Rayner Canning leads Business Development and Executive Education  focusing on recruiting, retention and support of key clients, driving new initiatives, and strengthening UCT GSB’s market presence and revenue. He also oversees the full ambit of Executive Education, Marketing and the GSB-JHB Sandton campus.

With over 16 years of business school experience, Rayner has helped establish major facilities, including the Sandton campus in 2017 and the Academic Conference Centre in 2018. He has also overseen significant growth in key Executive Education portfolio's, where he has positioned UCT GSB as a premier provider of learning and development solutions. Furthermore, he has expanded the GSB's reach well beyond South African borders and led multiple business development initiatives abroad to new markets.

Under his leadership, UCT GSB secured Africa’s very first European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Excellence in Practice Gold Award for our 10-year Custom client solution with SBSA CIB (2019) (https://efmdglobal.org/wp-cont...). This was followed up with the School's second EFMD Excellence in Practice Gold Award in 2025 for Custom work with the Principals Academy Trust (https://blog.efmdglobal.org/20...).

He serves on several committees, including the EQUIS Executive Development Conference Committee, UNICON’s Digital Disruptor Working Group, Accelerate Cape Town’s Council Committee, and represents the University at Cape BioPharms. In recent years, under his leadership, a series of international development programmes has been added to the School's portfolio of products and capabilities.

Canning previously served as UCT GSB's Finance Director and also worked at UCT’s International Office. In both positions he exercised joint accountability for a full range of financial and business functionality. Canning holds a Masters of Commerce (MCOM), a PGDip in Tax Law, and a BCOM (Accounting) from UCT.