Board of directors
TP (Themba) Baloyi
Henley Executive MBA, ACIS, ND CMA
Themba was appointed as an independent non-executive director to the Board from 1 November 2020. He studied and completed Cost and Management Accounting, Corporate Governance through ICSA and has an Executive MBA from Henley Business School (UK). He completed business leadership studies through Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business and Duke University (US).
Themba is an innovative and entrepreneurial business leader who founded Discovery Insure Ltd ('Discovery Insure'), a short-term insurance company launched in 2011. The Discovery Insure work propelled him to win the 2018 CNBC Africa All Africa Business Leaders 'Entrepreneur of the Year Award'. He was honoured as a 2015 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Currently he serves as chairman on the board of Constantia Insurance Group Ltd and is a board member of CalgroM3 Holdings and the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, amongst others.
JP (Cobus) Loubser
CA(SA)
Cobus left his position as Long4Life’s Sport and Recreation division CEO at the end of 2020 to join Curro as CFO from January 2021. He was appointed CEO in January 2023. He started his career at KPMG, served as financial manager at Virgin Active SA, and held the CFO position at Holdsport CFO for 11 years, before joining Long4Life.
Marí Lategan
BA; BA Hons (Journalism); MBA
Marí has an MBA from Stellenbosch University’s Business School and an Honours in Journalism. She has been an executive at Curro for more than six years and a Non-Executive Director for Meridian Schools for more than four years. She established Curro Create, Curro’s national creative initiative. Prior to Curro, she founded a strategic business and communications consultancy and was a publisher at Media24. Marí was appointed as Deputy CEO in January 2023.
Burtie September
CA (SA)
Burtie is a chartered accountant who completed his SAICA articles at Deloitte, Cape Town before joining Deloitte’s office in Indianapolis in the USA on a secondment. He worked at South African Breweries as a management accountant at one of its largest distribution centres in South Africa before he was employed as a senior accountant at Woolworths Financial Services. He joined Curro as financial manager in 2016 and was appointed CFO in January 2023.
C (Cora) Fernandez
CA(SA)
Cora has had a career spanning various sectors, with notable leadership roles at Sanlam, including Chief Executive: Institutional Business at Sanlam Investment Holdings, Managing Director at Sanlam Investment Management and CEO at Sanlam Private Equity. Her responsibilities ranged from strategy development and implementation to portfolio management, mergers and acquisition, management and leveraged buyouts, stakeholder relations and key account management. Since 2012 she was a member of the executive committee of Sanlam Investments and served on the board of various divisions within Sanlam. Her contributions have been recognised with awards such as ABSIP Private Equity Dealmaker of the Year and the Sanlam Group CEO Award, showcasing her dedication and expertise in the industry. Cora also serves on numerous other boards and board committees, including Capitec Bank Holdings and Spur Corporation.
BS (Busi) Mathe
CA(SA)
Busi was appointed as an independent non-executive director to the board from 22 April 2024. She is a seasoned business leader with a rich background in internal audit, external audit, digital transformation, cyber security and data privacy. She has worked across multiple industries and sectors, both locally and globally. Busi is the CEO of Orirori Consulting & Executive Accelerator Africa, a faculty member at Henley Business School and serves on the board of Famous Brands. In 2023, she joined the Audit Committee of Discovery Health Medical Scheme as an independent member. She has previously held the position of Africa Cyber Security & Data Privacy leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers and also served as the Chairperson of their South African Governing Board, a member of their Africa Governance Board and Chairperson of their Human Capital Sub-Committee. Busi was recognised as an Emerging Business Leader by the African Woman Chartered Accountants (AWCA) in 2019.
L (Lerato) Molebatsi
BA; PGDRD; SMDP; Senior Executive Programme (Harvard)
Lerato brings 25 years of expertise in financial services, mining, government, non-profit, and professional services. Her career highlights include impactful roles in policy development, transformative change initiatives, and strategic projects within the Department of Labour and Transport. Lerato's experience extends to global stakeholder relations, strategic communications, marketing, BEE, and governance. She worked with decision makers of all levels within major global institutions, such as General Electric while serving as the CEO of GE South Africa. Lerato currently serves on the boards of various organisations, including as lead independent director on the board of the South African Reserve Bank. She serves on the boards of Spur and Petra Diamonds respectively.
PJ (Piet) Mouton
BCom (Mathematics)
Piet is the CEO of PSG Group Ltd and serves as a non-executive director on the boards of various of its investee companies, including Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd, PSG Konsult Ltd and Zeder Investments Ltd. He has served in the investment and financial services industries since 1999.
DM (Douglas) Ramaphosa
MA (Social Sciences); Programme for Executive Development (Institute of Management Development)
Douglas has more than 35 years of business experience at an executive management and board level. He is currently chairman of IRCA (Pty) Ltd, serves on the Board of Curro, and is chairman and founder member of investment companies such as Mnotho Group and Chakula Wote Africa. Douglas served as a non-executive director for EnviroServ, Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (‘WESSA’), STADIO and also served at a senior executive level for corporations including Altron, Transnet, ABSA and Anglo American. He was CEO of Bytes Healthcare Solutions, managing director of Bytes Specialised Solutions, and served on the boards of Anglo American (SA), Eskom Enterprises and was chairperson of Rotek Industries.
Dr CR (Chris) van der Merwe
B.Prim (Ed), US; B.Ed, UNISA; M.Ed (cum laude), US; D.Ed, US
Chris has extensive knowledge and experience in the independent school and tertiary sectors. He founded Curro in 1998 and in 2011, under his leadership, the company was listed on the JSE. Chris served as CEO until June 2017 when he stepped down, unbundled the Embury Institute for Higher Education, a teachers’ college, from Curro and then listed STADIO, an independent provider of tertiary education on the JSE in October 2017. He served STADIO as CEO until the company delivered on the promises of its pre-listing statement and stepped down in March 2020. Dr Van der Merwe has subsequently served PSG and STADIO as an education consultant. He currently also serves on the boards of Curro and STADIO as a non-executive director.
