Leadership

Dr Yunus Ballim is currently an emeritus professor at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (retired in 2021) at the University of the Witwatersrand. Prior to this role, he was the Vice-Chancellor at Sol Plaatje University, Kimberley. He has also held various positions in academia as well as industry.

Dr Ballim holds a PhD in engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Michelle Govender is currently the Senior Manager: Cyber Risk Emerging Technologies at Deloitte. Prior to her current role, she held various positions at Eskom. She is a cybersecurity leader with a demonstrated history of working in the energy utilities industry. She believes that leveraging emerging technologies to advance industrial environments is the key to growth and safety. She is passionate about preparing and equipping organisations to manage their industrial environments against exposure to cyber threats.

Govender holds a BSc in electrical engineering from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Dr Thulani Dlamini is the Chief Executive Officer of the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR). He was appointed in this position in February 2017, but he is no stranger to the CSIR having previously served the organisation with distinction for many years.

He joined the CSIR in 2005 as the head of the National Laser Centre and in 2008, he was appointed in the position of Group Executive: Research and Development, a position he held until 2011 when he left the CSIR to join Sasol. At Sasol, he was the Executive Manager: Research and Development and later became Vice-President for Strategic Research and Technology.

Dr Dlamini holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Master’s in Business Leadership from the University of South Africa.

He has served in many Boards and National Committees. He is a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and the South African Academy of Science.

Mahesh Fakir was an Operation Vulindlela consultant at National Treasury before becoming a member of the CSIR Board. Prior to his role at National Treasury, he was the CEO and Regulator/Board Member at the Ports Regulator of South Africa.

Fakir holds an MSc in development finance from the University of London, MSc in civil engineering and a Master’s in business administration from the University of Durban-Westville, now known as the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Dr Kaven Naidoo is the CSIR Group Executive: Business Excellence and Integration, effective 1 September 2022.

Kaven joined the CSIR in 1999 as an aeronautical engineer within the Defence Aeronautics Programme in the then Defencetek Operating Unit. He subsequently participated in and led various projects for the Department of Defence, industry and the CSIR in the area of computational and experimental aerodynamics. Kaven attained the position of principal researcher before he was appointed as the Competency Area Manager for CSIR Aeronautics Systems in 2013 and has held various leadership roles in the organisation over the years.

He has led several national-level efforts in aerospace on behalf of the Department of Science and Innovation and has facilitated several dialogues on empowering growth of the sector in the region and on the continent. He has also served on the International Forum for Aviation Research, an alliance of the leaders of the world’s premier aeronautics institutes including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the German Aerospace Centre, the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and other national aerospace laboratories across the globe in a collaboration to address the world’s most pressing aviation challenges.

In 2020, Kaven was appointed as Divisional Operations Manager for Advanced Production and Security.

He holds a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and has completed the Executive National Security Programme with the Department of Defence.

Dr Rachel Chikwamba holds the position of CSIR Group Executive for the Advanced Chemistry and Life Sciences division. In this role, she spearheads the implementation of the CSIR Strategy within the respective sectors. Dr Chikwamba collaborates closely with academia, as well as the public and private sector partners, both locally and internationally, to foster innovation that contributes to enhancing sectoral competitiveness and economic performance.

Dr Chikwamba has led a number of strategic initiatives for the CSIR.  Most recently, she led the CSIR commercialisation initiative, culminating in the launch of CSIR C Cubed, a dedicated capability that brings together CSIR intellectual property (IP), entrepreneurs and financial resources to accelerate the pace at which CSIR IP is translated into products and services that enhance economic competitiveness of industry and enable a capable state. Prior to this initiative, Dr Chikwamba led Project Synapse, an initiative that defined a renewed vision and mission of the organisation, strategic objectives, the programmatic focus areas, operating and business models, as well as the strategy implementation plan. This process culminated in the current organisational strategy. 

Dr Chikwamba formerly served as the Group Executive for Strategic Alliances and Communication. In this role, she led efforts to establish and foster organisational partnerships with local and global stakeholders in the public and private sectors. The primary objective was to leverage science, technology and innovation to advance knowledge and address challenges related to socioeconomic and industrial development.

Rachel has served and is serving on the boards of various organisations, focusing on agriculture and health. Notably, she has been a part of the Global Governing Board of ICRISAT, the Board of Directors of the Wits Health Consortium (Pty) Ltd and the South African Medical Research Council. In addition, she was recently appointed to the African Union (AU) Panel on Emerging Technologies. The panel is responsible for providing guidance to the AU and its member states regarding the effective utilisation of emerging technologies for economic development.

Dr Chikwamba holds a PhD in Genetics from Iowa State University in the United States of America (USA) and a Master of Business Administration from the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and has also held an Honorary Research Fellowship at St. Georges Hospital Medical School, University of London. Rachel joined the CSIR in December 2004, following her role as a postdoctoral research associate at Arizona State University, USA.

Dr Motodi Maserumule is the CSIR Group Executive: CSIR Advanced Production and Security division. Prior to his current role, he was the Executive Director: Defence, Peace, Safety and Security (DPSS). He joined the CSIR in October 2017 from the African Nuclear Energy Corporation, where he was the Group Executive: Research and Development.

Motodi is not new to the CSIR. He first joined the organisation in 1999 as a senior scientist in the then Defencetek operating unit. He then became the Competency Area Manager for Aeronautic Systems at the former DPSS and was appointed Executive Director: Modelling and Digital Science (MDS) in 2009. In this role, he was instrumental in transforming MDS into an operationally effective unit.

He has extensive experience in strategy development and implementation, leading technology concepts to commercialisation, driving transformation, strategic stakeholder engagement and business development.

He holds a PhD in Mathematics from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA. He has completed programmes in management development and national security, as well as a course in mastering technology enterprise, offered by the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Motodi has received various local and international awards and has published research papers in reputable journals. He has professional memberships with the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa and the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematicians.

Dr Kenny Tenza is the Executive Manager: Business Development and Commercialisation for the CSIR Advanced Chemistry and Life Sciences division and Acting Executive Cluster Manager for CSIR Smart Places.

Prior to joining the CSIR, Kenny was at Sasol Technology where he held various positions, such as Principal Intellectual Property (IP) Technical Advisor: Chemicals, Principal Research Scientist and, most recently, Acting Senior Manager: IP Management. Prior to joining Sasol Technology, he was a National Research Foundation overseas postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University, in the United Kingdom.

Kenny is an internationally recognised IP practitioner who has experience in business valuation and the full spectrum of IP management and commercialisation at technical and strategic levels.

He is an Advisory Board Member at InnoVenton: Institute for Chemical Technology and Downstream Chemicals Technology Station at Nelson Mandela University and he is an independent Non-Executive Director at the Vaal University of Technology (Pty) Ltd.

He holds an MSc and a PhD in organic chemistry from the Universities of Pretoria and St Andrews, in Scotland, respectively.

Nomsa Dlamini is the Executive Manager for the CSIR Smart Mobility. Before joining the CSIR, Nomsa served as Portfolio Director for Transport at MPAMOT Africa Pty Ltd. From January 2017 until May 2023, Nomsa held the position of Executive Manager for Asset and Maintenance Assurance at the Gautrain Management Agency. Additionally, within the same organisation, she assumed the role of Acting Senior Executive Manager for Technical Services before 2017.

Her leadership expertise has been refined through this extensive experience, setting her on a path marked by innovation and continual growth. Ascending through the ranks within the engineering field, Nomsa's career journey has led her to the forefront, where she now leads a team of seasoned professional engineers.

Nomsa's remarkable journey has been marked by outstanding achievements, one of which is her receipt of a Harvard South Africa Fellowship Scholarship Award. This prestigious scholarship paved her path to Harvard Business School, where she successfully completed the General Management Program, earning a certificate that further underscores her commitment to excellence.

Nomsa holds a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Master of Engineering qualifications from the University of Pretoria. Nomsa boasts a rich and extensive career spanning over two decades.

Dr Lulama Wakaba is the Executive Manager for the Next-Gen Enteprises and Institutions Cluster. He joined the CSIR in October 2021. Prior to joining the CSIR, Lulama was an independent consultant in the enterprise development arena. In this role, he developed commercialisation strategies and incubation processes for technology-based enterprises.

Most of Lulama’s formal education is in physics and applied mathematics, culminating in a PhD degree from the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign. He subsequently gained experience in various industries, ranging from financial services to airports management.

While working in the financial services industry (at an international investment bank), Lulama developed and implemented quantitative trading strategies for equity markets. In this role, he worked across the entire innovation chain spanning idea-generation and selection, research and development, and the deployment of trading strategies in live environments.

Lulama is not new to the CSIR, having previously been with the organisation as a Senior Researcher and a Strategic Research Manager in the former Modelling and Digital Sciences unit. He then left the CSIR to serve as the Group Manager for Technical Research and Development at the Airports Company South Africa.

Dr Mangena joined the CSIR from Sasol, where he spent 19 years in various roles, ranging from Principal Specialist, Senior Manager to Acting Vice President in the Research and Technology division. While at Sasol, he spearheaded the development and implementation of a portfolio of development projects worth billions of rands.

His career began at the CSIR in 1997 when he served as an intern in the Materials Technology division. He subsequently moved to Miningtek, another division of the CSIR, where he worked as a researcher in coal preparation. While at Miningtek, he was a member of the CSIR energy thrust team and a project manager for the government-funded Sustainable Development through Mining Research programme until 2005, when he joined Sasol. 

Dr Mangena holds a PhD in chemical engineering from North-West University, a Master’s degree in chemistry from Tshwane University of Technology, another Master’s degree in project management from the University of Pretoria and an MBA in renewables from Berlin University of Applied Sciences in Germany.