HR Champions Summit & Expo

Sameera is currently the Managing Partner of Pinnacle Consulting and the Chief People Officer for a company in the Hospitality and Entertainment sector.

Sameera is a Gallup certified Strengths Coach, has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, a Post -Graduate Diploma in Business Administration, certifications Advanced Human Resources, Labour Law, Strategic Management, Training & Development, Payroll and Data Analytics.

Sameera has over 14 years experience in Human Resources across various sectors including Wholesale & Retail, Hospitality, Manufacturing and ICT. She is responsible for developing the People agenda for leading teams toward high performance and sustainable talent management. She uses data analytics to direct decision making and specializes in Transformation workplace practices that enable Inclusivity and Employee Engagement.

Sameera was nominated in the Top Women awards 2021 in the categories of Fast Growth Women SME, and Young Woman Achiever. She was also invited to speak at Women’s Parliament on the topic of Advancing Gender Equality, Through Inclusive Economic Growth and the Precepts of a Capable Developmental State . Sameera is a fierce advocate of the disempowered, creates a platform of support for the ‘voiceless” and encourages people to find their “power”.

Gladys accumulated a wealth of experience in the Organization effectiveness and Talent management arena with over ten years of working experience. She carried out varied assignments from strategy assessment and formulation to process optimization. Gladys has expertise in formulating and aligning strategic Human capital tools to day-to-day business and employee work operations provision and maintenance. Organizational transformation process and solutions to improve operating models for more signicant impact on strengthening human capital planning and capabilities. Diplomatic leadership ability to build stakeholder relations as a strategic business advisor in key organizational and management issues enabling successful occupational and employee health, safety, and wellness program and practical ability to oversee operational and fiscal responsibilities to ensure optimal business performance and realize substantial revenue enhancements.

Kyle Chetty has over 12 years of experience in HR and has worked in the Retail, Automotive, Financial Services, and entertainment industries in South Africa, Sub Sharan Africa, and USA.

Kyle was born in Durban, South Africa. He lived in New Jersey, USA in 2008 & 2009. In 2010 Kyle moved to Johannesburg and has been here ever since.

He holds a BCOM Honours Degree in HR Management and a BCOM Degree in HR & Marketing, MDP with UNISA and is registered with the SABPP as an HR Professional. He recently graduated from the RIKA HR leadership development program in Nairobi Kenya and is a certified Gallup coach.

Kyle won the Young CHRO of the year award for 2020 and was a finalist in the Future of HR awards for HR director of the year and best, HR strategy, and HR Leader of the Year. People Hum named him one of the top 100 most inspirational leaders of 2021
Kyle enjoys traveling and cooking with his wife and daughter.
Kyle works with Business Leaders and HR professionals to create and implement the people and leadership strategy and integrated shared services. He partners with various start-ups to create the right foundation. In his free time, Kyle mentors HR Students and is a freelance lecturer.

Kyle will be speaking at our Headline Keynote - Empathy: the new work culture norm. He will be heading a Panel Discussion with speakers such as Brigitte Da Gama: Executive Human Capital at McDonalds, winner of the Talent 2020 CHRO Award and Transformation and Empowerment 2020 CHRO Award. Lwanele Khasu: Clinical Psychologist and Managing Director of Oasis Mental Wellness Hub and Sameera Ahmed: Founder and Managing Partner of Pinnacle Human Capital.

Brigitte Da Gama has nearly three decades of experience in the Human Capital field and has worked in the higher education, IT, investment management, insurance, banking and hospitality sectors. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Industrial and Organisational Psychology from the University of Cape Town as well as an MBA from the University of Stellenbosch. She previously served on the Council of the University of Cape Town and she is the previous Chairperson of the Board of Directors for a non-profit training and development company that serves impoverished farming and rural communities. She has won several national and international awards, including CHRO 2020 Talent Award; the CHRO 2020 Empowerment Award and the Future of HR Director of the Year Award in 2020.

A seasoned, hard working Human Resources professional with 15 years working experience in Manufacturing, Management Consulting and Financial Services supporting local and international employees remotely to deliver quality people management agenda.

I have good interpersonal skills and able to hold tough conversations with senior stakeholders, problem solving skills and EQ. I thrive in a pressurised environment working with self driven individuals who share common goals. My key to success is continuous learning and also sharing my experience with others.

I am a Seasoned Professional passionate about Human Resources, Business Strategy and People Empowerment. I am an innovative out of the box thinker who enjoys driving purpose led vision and strategy. With 20 years experience across various industries locally and internationally I am driven by achieving results in Business and empowering individuals to reach their full potential.

A - I help HR Professionals. I have an HR Success and Support Network aimed at providing HR for HR support, coaching and mentorship services for Women in HR. We focus on empowering people in HR through HR online expertise and resources, networking, coaching, masterclasses, HR engagement, career, vision and success coaching etc. We provide a safe space where women in HR feel supported and empowered.

B - I also help Business Leaders to build an effective HR Function that supports the business and imbeds a high performance, people engaged culture. A culture that achieves results and cares for its people. Like really cares!

I will find you the best talent and take care of your HR and Business. I am passionate about working with Business Leaders to create high performance, high value work and business experiences.

You cannot achieve business success without having people care at its core and its possible to achieve both!

My passion is Human Resources , Empowerment, Development and Business.

I am on a mission to create more inspiring, more human places of work.

“Your employees are your biggest competitive advantage. If you put your people first, your business will thrive. And it’s just that simple.”
~Richard Branson

At heart, I'm a creative innovator, passionate about wellness.

With deep level expertise in public relations, employee engagement, change communication and culture building, I have 20 years of experience in building external and internal brands and high performance teams, in a range of sectors, including finance, technology, energy and retail.

At HolyCow Creative Agency I came to appreciate the power the internal employee audience holds in creating thriving organisations. My speciality evolved to focus on uplifting the employee experience and employer brand, working alongside business leaders to help them win the minds and hearts of their people. More recently, I have seen the connection between engagement, culture and wellbeing.

As the pace of life has become faster and the world of work more volatile and uncertain, I've come to see employee wellbeing as a strategic imperative. People are more unhealthy and stressed out than ever and organisations are paying the price.

I believe in the value of investment in a ‘people-first’ approach and building bottom up organisational cultures of wellbeing. Finding that traditional wellness programs were outdated, limited in scope and unable to drive sustained results, I founded BREATHE, an employee wellbeing company that inspires and empowers people to thrive in all areas of their lives.

As an integral coach, I have pioneered a whole-person ‘coaching-based’ model of wellness, driven by meaningful engagement to drive participation and using KPIs to connect the business strategy with the wellbeing strategy. This has been built into the Breathe model.

I believe that the energy of an organisation’s employees is its most precious resource and that optimizing this energy is the most powerful route to sustainable people productivity and future fit organisations.

I am a Clinical Psychologist and Director at Oasis Mental Wellness Hub, in Sandton, Johannesburg. I am mental health speaker and workshops facilitator. I am registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and with the Board of Health Care Funders (BHF). I completed my Bachelors of Arts, Bachelors of Arts (Hons) industrial Psychology, and Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology degrees at the University of the Witwatersrand.

I have worked in a number of clinical settings, including Tara children’s unit, Helen Joseph Hospital, and in outpatient community clinics around Johannesburg, including Zola, Hillbrow, Lenesia, and South Rand among other areas, where I worked with adults, adolescents, and children in psychotherapy and psychological assessments. I have lectured and tutored at Helen Joseph Hospital, both psychology and medical students on the importance of mental illness. I have spoken in multiple organisations on mental health and wellness and have tailored mental health programmes for various organisations as well.
Before branching into Clinical Psychology and Employee Wellness, I was in the Market Research industry where I worked with brands such as Nedbank, Standard Bank, South African Breweries, E-tv amongst other brands in various industries. This experience taught me understanding consumers and clients and bridging the knowledge and strategic gap. I specifically went into the Market Research industry to learn skills I knew would be beneficial in the understanding of clients and consumers. My Honours degree in industrial psychology and my master’s degree in Clinical psychology with the research experience are a good combination for strategic thinking. I am well able to customise Employee Wellness programs and presentations for the client in question and speak directly to their needs and challenges. Focused and concise presentations ensure a captured audience, while staying relevant and rememberable, achieving the goal of direct and impactful marketing and intervention. Current Roles founder & CEO Oasis mental Wellness Hub, founder and director Oasis Therapy Centre, Member of Think Tank at The space between us, Leading Insights at The space between us.

Andisa Liba is the Chief People Officer at Floatpays with 15 years of experience in human resources. She provided executive support to President Cyril Ramaphosa in his former role as the founder and owner of Shanduka Group in one of her first positions. Later, she held leadership positions at numerous blue-chip companies. Recently, she managed and supervised the people agenda at Cisco Africa, a technology company.

Zanele is the CEO of Welo, a HealthTech Company based in South Africa (Solving the problem of access to healthcare at home and in the workplace in Emerging Economies). Former CEO of Basadi underground Contractors (Mine Contracting Company).

Zanele has spoken in over 50 events in her 15 years span as an entrepreneur, covering topics and workshops from empowerment, business development and women in business. Her recent talk has been at Harvard Business school addressing the MBA Class of 2021 and a business model workshop for entrepreneurs at UCT.

Zanele is also the founder of Innovate NGO which empowers the African child through maths lessons and now introducing coding lessons. The NGO has been active as far as Tanzania embarking on projects to empower African children to become leaders.

I am an expert HR Practitioner with experience in the government and private sector (local and international). In my current role I am a leader in bringing the best global talent with expertise in Competition Law and Competition Economics and providing consultative services in the full HR function.

I possess experience in building effective relationships, customer creation and hiring personnel in accordance with policies and requirements that have been established in conjunction with top management. I have experience in consulting with top executives regarding strategic planning in not only attracting the most suitably qualified candidates and matching them to jobs; but ensuring compliance with various Labour Legislation.

I am passionate about making a difference in my organisation and changing lives.

With the skills I have acquired in various industries and sectors I understand that organisations pride themselves on not only the quality of their human capital but the comfort of having an effective human resources function.

I am passionate about talent management, creating opportunities, pioneering success and meeting revenue performance objectives.

Experienced Group Human Resources Director with a demonstrated history of working in multiple industries, covering Oil, FMCG, Retail, and banking. Experience in working across cultures having had human resources accountabilities for Europe, USA, Asia and Africa.

Skilled in Human Resources, Talent Management, Performance Management, Leadership Development, and Organizational Development.

Stong general business leadership gained from other line responsibilities from roles in sales, project management and banking operations, as well as having been a member of group executive committees.

Strong human resources professional and business leader with further educational experiences from Wharton and Harvard Business Schools.

I am passionate about how we can make the world of work more meaningful, teams more productive and business more successful. I believe life, and work, should be stimulating, purposeful and fun.

With more than 15 years’ experience in the corporate world, across multiple industries and functions, I’ve had the privilege to witness the impact of culture – and team sub-cultures – on performance. I believe now, more than ever, that culture is magic key to performance. And that wellbeing is an avenue to unlock this.

I fuse my corporate leadership, strategic skills and a lifelong passion for health & wellbeing to guide organizations in designing and implementing employee wellbeing strategies in my role as a co-founder of BREATHE. The thrill of experiencing how organizations can help people be well and step into their greatest selves is what gets me up in the morning.

I am extremely lucky to be working with a team of incredibly bright people, fanatically devoted to enabling a world where organizations becomes places of nurturing, fulfilment and productivity.

I worked in the South African technology environment as a public relations and communication strategist for 20 years. In this time I engaged with clients across all categories (from co-working spaces to incubators, start-ups to established businesses, fintech to edtech to blockchain and beyond), sizes and levels of maturity.

In mid-2019 I moved my focus to people and culture with Skynamo. This gives me the opportunity to use my experience in communications to support the team and create an environment where people are challenged to do their best work. My new role will involve driving recruitment of the best talent, coaching on team leadership, helping to resolve employee relations issues and managing programs that help develop staff.

Marianne has 30 years’ global experience as an HR Executive, Future of Work Strategist and Professor of Leadership. She holds a Masters degree in HR and Organizational Psychology and is completing her PHD in Leadership in the Future of Work context. She currently runs Roux Consulting, a global niche consulting firm based in Dublin, Ireland and teaches regularly at Business Schools around the world.

She has worked for PWC, Accenture, Deloitte and Mercer and has held two HR Director roles in two countries at Woolworths Food South Africa and Cricket Australia.

Her experience spans several industries including Retail, FMCG, Mining, Oil and Gas, Public Sector, Utilities, Infrastructure, Media, Financial services, Telecommunications, Sport, NFP, Health and
Pharmaceutical and Tech start ups.

Her work focuses mainly on Future of Work Strategy, Leadership Development, Organisation Redesign and HR transformation.
She has recently published a book on Adaptive HRand a Personal Agility reflection journal: Knowing Your Superpowers is the Key to Your Success in a changing Worldand she is featured in Maturing Leadership: How Adult Development Impact Leadership.

Marianne works pro-bono on developing women and alleviating poverty and trauma. She has served on the Boards of Hagar Australia, Hagar International, YGAP and the Edmund Rice Foundation.

She was chosen as one of 52 Inspirational women at work in South Africa in 2004, one of 20 Female Entrepreneurs by Management today in 2011 in Australia and in 2015 she won the excellence in NFP consulting award from the Worldwide Who’s Who.

I help organisations to build cultures driven by passion and purpose because I believe that purpose led businesses inspire their people for success.

I help professional women to achieve success on their own terms so that they can reach their full potential and feel fulfilled in all areas of their lives.

After nearly 20 years in a corporate career as a Business Architect, I left my 6 figure job to start a business, which has set me on a journey of personal development and self discovery.

I worked with coaches and mentors to upskill each area of my life to discover who I truly am and what my purpose is.

I know now, that my purpose is to teach purpose and to inspire others to find theirs.

As an international coach, speaker, trainer and published author, with more than 20 years of experience, I help to enhance the performance of individual executives, teams and organisations. I am an Agile Talent Strategist, Leadership & HR Expert and Executive Coach and was one of the first to be authorised as an Agile People professional and facilitator.

I partner with leaders and HR teams on all people-related aspects with a specific focus on integrating agile principles and practices and supporting teams to remain relevant and thrive in the future of work. I also in association with various companies as a facilitator focusing on leadership development, mentoring and change management.

I’m obsessed, aiming to help organisations to be more human-centric and to prioritise adaptive leadership in the new world of work. As a globally renowned speaker, I call South Africa my home.

OFFERING experience as a ‘gets the job done’ Executive with strong expertise across the entire HR value chain, operations and strategy execution. Understanding organisational complexity and the interconnectedness and interrelationship between all parts in an organisation. Leading change and driving achievement of business goals.

Graduand - MBA specialising in Executive Management through the prestige GSB UCT – Dissertation Title
“The remote workforce and Organisational Design conundrum”

■ Leadership & Management: Development of Strategy; Planning; Operations Management; General Management; Budget Management; Project Management; Quality Assurance; Benchmarking; Process Improvement; Alignment with Business Strategy; Coaching & Support; Change management; Business Transformation; Organisational Design; Stakeholder management

■ Key Functions: HR Model, Policy, Procedures, Systems, Processes & Admin; Recruitment & Selection; Organisational Design; Change Management; Onboarding; Performance Management; Employee Relations & Engagement; Learning & Development; Staff Movement; Remuneration and Benefits; Procurement; Talent Management; Succession & Retention; Role Profiling; Psychometric Assessments; Employee Contracts; BBBEE; Labour Relations; Change management; Operational improvement; Mergers and Acquisitions; IT projects; Employee Wellness

Dr. Dieter Veldsman is an organizational psychologist with a passion for HR. He has over 13+ years of experience across the HR value chain and lifecycle, having worked for and consulted with various multi-national corporations in Europe, Asia, and Africa. He has held the positions of CHRO, Organizational Effectiveness Executive, and Organizational Design and Development Principal. He is a regular speaker at international conferences and industry panels on HR, Future of Work, and Organisational Development. To date, he has participated in more than 50+ of these events. He also co-hosts a monthly podcast called “HR Hot Topics” that discusses actual events impacting the world of HR.


He is passionate about the development of the profession and guest lectures at various institutions while also holding the position of Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg. He has contributed to 25+ peer-reviewed articles, blogs and book chapters. He was recently awarded the CHRO of the year title by the CHRO Society of South Africa for 2021 and has also won HR Strategy and Leadership, HR Technology, and HR Innovation awards from various institutions. He was also recognized as the Practitioner of the Year by the Society of Industrial and Organisational Psychology of South Africa in 2018.


Currently, Dr. Dieter Veldsman forms part of the Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR) as an HR and OD Thought Leader working towards the continuous upskilling of 100 000 HR professionals by 2025.