 2010 to 2017, chairing the credit and capital and risk committees.
He was a director of listed Swedish investment company, Kinnevik, from 2011 to 2018, and chairman for the last two years. He was also a non-executive director and chairman of Millicom International Cellular, one of the major mobile and cable network operators in Central and South America listed on the NASDAQ and Swedish stock exchanges.
He is currently a non-executive director of Royal Bafokeng Holdings, Ubuntu-Botho Investments, African Rainbow Capital Proprietary Limited, African Rainbow Energy and Power Proprietary Limited and TymeBank Proprietary Limited. He is a director of The Peace Parks Foundation and trustee for a number of charitable foundations.
David Renwick
David is the Head of Investment Banking Division at Absa Corporate & Investment Banking which includes the following areas of responsibility: advisory, capital raising and financing solutions to targeted Pan African corporates and government entities. He drives business with local, regional, and international investors supporting many of Africa’s high growth sectors including Renewable Energy, Technology Media Telecom, Natural Resources and Consumer.
Anthony Harvett
Anthony Harvett is an experienced risk officer with more than 40 years banking experience of which 30 years were primarily in a credit risk management capacity mostly at a leadership and strategic level. Most of his formative years were spent with Standard Bank where his career developed through the branch network in various capacities before he settled in the credit risk management stream. This culminated in his appointment as Director, Chief Credit Officer in Corporate and Investment Banking in 1995, a position he held for 11 years, before moving to Business Banking Credit which he headed up for 2 years.
In 2008 he was approached by Absa under the Barclays banner to take on a position as the Chief Credit Officer for the newly created Corporate and Investment Banking franchise within Absa. This business matured with strategic insights gleaned from Barclays and was supported by the necessary evolution of the credit function under the leadership of Anthony to support the designated strategy.
Anthony assumed various credit leadership roles as the organization evolved covering enterprise-wide credit risk management, which resulted in his appointment as Absa Group Chief Credit Officer in 2018. With his areas of responsibility now incorporating retail and business banking credit, he was well positioned to assume a different role in the Group as the Retail and Business Banking Chief Risk Officer, which he did over a period spanning 3 periods. Following an organizational redesign in 2022, he was asked to take on the Chief Risk Officer position in Relationship Banking to support the business with its strategy reconfiguration, a position he still holds currently.