Jerry Vilakazi
Jerry is co-founder and Chairman of Palama. He is the past Chief Executive Officer of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA). Prior to joining BUSA he was Managing Director of the Black Management Forum. In 2009 Jerry was appointed by the State President to the Presidential Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Advisory Council and in 2010 was appointed as a Commissioner on the National Planning Commission. He was previously appointed Public Service Commissioner in 1999 and has played a critical role in shaping major public service policies in the new South Africa. He was the chairman of the Mpumalanga Gambling Board, Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency and the State Information Technology Agency(SITA) stepping down in 2014 and 2015 from all three respectively. He served for seven years as chairman of Netcare Limited the largest private hospital group in SA. He currently holds directorships in JSE listed Blue Label Telecoms and Sibanye Stillwater. He has previously served on the board of PPC and Goliath Gold. Jerry is a former advisor to Citi Bank.
Doreen Vilakazi
Doreen was the founder of ExecuPrime which became a significant player in human resources development the last two decades. She served as Chief Operations Officer and director of Kendon Medical. Her experience extends to the Retail sector. Under her leadership the group has opened 12 Retail Stores in four provinces. In 2001 Doreen was appointed by the Minister of Trade and Industry to serve in the Telkom’s Diabo Share as a Board Member and recently served on the Johannesburg Zoo Board and chaired the human resources committee. In 1999 Doreen was appointed to head the provincial office of the Public Service Commission (PSC) in Gauteng as an Accounting Officer. As a publisher Doreen managed publishing projects in Swaziland, Eastern Cape Province, Mpumalanga Province and KZNatal Province. Doreen was appointed by the University of Natal to establish and manage a Whole School Development Project in 1995.
Stefan Maritz
Former Financial Director and Acting CEO of Kendon Medical Supplies. He joined the Palama Group in 2006 and was transferred to Kendon as an executive in 2014. He has extensive experience in transaction structuring and negotiations, business valuations and corporate finance, financial management and accounting and external and internal auditing. He has been employed in various senior and top management positions since 2001 and has gained experience from sharing boardrooms with well known businessmen and women. Stefan has been involved and also managed the negotiations and finalization of acquisitions ranging from R20million to R2,5billion. In his previous working experience he managed the finance divisions of various well-known medium and large sized businesses, ranging from R50million to R2,5billion annual revenue and branches throughout South Africa and the African continent.
Victor Vilakazi
Victor joined Palama in 2019 as a Junior Investment Analyst. He studied a Bachelor of Business Science degree specializing in Accounting through Monash University. Victor is passionate about corporate finance and deal structuring.
His role is to conduct investment research and analysis, to advise on both short term and long term investment decisions and identify investment opportunities that will protect and grow the Palama portfolio of investment. Victor has travelled extensively visiting countries in Europe, Asia as well as the USA and Canada.