Jay Naidoo

Jay Naidoo is the co-founder of the J&J Group and Chairman of the J&J Group Development Trust.
He is also the non-executive chairman of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Global Alliance to Improved Nutrition (“GAIN”), an organisation, focusing on fortification of basic foods across the developing world.

He has served  as a member of the Advisory Committee on ICT set up by UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and is currently a member of the ITU Advisory Committee. He is also on the board of the Clinton Global Alliance and the board of Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (South Africa) Limited (“OMLACSA”).

Jayendra Naidoo is the co-founder of the J&J Group and Executive Chairman.

Between 1981 and 1994 Jayendra was a Trade Union leader, serving as the national Negotiations Co-ordinator for the Congress of SA Trade Unions (“COSATU”) between 1992 and 1994.  He led the ANC Alliance team in 1991 in negotiating the National Peace Accord the forerunner of the country’s constitutional negotiating process.

He was a leading member of the various multi-party peace initiatives that COSATU was involved in, such as the Natal Joint Working Committee in 1985, the National Peace Committee in 1991 and the National Peace Secretariat in 1992. As COSATU Negotiations Co-ordinator he was responsible for the establishment of the National Economic Forum (“NEF”) in 1992, the country’s first-ever tripartite forum for socio economic matters.

Between 1995 and 1998 Jayendra became the first Executive Director of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC). He participated in several governments’ related initiatives, including the selection panel appointed by President Mandela to shortlist members to serve on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Since 2000, he has been the CEO of the J&J Group.

Dr. Chris Jardine is the Chief Executive Officer of the J&J and joined the Group in 2002 as Chief Operating Officer. Chris holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology and BS and MS degrees in Computer Science, all from George Mason University in Virginia, USA.

Paul holds a B.Comm, B.Sc (Hons), CA (SA), ACMA and MBA degrees. He joined Old Mutual’s investment team in 1995, having previously worked as an Investment Banker at Investec in Johannesburg for seven years.  Before that he was with Deloittes for three years.

He was responsible for the investments of the main life funds of Old Mutual from 1997 to 2001, during which time the discretionary balanced life funds enjoyed top quartile performance. From 2002 to April 2004, Paul was responsible for the formulation of OMAM Houseviews and model portfolios that form the platform for all portfolio management activities, during which time the OMAM discretionary portfolios ranked 2nd or 3rd position annually in the Large Manager Watch tables.

Peter Levett qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1992 and completed his MBA in 1997 at the University of Cape Town. He is the General Manager of Corporate Finance for Old Mutual South African businesses.  Before Old Mutual, Peter was as an associate in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs International in London, where he focused on providing investment banking services to major UK and South African clients.

Nick Hudson, a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries (Edinburgh), is currently employed at Rand Merchant Bank.

He has participated in private equity transactions in technical fabrics, industrial gases and timber, and in RMB's commitments to Asian private equity funds. Before that he led the corporate finance advisory team of Stern Stewart & Co. in New York, where he was based for four years. Before that he worked for six years for the Swiss Re group, where he led capital management transactions for life insurance companies.