Board of directors
Independent non-executive director
Funke Ighodaro (62)
B.Sc. (Hons), CA(SA), FCA (ICAEW)
Independent non-executive director
Appointed to the board: February 2024
Audit Committee Chairman
Risk Committee Chairman
Nominations Committee member
Funke Ighodaro is currently an independent non-executive director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Old Mutual Limited and its life insurance subsidiary, Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (South Africa) Limited, and the Lead Independent Director and Chair of the Investment Committee of Sabvest Capital Limited, as well as an independent non-executive director and chair of the Risk Committee of Telkom SOC Limited. She was previously the Deputy Chair and Lead Independent director of Massmart Holdings Limited and was the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committees. She has also served as Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of Transaction Capital Limited and was an independent non-executive director Datatec Limited.
Funke was previously the Chief Financial Officer of Tiger Brands Limited and of Primedia Limited and an executive director of EMTS Limited (trading as 9mobile), Nigeria’s fourth largest telecommunications company. She founded and led the private equity business of the Kagiso Trust Investment Group.
Funke holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Operational Research from the University of Salford. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA)
Independent non-executive director
Marie Jamieson (65)
BSSc (Hons): Business Administration, PGDip: International Management
Independent non-executive director
Appointed to the board: 1 February 2024
Social, Ethics and Sustainability Committee member
Business Transformation Committee member
Marie was formerly an International Strategic Planning Director for TBWA where she worked in many countries around the world and is recognised globally as a strategic planning expert. Prior to that, Marie served as the Chief Executive Officer of TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris in Johannesburg. She has vast experience in marketing and advertising in more than 60 categories, spanning a career of over 40 years including 10 years in FMCG management at Smithkline Beecham. Marie also served at Absa (formerly Barclays Group) for six years as Head of Marketing and Corporate Relations: ARO. She was responsible for marketing and communication in 10 countries across Africa. She also headed up the Brand and Name Change programme that transformed all Barclays banks in these countries to Absa. Marie is expected to contribute business acumen, transformation, strategic planning and brand marketing and communications skills to the Board.
Independent non-executive director
Liesbeth Botha (63)
BEng (Electronics), MEng (Electronics), PhD (ECE)
Independent non-executive director
Appointed to the board: 1 February 2024
Business Transformation Chairperson
Remuneration Committee Chairperson
Risk Committee member
Social, Ethics and Sustainability Committee member
Liesbeth currently has a portfolio of non-executive and part-time executive roles. Until June 2022, she served as the Chief Digital Officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Africa where she worked for eight years and was responsible for digital business transformation and innovation strategy, as well as digital upskilling and championing the way the business uses digital technology, including AI. Preceding that, she was an Executive Director at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and chaired the board of UViRCO, a spin-off from the CSIR. Her previous experience also includes being Executive Director of Innovation and Commercialisation at the University of Stellenbosch, and founder of InnovUS, the holding company of the start-ups and other commercial ventures of the University of Stellenbosch. She served as a non-executive director of Venfin Limited and was a Council Member of the University of Pretoria. Prior to her executive roles, she was professor of electronic and computer engineering at the University of Pretoria. She specialised in Artificial Intelligence, data analysis and pattern recognition, including speech and image recognition, artificial neural networks and machine learning. She has published widely and supervised numerous graduate students in all these fields. Liesbeth is expected to contribute business acumen and IT skills to the Board.
Independent non-executive director
Interim chairperson
Lwazi Koyana (56)
BCom, CA(SA)
Independent non-executive director
Appointed to the board: May 2019
Nominations Committee Chairperson
Remuneration Committee member
Lwazi is the founder and managing director of Nations Capital Projects (Pty) Ltd. He is an independent non-executive director of Concor Construction (Pty) Ltd, Steve Biko Academic Hospital (Non Executive Chairman) and Council Member at Rhodes University where he Chairs the Audit & Risk Committee. He is the former independent non-executive director of Afgri Ltd, SecureData, Mineworkers Investment Company and the W&RSETA. Up until 2022, Lwazi was the Independent Non-Executive Chairman of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA)
Lwazi contributes financial, auditing, governance, retail and entrepreneurial skills to the board.
Executive director
Moegamat Reeza Isaacs (57)
BCom, CA(SA)
Group CEO
Joined the group November 2024
Appointed to the board: November 2024
Appointed as Group CFO: 1 January 2025
Appointed as Group CEO: 1 March 2026
Risk Committee member
Business Transformation Committee member
Mr Isaacs holds a B Com PGDA degree from the University of Cape Town and is a qualified Chartered Accountant (South Africa). He was previously the group Finance Director of Woolworths Holdings Limited ("Woolworths") and a board member of Woolworths for 10 years from 2013 to 2023. He currently serves as a member of Council and Chair of the University of Cape Town Finance Committee. Mr Isaacs was also appointed as an independent non-executive director of Hyprop Investments Limited and a member of its Audit Committee in April 2024. Previously, Mr. Isaacs was a partner at Ernst & Young Incorporated ("EY") and the Regional Senior Partner for EY Western Cape. Reeza contributes financial, auditing, governance, business and operational acumen to the Board.
Independent non-executive director
Sundeep Naran (58)
BSc (Mathematics), CFA® charterholder
Independent non-executive director
Appointed to the board: February 2022
Social, Ethics and Sustainability Committee Chairperson
Audit Committee member
Nominations Committee member
Remuneration
Risk Committee member
Sundeep had a 20-year career at RMB having served in many capacities including: senior transactor in the Mergers and Acquisitions team, co-head of the Leveraged Finance team and the head of Financial Resources Management. He was a member of the RMB executive committee. Sundeep was previously employed in the actuarial environment at the Employee Benefits division of Southern Life and Momentum. He has previously served as a non-executive director and member of the social and ethics and audit and risk committees of Primedia Holdings and Afrisam Holdings.
Sundeep contributes financial, auditing, and governance skills to the Board.
Independent non-executive director
Trudi Makhaya (45)
BCom (Hons), MCom (Economics), MBA, MSc (Development Economics)
Independent non-executive director
Appointed to the board: September 2023
Risk Committee member
Chairman of the Social, Ethics and Sustainability Committee
Trudi is an acclaimed South African economist and has completed a five-year stint as the Special Economic Advisor to President Cyril Ramaphosa. She holds a portfolio of interests including being a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group, a member of the Investment Committee at the Jobs Fund, and an early-stage investor in Kasi Insight, a decision intelligence company. She was the Chief Executive Officer of Makhaya Advisory, a boutique consulting firm she founded in 2015. Her previous experience also includes serving as the Principal Economist and later acting as the Deputy Commissioner of the Competition Commission of South Africa. She has also held various management consulting and corporate positions at Deloitte South Africa, Genesis Analytics and AngloGold Ashanti. Trudi has served in non-executive director positions at the Vumelana Advisory Fund and at MTN South Africa from 2014 to 2018.
Trudi contributes business acumen, governance and ESG skills to the Board.
Independent non-executive director
Pedro da Silva (57)
BEcon, AMP (Harvard), EDP (IMD, Lausanne)
Independent non-executive director
Appointed to the board: February 2023
Audit Committee member
Business Transformation Committee member
Pedro is a Global Retail Advisor, board member at the Portuguese Diaspora Council in Lisbon and previously held various executive leadership positions in South Africa as Managing Director of Pick n Pay Retail and internationally as President of the Management Board and CEO of CEPD N.V (the retail holdings of the Pelion Group) and President of Dixy Group (the third largest Russian national food retailer). He also previously held various executive positions in the foreign listed entity, Jeronimo Martins Group, as Chief Operating Officer (COO): Country Manager for Portugal, Poland, Colombia; and previously as CEO of its Polish subsidiaries, Biedronka Discount Stores, Jeronimo Martins Dystrybucja for 10 years.
Pedro contributes business acumen, financial, sustainable dynamic growth strategies, retail and international retails skills to the Board.
Executive director
Megan Pydigadu (51)
BCom, CA(SA)
Group CFO
Joined the Group in November 2023
Appointed to the board: November 2023
Appointed as Group COO: 1 November 2023
Appointed as Group CFO: 1 March 2026
Business Transformation Committee member
Megan joined SPAR as Group COO on 1 November 2023. She started her career at Deloitte South Africa, serving her articles, and thereafter becoming an audit manager. In January 2002, she joined De Beers as a Senior Divisional Financial Manager and in September 2005 became the Group Financial Controller for Bateman Engineering. She joined MiX Telematics as Chief Finance Officer (CFO) in August 2010. In February 2017, she became the CFO of Eazi Access Rental before joining EOH Limited as the Group Finance Director and Executive Director in January 2019.
Megan contributes business acumen, financial, auditing, legal, governance, HR and IT skills to the Board.