Mr Baxter was appointed CEO of the Minerals Council in 2015. He has 28 years of high-level advocacy and strategy experience in the business and mining sectors. He was involved in the first mineral policy discussions with the ANC in 1992 and has participated (and often led) discussions on all aspects of mining, economic, investment, transformation and tax policy with government.  He previously chaired BUSA’s Econpol and Growth Task Team. He has played a key leadership role in rejuvenating the brand of the Minerals Council and brings material leadership, governance, strategy, investment and transformation skills to the table. He is a member of the Minerals Council Board, the BUSA Board, the TEBA Trust Board and he chairs the World Platinum Investment Council. He is vice-Chairman of the international Associations Working Group and vice-Chairman of the Mining Industry Association of Southern Africa (MIASA). He was recently awarded the SAIMM Brigadier Stokes platinum medal for his contribution to the South African mining sector.

Johann Bester is Project Manager for IPPs at Thebe Investment Corporation, which he joined in 2015.  Within Thebe’s Energy and Resources Division he is mainly responsible for Thebe’s interests in the energy, water and mining sectors.  Bester has more than 20 years of experience in project finance, large beneficiation and mining.  Bester headed up Eskom’s coal procurement business unit from late 2010 to mid-2015.  At Thebe he manages Thebe’s investments in the renewable energy and coal sector, as well as Thebe’s interest in the “just transition”.  Johann initially qualified as an engineer and holds an MSc in Materials Science from the University of Cape Town and a MBA from the University of the West of England.

Henk de Hoop holds an MSc in Mining Engineering from the University of Delft, Netherlands, and he is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He started his career as a Graduate Mining Engineer at Goldfields of South Africa, followed by 2 years at Sasol as an Explosives Engineer. He spent the next 12 years as a Mining Analyst working for several broking firms, covering gold, diamond, coal, diversified, platinum and junior mining stocks. He was rated the top platinum analyst by the Financial Mail from 2005-2007. He joined Rand Merchant Bank in 2008, and is responsible for business development for the bank’s Resources industry clients, covering equity, debt, debt capital markets, M&A, global markets and corporate banking. 

André de Ruyter is a seasoned executive and currently serves as the Group Chief Executive (GCE) of Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. Over a 30-year career, André de Ruyter has plied his trade both locally and internationally in various portfolios in the energy space. He has significant experience in managing coal, oil, chemical and gas businesses, including marketing of export coal to international utilities and taking responsibility for the operations of very large coal and gas conversion plants, including electricity generation. He was a member of the Sasol group executive committee from 2009 to 2014 and spent some time in China as President of China Ventures and also in Germany in a business turnaround and management capacity. He was appointed as CEO of Nampak in 2014 – a position he left when he accepted the Group Chief Executive role at Eskom in January 2020. Mr de Ruyter holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands, a Bachelor of Law (LLB) which he obtained from the University of South Africa as well as a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pretoria.

Morné du Plessis is a chartered accountant with an MBA from Heriott Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has extensive experience in the mining industry having been Chief Financial Officer of several groups, including contract mining and beneficiation service provider Genet SA, junior coal miner Umcebo Mining Group and Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed junior coal miner Wescoal Holdings. Morné was appointed to the Board of Directors of Minergy in January 2017 and as its Chief Financial Officer in February 2017. On 1 August 2018 Morné became Chief Executive Officer of Minergy, a coal mining and trading company listed and operational in Botswana, committed to becoming the supplier of choice to industrial customers and power utilities across southern Africa, with a mission to leverage the significant product and logistics cost advantage over other producers supplying the target market to secure short and longer-term coal sales.

Sandra started her career as an academic, lecturing company and tax law at the University of the Free State, before joining Johannesburg Law Firm Brink Cohen le Roux & Roodt. It was here that she became involved in the South African mining industry, working first on the labour side of the business, before moving on to the corporate and commercial end of practice. Sandra has been with Standard Bank for just over ten years and focuses exclusively on African corporate finance transactions in mining and metals.

Puneet has a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology. As a techpreneur, he is passionate about bringing technology to the core economy. With his disruptor platform, “CoalShastra”, he revolutionized the way industry buys and sells coal in India. CoalShastra is a fast growing, profitable marketplace, clocking US $110million/year GMV with a small team of 30. He envisioned that a marketplace with greater transparency would bring in efficiency in coal prices, and that too in the times when people were busy in their traditional way of dealing. He did his internship in a derivatives trading firm and on-the-job training in his family business of steel and polymers where he got the exposure to sourcing and trading in commodities. This combination of technology from IIT, derivatives and commodities trading resulted in the successful marketplace platform “CoalShastra”. Puneet is always keen to learn and share his learning with the industry as keynote speaker, advisor or panelist in coal events like the Coal Industry Day, Coaltrans, IHS Markit, etc.

Jacques began his working career in 2004 training as an accountant with Questus Incorporated. He then went on to hold Senior Financial Management positions with various companies in the steel manufacturing and Information Systems and Technology sectors prior to joining Coalvest in 2012. Jacques holds an Honours degree in Finance from the University of Free State.

Lucky Kgatle obtained a BSc in Engineering: Industrial from Wits University in 2001.  He also has an MBA from GIBS which he received in 2009. He has held a number of positions at Sasol, including Vice President, Strategy and Business Development; Executive Manager, Operations Excellence; General Manager, Syferfontein Colliery; General Manager, Coal Handling Plant; Manager, Manufacturing and Site Work, Central Workshop; Section Engineer, Central Workshop; Reliability Engineer; Technical Advisor. He is currently Senior Vice President, a position he has held since January 2016. He is responsible for initiating the design and development of systems and processes and services to ensure a sustainable coal delivery and shaping the organisation within the external socio-economic environment as a responsible player in the coal mining industry.  He is also required to maintain the organisation’s image/relationship with all stakeholders, but specifically the DMR, the local government and the local communities.  He is also responsible for the development and execution of the organisation’s long-term strategy (10 to 40 years). In addition to being a director at Sasol Mining and Sasol Mining Holdings, he is also a director of Ixia Coal, Ixia Coal Funding and the Sasol Rehabilitation Trust. He is a member of the Engineering Council of South Africa.

Shammy Luvhengo is a qualified geologist, who started his career with Iscor Mining (currently Kumba Iron Ore and Exxaro Resources), before moving to a career as an investment banker at Investec and Nedbank Capital. From banking, he moved to Nkwe Platinum Ltd as an Executive Head for Business Development. Subsequent to this role, he then worked with Universal Coal, which led to the establishment of Ndalamo Resources. Currently Ndalamo owns 3 coal operations in South Africa that supply both local and export markets. 

Dr Neva Makgetla has been Senior Economist: Trade and Industrial Policy at Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) since November 2015. She was Deputy Director General for Economic Policy in the Economic Development Department from 2010 to 2015. Before joining EDD, Makgetla worked for the Presidency, the DBSA and COSATU as well as other government departments. Prior to 1994 she worked in various universities in Africa and the United States. She is currently a member of the National Minimum Wage Commission. Dr Makgetla’s research and publications centre on industrial policy and value chain analysis and on socio-economic challenges facing South Africa, especially employment creation and inequality. 

Michelle Manook is Chief Executive of the World Coal Association. She has held the role since July 2019. Previously, she was Head of Strategy, Government and Communications for Europe, Asia and Africa for the multinational company, Orica. Her career spans over 25 years in senior roles in the energy, oil and gas and mining industries in both developed and developing markets. She has also held non-executive director positions in energy and healthcare sectors and early in her career, worked in policy and public affairs for The Government of Western Australia. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she is passionate about coal’s role in delivering sustainable economic development and how this can transform the lives and livelihoods of our global communities. She is looking to foster international collaboration and promote real clean coal technologies and innovative solutions to the world’s challenges. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Post Graduate qualification both gained at The University of Western Australia.

Kolobe Nala Investment Company (Pty) Ltd (KNI) is a family-owned business focused on investments in mining, energy and aviation and is headed by Billy Mawasha, who has extensive mining experience with Anglo American, Rio Tinto, De Beers and AngloGold Ashanti to name but a few. Until recently, Billy was the Country Head in South Africa for Rio Tinto and the MD of Richards Bay Minerals. In addition, Billy serves on the Board of Metair Investments Ltd (MTA:SJ – Automotive Components and Battery Manufacturer) and is the Chairman of their Investment Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk and Nomination Committees. Billy is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Billy’s experience, a strong network of relationships in the mining industry and his understanding of doing business across the continent, enables KNI to bring long-term value-adding perspectives, hands-on and pragmatic expertise and solid operational and technical know-how to projects they invest in. This is realised through strategic guidance and active participation in the board of directors and associated committees, in particular the investment, technical and risk committees and through working collaboratively with relevant parties and management teams. 

Zandile Mdanda’s career is grounded in coal – she has worked her way up the mining corporate ladder. Her first position was as a Trainee Geologist at Anglo Coal and she eventually held the position of Senior Geologist. She then obtained a position as Chief Geologist at Xstrata Coal (now Glencore).  She was appointed Chief Geologist to the General Manager Projects at African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation before moving to the Milele Group. She is currently the CEO of Black Royalty Minerals Koornfontein. Zandile brings both enormous understanding of the coal sector together with a strong knowledge of the business. She qualified from the University of the Witwatersrand with a Bsc. (Hons) in Geology and subsequently obtained a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA)  from GIBS, an MBA from Wits Business School and is currently studying towards a Masters in Philosophy in International Business (MPhil) via GIBS.

Having obtained a BSc and BSc Honours degrees from the University of Zululand, Mandisa started her career as a Geologist. She later moved on to join the law enforcement agency of government focusing on regulatory and legislative compliance in accordance with the Water and Environmental Acts in coal mines, municipalities and farming operations in the Natal Midlands. She then received an opportunity to head a Directorate of Environmental Protection in the central region of the Eastern Cape government.

She then joined the Transnet Ports Authority as an Environmental Planning Manager for the ports of Port Elizabeth, East London and Mossel Bay and within a period of two years, she was given an opportunity to lead the entire environmental department nationally. She then ventured into heading the risk management function of the Ports Authority, adding to her scope, health and safety, business continuity management, Insurance and quality management. Mandisa was also given a new challenge to lead the implementation and embed enterprise risk management at the Ports Authority. She later joined the Rail Division of Transnet to lead the enterprise risk management department which included corporate governance and integrated management systems.

Mandisa was given a challenge to lead one of the six businesses of the Rail Division, namely Mineral Mining and Chrome.  She grew the business by 19% over a period of two years. For the last year she has been leading the biggest business of the Rail division, namely Coal, and finished the previous financial year with a new record of 77 million tons/year railed to Richards Bay Coal Terminal.

Having completed her Masters Degree in Environmental Management from North West University, she pursued various leadership training programmes, including the Global Executive Development Programme with GIBS, Lean and Six Sigma with General Electric, Breakthrough for Senior Executives with IMD, Strategic Management Programme with HEC Paris and she is currently finalising her studies towards a Masters Degree in Business Leadership from UNISA.

Prince Mopai is an Equity Analyst at All Weather Capital covering the mining and resources sector. He completed his BSc in Mining Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. He previously worked as an Equity Analyst at Benguela Global Fund Managers for two and a half years after completing his honour’s degree, which included onsite research at Sibanye-Stillwater.

Lebogang Mulaisi works as the Labour Market Policy Coordinator for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Her responsibilities and duties include the coordination and implementation of COSATU labour market policy and work on the just transition to a low-carbon economy.

July Ndlovu is the CEO of Thungela Resources and a coal miner at heart. He was previously the CEO of Anglo American’s Coal business before it was demerged and listed on the JSE and LSE. After starting at Anglo American as a graduate trainee, in 2001, he transferred to Anglo American Platinum, where he was first appointed Business Manager of the Polokwane Smelter, then Executive Head of processing. He spent some time at Anglo American subsidiaries in Zimbabwe in several senior managerial positions in metallurgical operations, and technical services. While working to make a difference, July demands high standards and delivering on commitments; his leadership style is respectful and fair, serving and supporting the people he works with. July graduated with honours in Engineering and Business Leadership from the Universities of Zimbabwe and South Africa, respectively. He also completed the Columbia Business School's Senior Executive Programme. In 2020 July was appointed as the Chairman of the Wold Coal Association (WCA), tasked with ensuring that the organisation meets both customers’ needs and society’s expectations of it, including working together to deliver a new era of clean technologies.

Paul is a qualified Chartered Accountant. He began his career at PwC in 1986 and served as an audit partner for 6 years. Since 2001, he has worked as both CFO and CEO in the listed company environment as well as public sector and in family-owned businesses. He has worked in South Africa across Africa as well as in the Middle East and the USA. From a South African perspective, Paul has served as the CFO of Group Five Limited as well as Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd and was CEO of ArcelorMittal (South Africa) Limited.

Paul has diversified industry experience including mining, infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, trading, steel manufacturing and financial services. Paul also has experience as a non-executive director for listed companies in South Africa.

Paul has in depth experience within corporates in public offerings and debt raising locally and internationally. He has been involved in turnarounds, restructurings, M&A, programme and project management including recently the overall responsibility for the $1bn separation of ABSA Bank Limited from Barclays PLC. Paul also has regulatory experience in Africa in the energy and financial services industries.

Vasudev Pamnani joined Iman Resources in 2017 in the coal and pet coke retail sales team, focusing on India’s retail market for solid fuels. He is based in Mumbai. Vasudev undertakes a detailed analysis of the solid fuel market in India. He has extensive expertise in sourcing and analysing data. He has developed a network of sources to collect production, import and export data and also who are the importers of the products. He also keeps a keen watch on Indian producer and import prices as well as FOB prices and prevailing freight rates.  He is also constantly in touch with buyers to understand demand, market sentiment and whether they have appetite to buy at certain price levels. With these skills he is in the best position to have a view on how the market is moving and will move in future. In his previous role, Vasudev was a Retail Sales Specialist in the Xcoal Energy & Resources’ India sales team, providing retail market analysis for supporting business development and a new market for US coal in India. He has a Bachelor of Commerce and a Masters of Commerce (Advance Accounting). He also has Masters in Business Administration (Financial Management) and CFA from ICFAI University.

Xavier has a MSc in Engineering Geology UMSA; Diploma in Mining and Exploration from the Montan University, Leoben, Austria, Graduate Diploma in Engineering and M. Eng. degree from Wits. He has been in coal since 1977, established the Geological Survey’s National Coal Database (NCDB); was Genmin IT Exploration Manager and joined the Minerals Bureau, DME in 1995, as Chief Mineral Economist; Coal and Hydrocarbons. He was appointed Coal Senior Analyst, Wood Mackenzie, Southern Africa and since 2009 is consulting privately with XMP Consulting. He promotes South Africa’s coal mining industry within government and industry groups, lectures at Universities as well as companies on coal science, i.e. coal reserves, economics, quality control, marketing and clean coal technologies. He has extensive experience in reserves and resources. His main tasks are optimisation of coal utilisation and marketing, economic empowerment in coal, evaluation of coal reserves, implementation of clean coal technologies (CCTs) and impact of the use of fossil fuels. Xavier belongs to several local and international coal committees and groups involved in coal science and technology.

Mandy is the General Manager in the Office of the Group Chief Executive of Eskom Holdings, managing the Just Energy Transition (JET) office. In this role she is overseeing the development and acceleration of the utility’s JET vision and strategy. Mandy has over 20 years’ experience in Eskom. She developed numerous climate change and sustainable development-related strategies for Eskom and was instrumental in driving Eskom’s efforts in this regard over the years. This, together with her experience as a member the South African delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, has allowed her to gain deep insights into various aspects of the sector, at the international, regional and national levels. Mandy was also appointed to serve on the recently established Presidential Commission on Climate Change, which will drive South Africa’s Just Energy Transition plans. Mandy serves on the Boards of the NBI (South Africa’s National Business Initiative) and the Global Change Institute (University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg). Mandy represents Eskom on the World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition advisory committee and the Net Zero task force.

John Smelt spent 15 years as a fund manager, initially specialising in the stock markets of Africa and the Middle East and then covering global mining. From 2003, John transferred to the corporate side, working for several mining companies including three new listings in London and latterly as Global Head of Investor Relations for Rio Tinto. In 2020 John helped establish Scout Advisory.

From his beginnings in education to his career in Human Resources, Mike has gained extensive experience in people and business management in BHP and Impala, as well as CEO of Optimum Coal Holdings (prior to it being taken over by Glencore). Mike is the Chairperson and controlling shareholder of the Masimong Group and serves as Chair/Non-Executive Director at the Anchor Group, Rofles Holdings and the Richards Bay Coal Terminal. He is also a past president of the Chamber of Mines and serves on the Council of the Chamber. In keeping with his passion to leave a legacy for the next generation, Mike serves on the board of the University of Johannesburg.

Joanne Yawitch has been the Chief Executive Officer of the National Business Initiative since March 2011, having previously been Deputy Director General for Climate Change in the Department of Environmental Affairs with responsibility for environmental quality and protection, as well as for the Department’s climate change work. Joanne worked for the Gauteng Department of Environment from 1997 to 2004 and prior to that was Special Adviser to the then Minister of Land Affairs. Joanne is currently the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of South African National Parks and is a Board Member of SAFCOL as well as the Chair of their Social and Ethics Committee. In 2020 Joanne was appointed as a member of the inaugural Presidential Climate Change Coordinating Commission (PCCCC). The Commission advises on South Africa’s just transition to a low-carbon, inclusive, climate change-resilient economy and society, as well as providing guidance on matters of adaptation and mitigation. Joanne´s expertise lies within business and sustainability, business and government collaboration, climate change and climate change negotiations.