Alumni Reunion Weekend

UCT GSB Director ( Dean)

Catherine Duggan is Director (Dean) of the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (GSB). Before joining the UCT GSB she was Vice Dean and Professor of Management and Political Economy at the African Leadership University School of Business (ALUSB) in Rwanda. At ALUSB she was the founding Vice Dean and the business school's first faculty member and helped to design the school's blended MBA curriculum. She also created and taught the popular Politics, Economics, and the Context of African Business (PECAB) course and led the school's executive education programs, including the school's collaboration with INSEAD on an Africa-focused executive education program. She was previously a professor at Harvard Business School (HBS) in the Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE) Unit, where she taught leadership and political economy in MBA and executive education programs for nearly a decade. Dr Duggan's academic work is on the political economy of development in Africa, with a particular focus on institutional development and financial sector regulation. She has worked on the continent for more than twenty years and gained experience in nearly two dozen African countries. She is the author of a number of case studies on African firms and countries, including cases on South Africa, Nigeria, DRC, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and others. She regularly leads strategy and leadership workshops for corporations and has advised a number of governments and public sector agencies on the continent and beyond. She earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University, where she was the G.J. Lieberman Fellow for the Social Sciences, and received a B.A. with honours in Political Science from Brown University.

Founder and Managing Director of KDB

Kosta Kontos is the Founder and Managing Director of KDB, a proudly South African software company specialising in enterprise data management solutions. Founded in 2006, KDB is responsible for powering the databases of many of South Africa’s leading businesses and organisations, spanning Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail, and Manufacturing.

Ariella is SA’s leading female auctioneer since 2007 and holds a Post Graduate Honours degree in Economics and an MBA. Her oratorical skills, extensive world & cultural knowledge has earned her an admired reputation in business whilst she has raised over R150 million for charity. Her auction for the Rupert’s Imibala Trust this year raised an unprecedented R14.25 million. After 10 years as an international steel trader for Macsteel International (UK), including heading up South America, Ariella returned to SA and entered the Maritime & Mining auction sector. In 2012, she co-founded the largest online Mining auction company - Thebe acquired 51% in 2017. In 2019, after surviving cancer a 2nd time, she founded Solution Strategists, continuing to specialize in global sales of arrested commercial ships. Despite Covid, and a 3rd round of cancer in 2022, in 22 months Ariella auctioned 2 oil tankers, a bulk carrier and crude oil cargo totaling US$ 85 million (R1.6 billion). 2023 saw her selected as the 1st ever female auctioneer for cricket’s Betway SA20 auction of players between franchises. This followed a sale in May 2024 of an arrested cargo vessel for US$ 16.2 million. Ariella remains in demand as a leadership speaker on Women in Business, Adversity to Opportunity and consults to banks regularly on distressed commercial matters given her experience in the varying sectors.