Master of business administration full time programme

Elective Teaching: Coaching

Janine Ahlers is a Master Certified Coach and facilitator with over 22 years experience. She is Director of the Centre for Coaching in South Africa and Switzerland, and Senior Lecturer at UCT GSB. Janine specialises in executive, team, and group coaching, working globally with senior leaders in multicultural contexts.

Elective Teaching: Lean thinking and operational excellence

Samantha Allen, CEO of Lean Institute Africa, is a Lean expert with over 15 years’ cross-sector experience. She specializes in process improvement, change management, and leadership. A certified coach and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, she partners with organizations to design and implement effective, sustainable transformation strategies that drive lasting impact.

Elective Teaching: Advanced leadership

Professor Kurt April is the Allan Gray Chair and Director of the Allan Gray Centre for Values-Based Leadership, where he specializes in leadership, diversity, and inclusion, and is Adjunct Faculty at the University of Oxford (UK). He has published 12 books, 34 peer-reviewed book chapters with global publishers, and over 96 peer-reviewed papers in journals, and serves as Associate Editor of three international academic journals. As an entrepreneur, he owns shares in, and is Director of, four companies, and has served on a number of Boards globally.

Elective Teaching: Advanced leadership

Dr Babar Dharani’s (Senior Lecturer at the Allan Gray Centre for Values-Based Leadership) research focuses on happiness at work (supporting it through vigor, absorption, & engagement, to preventing burnout, boredom, & exclusion) and leadership (including enablers like self-leadership & leadership traits, and stumbling blocks, such as toxic masculinity & self-talk).

Elective Teaching: Management consulting

Shivani Ghai is a Strategist, Coach and Facilitator with 13 years of Advisory, Consulting and Project Management experience. She is the founder of Vitrus Consulting, a nano-consultancy focused on the Development Sector. Shivani has dedicated her time mainstreaming Management Consulting as a career through her work facilitating the Case Ninja Workshop at the GSB, GIBS, and Stellenbosch Business School. She also serves as the Management Consulting Head Teacher at iXperience, a study abroad program geared towards the brightest young minds from American undergraduate institutions. She is also a proud MBA Graduate from UCT’s GSB, in addition to her undergraduate in Aerospace Engineering with a Mathematics Minor from Texas A&M University.

Elective Teaching: Company valuations

Cassim Motala has a diverse background in investment, entrepreneurship, and value creation. He began his career in the late 1990s with an internet gaming start-up and has played key roles in developing global payment business, investing in and managing a private business ultimately spending 16 years in Private Equity at RMB Ventures.

Elective Teaching: Advanced Corporate Finance

Blessing Mudavanhu is an Associate Professor at UCT GSB. His focuses on financial derivatives and structured contracts, financial engineering and valuations, Data science and machine learning with applications to the financial services industry. He has a PhD Mathematics (University of Washington), Masters in Financial Engineering (university of California, Berkeley), MSc Applied Mathematics (University of Washington), BSc Hons Mathematics (University of Zimbabwe).

Elective Teaching: Strategic marketing

Marketing and business consultant and hands-on leader with 35 years’ experience, notably as Chief Marketing Officer, Marketing Director and Managing Director roles within the food and advertising sectors. Specialist in transforming marketing ecosystems, solving complex challenges, driving rapid results, setting clear strategic direction, leading business turnarounds, revitalizing brands, and delivering sustainable growth, particularly in the FMCG and Retail sectors. Director of the Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA), and the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) BSocSci, MBA (UCT), Executive Education (Babson College, USA).

Elective Teaching: Integrated reporting

Malilimalo is a Senior Lecturer at the UCT College of Accounting. He is a PhD Graduand with research focused on financial behaviour and non-financial reporting. Malilimalo has worked at PwC in Cape Town and the Netherlands offices before joining UCT.

Elective Teaching: Mergers and Acquisitions

Kavir is a qualified CA(SA), CFA, and finance Master's graduate with a global M&A track record across 500+ deals. Experienced across industries and geographies, from fintech to mining specializing in deal sizes ranging from $500k to $650m in EBITDA. I am passionate about business building, with a post-COVID mission to launch ventures annually in South Africa and the U.S

Elective Teaching: Change management

Linda Ronnie is Professor: Organisational Behaviour and People Management at the University of Cape Town. She is also Academic Advisor to the DHET National Collaboration Project: Future Professors Programme (Phase 1) located at Stellenbosch University.

Elective Teaching: Venture Launch

Professor Mikael Samuelsson, a global leader in entrepreneurship since 1998, has founded three incubators, led SSE Business Labs, and influenced startups like Klarna. His research includes 1000 plus start-ups, His practical experience spans life sciences and consumer goods. He supports founders worldwide through education and consultancy and is actively investing and starting new innovative firms.

Elective Teaching: Management control systems

Philani Thusini is a registered South African Chartered Accountant and senior lecturer specialising in Financial Accounting and Reporting. Philani is passionate about improving financial management, governance and reporting practices in the public and private sector and has extensive teaching experience in this area. Philani’s research area of interest is public sector accounting and governance.

Elective Teaching: Social finance

Dr. Jason Van Staden is a Project Manager in the Bertha Centre's Innovative Finance initiative located at the University of Cape Town. Jason is a co-convenor on both the Impact Investing in Africa and Systemic Impact Investing courses run by the Centre. Jason’s core work includes green finance, education finance, innovative finance and blended finance.

Elective Teaching: Negotiation to create value

Practiced such psychology for 15 years, inter alia managing large clinics. Spent 10 years in national government as Director-general of government communication and information during the transition from apartheid to democracy, and Nelson Mandela's inauguration as President. Went on the establish a number of negotiation training and consulting companies in South Africa and abroad before relocating to Belgium to lecture at the Vlerick Business School, where he is Professor in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Leadership, and a Partner. He has wide-ranging experience in corporate restructuring, corporate communication, opinion polling, and public speaking.