B Com (Hons), CA (SA), CMS (Oxon)
Chairman of the nomination committee
Member of the audit and risk, and remuneration committees
Appointed to the board in 2013
John spent over three decades in commerce and industry, including serving as a partner of Ernst & Young and holding a number of financial directorships. He is a director of Clicks Group, Sovereign Food Investments, Tower Property Fund, Personal Trust International and Western Province Rugby Proprietary Limited.
BA, LLB, LLM
Independent non-executive director
Chairman of the audit and risk committee
Appointed to the board in 2013
Bharti spent 14 years at the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa where she headed the corporate funding and international finance departments. She is a director of Bell Equipment, the Mineworkers Investment Company and Lenmed Investments.
B.Com (Honours) (UCT); CA (SA); MBA (UP)
Appointed to the board in 2016
Mary is the CEO of the Mineworkers Investment Company and has held senior executive positions across the resources, media, utilities and financial services sectors. Her directorships include FirstRand Group, Primedia, Metrofile Holdings, Peermont Global Holdings and Torre Industries.
BDS (Wits), MBA
Chairman of the remuneration and social and ethics committees
Member of the audit and risk, and nomination committees
Appointed to the board in 2016
Kinesh is the chairman of Kilimanjaro Capital and a director of Kefolile Health Investments and Bataung Energy Holdings. He has extensive experience in the trade union investment arena and has been instrumental in several significant BEE transactions in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
B Com, CA (Zim)
Appointed to the board in 2008
Gary is the co-owner and CEO of Coast2Coast Capital and jointly founded Ascendis Health in 2008. Gary owned and ran several successful businesses, including a telecommunications company which was listed on the stock exchange, before venturing into private equity and establishing Coast2Coast Capital.
B Sc (Hons) (Chem Eng), MBA
Member of the remuneration, nomination and social and ethics committees
Appointed to the board in 2008
Cris is the joint owner and COO of Coast2Coast Capital. After more than a decade in investment banking he founded and ran several companies, including Multipac, LALabel in Los Angeles, Revia and Axiz Retail. He co-founded Ascendis Health together with Gary Shayne in 2008.
Ph D (Economics and Political Science)
Appointed to the board in 2011
Karsten has over 20 years experience in international and South African health markets. Before joining Ascendis Health, he headed up Fresenius Kabi South Africa (including responsibility for Africa and Middle East) for eight years, prior to that he ran Fresenius Switzerland for five years and before that the export region Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe for Fresenius.
BA (Marketing Management), BA (Anthropology), MBA executive programmes (London, INSEAD, IMD)
Joined the group in August 2017
Thomas is responsible for the group’s European operations and is based in London. He has held senior executive positions at Johnson & Johnson Consumer (MD Nordic region), Reckitt Benckister (head of global consumer healthcare) and Novartis Consumer Healthcare (head of global health segment). Most recently he has focused on non-executive board positions for private equity and listed companies mainly in the pharma sector.
Dip IMM, MBA, MAP
Appointed to the board in 2015
Cliff joined Ascendis Health in 2015 after more than three decades in the FMCG sector. He was managing director of Foodcorp for seven years, growing the turnover to more than R7 billion, and during his nine years as managing director of National Brands turned the business into a highly profitable contributor to AVI.
B Com (Hons), H Dip (Auditing), CA (SA)
Appointed to the board in 2015
Kieron has over 20 years experience in financial management across a range of industries, including five years at GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Health care in the UK and Dubai, five years as CFO at TransUnion Group Africa and two years as CEO of Nando’s Company-owned Restaurants Division. He joined Ascendis Health in 2015.
