Merchant West Holdings
Merchant West Holdings Proprietary Limited (“Merchant West Holdings”) is the group holding company.
MERCHANT WEST HOLDINGS
Merchant West aspires to the King IV code of Corporate Governance
Merchant West Holdings Proprietary Limited (“Merchant West Holdings”) is the group holding company. Each product unit is a separate legal entity, operating as a subsidiary of Merchant West Holdings. Merchant West aspires to the King IV code of Corporate Governance. The group has a well-established Board of Directors, with a majority of non-executive directors
The Non-Executive committee comprises of:
Non-Executive Chairperson
Tladi Ditshego
Holdings Board Chairman
Tladi has been a Director of Companies for several years. He is the current chairman of Merchant West Holdings, Utho Capital SMME Infrastructure Fund, Toll Infrastructure Service, South Coast Stone Crushers and the Digmin Group. He is the former Chairman of Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa Limited (ECIC), and Kelvin Power Holdings. He served for six years as the CEO of the J&J Group, an investment management company. He has been involved in project development and implementation for over the past 23 years, in partnership with top Construction Companies in South Africa with capabilities and experience in construction-related Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).
Tladi holds an MA degree (with a functional concentration in Development Economics) from Columbia University in the City of New York and a BA degree from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, USA. He completed his GCE O Levels at the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College (SOMAFCO) in Morogoro, Tanzania and Matriculated in Dennilton, Limpopo.
Holdings Board Chairman
Audit and Risk Committee
Kaushik Patel
Non-Executive Director
Kaushik holds a Bachelor of Accounting Science (Honours) degree from the University of South Africa and is a Chartered Accountant. He has held various senior executive positions, including African Bank (Finance Executive and Director from 1998 to 1999), TEBA Bank (Financial Director from 1999 to 2000), Telkom (Deputy CFO from 2000 to 2004 and CFO from 2004 to 2007), SAA (CFO from 2007 to 2011) and J&J Group (CFO from 2011 to 2014). Kaushik is currently Managing Director in the ETG Group, one of the largest and fastest growing integrated agricultural conglomerates in Africa with international presence in 52 countries, and holds various non-executive board positions.
Non-Executive Director
Social and Ethics Committee
Modula Mofolo
Non-Executive Director
Ms. Modula Mofolo holds a Master’s degree in Development Finance (Cum Laude), LL.B, and B.A. (Law) degrees attained in 2014, 1999 and 1997 respectively. Modula served Articles at Webber Newdigate Attorneys Inc and was admitted to the bar in 2000. Modula is currently self-employed and is a former Investment Executive, Private Equity at WDB Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd (WDBIH) charged with driving the strategy for, implementing, and managing the mid-cap private equity investment portfolio. She is also former Managing Director at Utho Capital Fund Managers (Pty) Ltd, a former Executive Director at Musa Capital Fund Managers (Pty) Ltd and served as a Legal Advisor and Compliance Officer at Khula Enterprise Finance Ltd (now Sefa). Modula has combined investment and commercial legal advisory experience in financial services that spans over 15 years.
Non-Executive Director
Remuneration Committee
Lungile Mdluli
Non-Executive Director
Lungile Mdluli completed her under- and postgraduate degrees in accounting and commerce at the Universities of Natal and Johannesburg. After that she served articles at KPMG in Johannesburg where she qualified as a chartered accountant in 2000. On completion of her articles, Lungile joined WipCapital, a subsidiary of Women’s Investment Portfolio Holdings as a manager in the Debt Products team and then joined De Beers in 2002 as a project accountant in the Group Exploration Finance department, before moving to its Corporate Finance department the following year. Lungile joined Metier Investment and Advisory Services team in 2005, where she is now a director and principal in the private equity team; her responsibilities include the execution of new deals and the management of portfolio companies. Lungile holds various directorships and served as treasurer of the South African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA) from 2015 until recently.
Non-Executive Director
LEADERSHIP
Executives
Braam Viljoen
Group Chief Executive Officer
Subsequent to his internship with Deloitte and consequent qualification as a Chartered Accountant, Braam joined the Risk Management division of Investec Bank Ltd. Braam was soon after repositioned, and for the succeeding 4 years fundamentally involved, in the bank’s Specialised Finance division. In 1998 Braam and two associates instituted the Specialised Finance Division of a leading JSE listed corporation. Braam functioned as the business’s Managing Director until 2003 when he joined Merchant West Holdings as a founding director and CEO of the Group.
Group Chief Executive Officer
Mike Murray
Group Sales Director
Mike was engaged in the credit industry for 6 years before joining an asset based finance company in 1997. In June of the same year, Mike and three co-directors formed MGV Corporate Finance, an asset based finance company geared towards the corporate market. In November 2000, MGV Corporate Finance was acquired by a JSE listed company where Mike continued to serve as a Director. Subsequent to a management buyout in 2002, Mike joined Merchant West as the Director responsible for Supplier Asset Finance. In 2018, Mike took on the role of Group Sales Director, responsible for establishing, directing and implementing the coverage sales strategy within the business. Mike also serves on the Board of Merchant West Holdings.
Group Sales Director
If you want to find out more about our leadership team and who they are, visit our leadership team page