PIETER KRIEL (Managing Director)

BAcc Honours (Stellenbosch), CA(SA), Certificate in Senior Management
Pieter joined Thebe Investment Corporation in an executive capacity in January 2011 to establish and head its new Power & Infrastructure division, having served on the Thebe board as a non-executive director for 12 years. During this period, he was also a member of the Thebe Investment Committee and chaired this committee for the last year. Pieter co-founded Sanlam Private Equity in 2003 and he was CEO from 2005 until June 2009. Pieter joined Sanlam’s Investment Division in 1987 after qualifying as a chartered accountant and completing his articles with Ernst & Young. During his 24 years of investment management with Sanlam, he gained experience in various roles including financial control, compliance, structured products, equity underwriting, portfolio management, the structuring and management of black economic empowerment investments and finally private equity.

GERT LINDE (Business Development Director)

Gert Linde Co-Founded the company in 2016. Prior to his involvement with Thebe Solar Energy Holdings (Pty) Ltd, Gert had various leading responsibilities in marketing, project development, business development in the Renewable Energy sector. In these various businesses, he gained valuable experience in IT telecommunications, electronic systems, technologies and business development. Gert has been working in Renewable Energy for the past ten years.

MELISSA BURTON (Operations Manager)

Melissa Burton has several years experience in the fruit export industry as Logistics Manager and Key Accounts Manager to one of the top 5 fruit exports and logistics companies where she excelled in time management and problem solving skills. Training and development through various short courses empowered her to become an integral part of a team. Melissa has been working as office manager to CEO Gert Linde since 2007, and by creating a comfortable, creative work environment has played an important role to this teams efficiency and success in renewable energy projects.

SUNIL RAMKILLAWAN (CEO, Thebe Energy and Resources)

Sunil joined Thebe in May 2000 and has filled several key positions within Thebe. Sunil is currently the chief executive officer of Thebe Energy and Resources. Sunil’s passion is business and as a result he has extensive experience in business, finance, corporate finance, investment management and has held several directorships of investee companies throughout his tenure at Thebe. This includes directorships across various industries (Mining and Resources, Oil & Products Trading, Mining Support and Supplies, Media, Food Services & Support Solutions, Engineering and Insurance)

During Sunil’s tenor at Thebe, he has been part of the management team that has delivered exceptional returns to shareholders since 2001 and has been a catalyst towards instilling a value-adding mindset for our investee companies. Recently, he was also crucial in the portfolio optimisation process for TER, funding as well as debt management.

Sunil holds a Chartered Accountant CA (SA) qualification from SIACA and an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and more recently he attended an Innovation: Strategies for Creating Value course at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the US.

JOHANN BESTER (Project Manager IPP’s Thebe Investment Corporation)

Engineer (MSc) (UCT)
MBA (UWE)
Johann Bester is Project Manager for IPPs at Thebe Investment Corporation which he joined in September 2015. Within Thebe’s Energy and Resources Division he is mainly responsible for developing Thebe’s interests in the energy and mining sectors. Bester is an engineer with an MBA, with more than 20 years of experience in the mining industry focussing on the development of complex projects with multiple stakeholders, playing a lead role in negotiating funding, shareholding and offtake agreements. Bester headed up Eskom’s coal procurement business unit for the past 5 years and was responsible for convincing Eskom’s board of directors that the cost plus mine agreements with the three major suppliers to Eskom needed to be renegotiated in order to ensure the sustainability of this coal. Johann initially qualified as an Engineer and holds an MSc in Materials Science from the University of Cape Town and a MBA from the University of the West of England.