RICHARD FIRTH
Hard work puts you where luck can find you.
See Credentials
MEET THE TEAM |
LET'S PUT A FACE TO A NAME
RAEESA MAYET
Sales go up and down, service stays forever.
Raeesa, is a highly motivated chartered accountant with excellent analytical, management and team building skills. Raeesa has engaged with various stakeholders in the finance and audit industry, and her strong audit background adds value to a very technical team on the MIP Board. Raeesa is a shareholder and also represents one of the majority private equity shareholders.
TYRONE GOWER
Executive Head of MIP Lending
With a BCom Hons in Strategic, Operational, Systems and Project Management from Unisa and a MIndAdmin certification in Systemic Thinking from UCT, Tyrone has performed in a number of key roles at MIP, including Business Systems Analysis, Developer Management, and Project Management since 2005. He was the Executive Head of MIP’s Funds, Benefits and Annuities team from 2012. He also helped develop and support the Nedbank Commercial and Industrial Integrated Lending Solution (ILS), focusing on MIP’s acquisition of the ILS. Tyrone led the evolution of MIP’s Lending team from start-up to a fully-fledged division, and has built the Lending business into one of the best performers in the company.
SUZANNE GREYLING
Executive Head of MIP Lending
Having joined MIP in 2005 Suzanne is an experienced Business Architect and
Product Owner with a demonstrated history of working in the financial
services industry. Her time with MIP has enabled her to become skilled in
Requirements Analysis, Sales, Enterprise Architecture, Databases, and
Account Management. Suzanne is the Executive Head of MIP's Lending team.
JACQUES COULSEN
Executive Head of MIP Group Life & Risk
Jacques has a Diploma in Business Analysis and 18 years’ experience in the Group Life and Risk Insurance industry. Jacques is the Executive Head of MIP’s Group Life & Risk team, and for the past 12 years he has been an integral part of the team that built and continues to enhance MIP’s Group Life & Risk Solution.
LYDIA BUDREE
Chase the vision not the money, the money will follow.
Lydia is an experienced Senior Business Analyst and Client Services Lead with over 15 years’ experience in evaluating and improving business systems for well-known organisations. Lydia joined MIP in 2013 as a dedicated team leader with the ability to effectively manage and achieve project goals, leveraging a complex understanding of system engineering concepts.
Her proven track record of effectively researching and analysing business processes and procedures while designing and implementing business solutions was one of the reasons Lydia was appointed an executive director on the MIP board. She represents the MIP Staff Incentive Trust, an MIP appointment to maintain and regulate transparency between the Board and the MIP team members or employees.
ZUKO KUBUKELI
Risk and success go hand in hand.
With a number of achievements under his belt, Zuko was a welcome addition to MIP’s team as a member of the Board and a major shareholder. Zuko has a number of qualifications, including a BSc in Biochemistry and Micro, a BSc Honours in Medicine (Exerc Sci), and a PhD in Physiology from UCT, and is the founder and Managing Partner of the private equity business, PAPE funds.
Zuko started his career as a professional squash player while completing his studies. He began formal work in 1999 as a property manager for the listed Atlas Properties Limited, which was later bought by Acucap Limited. In 2002, Zuko joined the private equity and fund management business at Brait and in 2006 joined Pan African Capital Holdings (PACH) as a director and principal responsible for strategy and investments, growing the business to a NAV in excess of ZAR520m.
Zuko went on to co-establish Evolution One Fund (Renewable Energy) with Guy Baxter in 2006. In addition to PACH and Evolution, he has also successfully raised capital and invested in three other private equity funds which in total have deployed capital into 14 portfolio companies. Zuko serves as a board member on a number of the portfolio company boards and chairs a number of these investee company boards. Over the past 10 years he has served on four JSE-listed companies: Siyathenga Properties Limited, Platfield Limited, Poynting Antennas Limited and Hospitality Property Fund Limited.
NALEDI MADIBA
Same old thinking gives the same old results.
Naledi’s varied roles in a colourful career led to a wealth of experience that benefits MIP in her position as Chief Financial Officer. Having obtained a BCom in Accounting from the University of Johannesburg, she joined BDO Spencer Steward Incorporated as a Trainee Accountant where she was exposed to different industries and the finance roles in those industries. Naledi has audited companies in the mining sector, IT, manufacturing and advertising.
She spent 18 months in the UK working in the Transport Department of the Panasonic Distribution Centre, where she learnt the importance of following procedures in the logistics setup from beginning to end. Naledi then moved to a construction company as an accountant. In addition to her finance duties, she played a part in tracking and resolving a large fraud that had occurred for several years.
After joining MIP, Naledi quickly worked her way through the finance department. Originally employed as a bookkeeper, her hard work and dedication led to her taking the reins of the finance department. Naledi is both a member of the Board and a Shareholder.
Quote: MIP taught me the importance of hard work and that everyone gets their hands dirty for the sake of the company due to the demand of always wanting to be at the forefront of innovation. No one is stuck behind a job title; the goal is success, and everyone is dedicated to remaining successful.
PARESH DAYAL
Executive Head of MIP Managed Healthcare
Paresh is an experienced and hard-working executive in the managed healthcare environment. He found his passion for software engineering in 1986 in retail, warehousing and logistics mainframe systems. He moved into the managed healthcare industry in 1997 (at a time when managed healthcare was in its infancy in South Africa).
Paresh has a proven track record delivering systems that allow medical schemes to control their cost of medical care on behalf of the scheme’s members in terms of efficient, appropriate, and cost-effective treatment. In his current role as Executive Head of Managed Care at MIP, he leads a team of skilled professionals that constantly enhance the MIP Managed Care software to support current legislation and conform to modern system architectures.
NOREEN KOSTER
Executive Head of MIP Continuous Improvement
Noreen joined MIP in 2008, using her experience in customer services and project management, as well as her certification as a Process Professional Master, to help MIP improve delivery to clients. In 2014, she started the Continuous Improvement team and was appointed as the Executive Head in 2016.
Her team consists of industrial engineers, software engineers, UX- and graphical designers. They are passionate about digital transformation, using MIP's Digital Stack as their preferred implementation tool. This involves re-engineering business processes to include customers in a digital relationship MIP refers to as Business Process Socialisation. They use tools like case management, workflow, mobile apps and conversational AI to achieve a transparent, enhanced client journey.
CHRIS KOSTER
Executive Head of MIP Research & Innovation
Chris’ passion for computers led to the first step in his technology career - computerising the cash-up procedures at Baby and Company where he was working in 1994. Following his interest in technology, Chris moved to Execusys where he joined the computer operations team. He quickly taught himself how to code and was appointed as a software engineer.
Chris joined MIP in 1999, working on all of MIP’s systems, developing and architecting along the way. After obtaining a diploma in IT from the University of Johannesburg, as well as a BSc degree in Computer Science (computational intelligence) from Unisa, Chris was appointed the Executive Head of “research and Innovation” at MIP, where he has a team of almost 50 engineers reporting to him.
Chris is responsible for the creation of MIP’s Digital Stack and the centralisation of all new research and engineering used as services across MIP’s different verticals. This product has become so successful that MIP has partners or customers that use the MIP Digital Stack to purely modernise and digitise their businesses.
AHMED SEEDAT
Executive Head of MIP Tech Ops
A stalwart of the TechOps industry, Ahmed is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable in this space. Starting in IT in 1984 as Computer Operator on Mainframe Machines, Ahmed’s skills have evolved alongside the industry. From a position as a shift supervisor managing technology for six sugar mills, to working as a technical architect managing the IBM VM/SP HPO on the mainframes and the disk architecture, Ahmed has grown his knowledge and expertise in every role he has held.
In 1994, Ahmed moved to Johannesburg to join SPL in their Walker application as a database administrator for Adabas Natural on mainframes. Two years later, he joined Automate, a division of Dimension Data. He designed and implemented their outsourcing operations for the motor industry. This ran 5000 users across the country and proved to be the precursor to cloud hosting for the motor dealer industry.
Ahmed joined MIP in 2001 as Executive Head of the TechOps team. Today, Ahmed monitors and manages over 300 servers with a team of Linux experts and DBAs for all of MIP’s clients across the country. He also manages the data centre and cloud hosting functions across MIP and its partners.
JF HANSEN
Executive Head of MIP Funds, Benefits & Annuities
JF is an experienced Executive and Programme manager who has been with MIP for the past 17 Years. JF was instrumental in leading various large teams in high profile financial software implementations and migrations for MIP, some of which were the largest migrations done in South Africa.
JF is technical at heart. He started his career as a software engineer and architect and progressed into software engineering management. One of his passions is for creating self-sustaining teams who understand the vision and results needed to ensure successful execution of software development and implementation projects. JF is the Executive Head of MIP’s Funds, Benefits and Annuities team.
NALEDI MADIBA
Chief Financial Officer of MIP
Naledi’s varied roles in a colourful career led to a wealth of experience that benefits MIP in her position as Chief Financial Officer. Having obtained a BCom in Accounting from the University of Johannesburg, she joined BDO Spencer Steward Incorporated as a Trainee Accountant where she was exposed to different industries and the finance roles in those industries. Naledi has audited companies in the mining sector, IT, manufacturing and advertising.
She spent 18 months in the UK working in the Transport Department of the Panasonic Distribution Centre, where she learnt the importance of following procedures in the logistics setup from beginning to end. Naledi then moved to a construction company as an accountant. In addition to her finance duties, she played a part in tracking and resolving a large fraud that had occurred for several years.
After joining MIP, Naledi quickly worked her way through the finance department. Originally employed as a bookkeeper, her hard work and dedication led to her taking the reins of the finance department. Naledi is both a member of the Board and a Shareholder.
Quote: MIP taught me the importance of hard work and that everyone gets their hands dirty for the sake of the company due to the demand of always wanting to be at the forefront of innovation. No one is stuck behind a job title; the goal is success, and everyone is dedicated to remaining successful.
JACO PURCHASE
Executive Head of MIP International & Outsource Development
Jaco is a qualified Industrial Engineer with a post-graduate MBA degree. After more than 15 years in management consulting across different industries, he joined MIP in 2019 as Programme Manager for some of MIP’s large life insurance system’s implementations. Jaco’s competence and professionalism led to him being appointed as the Executive Head of MIP’s International and Outsourcing team. This team focuses on taking MIP’s technical capability (built around MIP’s Digital Stack and Framework) and Progress development capability to help modernise and digitise customers in the local and international business community.
NAAS JORDAAN
Be productive instead of busy.
After obtaining an Industrial Engineering Degree (Cum Laude) at the University of Pretoria, Naas joined Fischer Consulting, a firm specialising in implementing large-scale bespoke systems. He was responsible for the systems implementation and operation of the first census, which covered the entire South African population.
Naas joined MIP in 2006 as Executive Head of the Life Insurance Division, and was appointed Managing Director in 2012. He has had a substantial impact on the growth of the company, from a relatively small local operation to one that has employs more than 500 people. Naas chairs MIP’s EXCO, and has a passion for implementing process and procedure aimed at ensuring stable systems, and for building and maintaining excellent customer relationships. Naas has a substantial shareholding in MIP.
Quote: “Strive to beat your previous best”
MIKE STOLK
Executive Head of MIP Healthcare, Risk & Funding
Mike started his technology career in 1995, first as an implementation specialist and then as Manager at a hospital software company. He was personally involved in the implementation of over fifty large hospitals in South Africa and Africa.
Mike joined MIP in 2002, initially as a project manager for the Health, Risk and Funding team. In 2006, Mike was appointed Executive Head of the team, making him responsible for the overall performance of the team as well as the management of the staff and direction of the MIP Healthcare software.
PATRICK O'REILLY
Chief Technology Officer of MIP
Patrick’s technology career began as a “programmer” with UNIDATA, working on large logistics software solutions such as stock management, warehousing, sales and distribution for diverse customers, including Metro warehouse, Pioneer Concrete, and NSB Tongaat Food Distributors. Patrick was later employed by IHD as head of software development for its distribution systems. These included pharmaceutical distribution with batch tracing, expiring products, refrigerated goods, automated warehousing systems, and fine distribution management with delivery planning and routing. His capability and expertise led to him being appointed as IT Manager.
Since joining MIP in 2000, Patrick has been the head of Web development as well as head of Core Technologies (Research and Innovation), and was appointed as CTO in 2010. Among these roles, beside software development, he has had the opportunity to become familiar with Unix, BSD, Linux, networking, security, hardware and the implementation of ecosystems requiring all these disciplines. Patrick is a member of the Board and a substantial shareholder.
Quote: “There’s always room for improvement!”
RICHARD FIRTH
Chairman & CEO of MIP
Richard is a stalwart of the South African technology industry, with a successful career spanning the financial services and retail industries in a number of roles. Starting off as a junior software engineer, he quickly moved on to designing and managing enterprise software projects. Richard has held numerous board positions, provided mentorship for technology start-ups and acted as an advisor to a NASDAQ-listed multinational software and database company with customers around the globe, including 1,700 independent software vendors, 100,000 enterprise customers and two million developers that use the platform. Richard is a major shareholder and is currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MIP Holdings. He is devoted to his family and enjoys spending time giving back to the community at large.
GRANVILLE DUNBAR
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
Granville spent the early years of his career as a software engineer, systems analyst and business analyst. His final employer was KCMS, which was a bureau running property administration and medical aid administration systems.
After starting MIP in 1990, he was approached by KCMS to take over the computer systems as Investec was acquiring KCMS and the property portfolio, and their strategy did not include the computer systems. MIP inherited the medical aid administration system and this has subsequently evolved massively with the industry. This system planted the seed that evolved MIP’s strategy to provide systems for the “collection of contributions and the payment of claims”.
Granville was initially involved in software development and was later responsible for developing and evolving the relational database models for FBA, ILR & GLR. In the last few years, he moved out of development into an administrative role. Granville holds the role of Chief Operating Officer on the Board and is a major shareholder.
BRIGID FIRTH
Executive Head of MIP Human Resources
Having studied languages and psychology at the University of Witwatersrand, Brigid started her career in education. She moved into technology in the HR space, providing Performance Management Systems to customers for SPL, the largest software supplier in its day. In 2014, Brigid joined MIP as the Executive Head of Human Resources, and is responsible for recruitment and selection, among other functions. She gains fulfilment in finding talent for MIP’s Internship and offering fantastic opportunities to South Africa’s youth in Software Engineering.
DEMETRIUS GANESH
Executive Head of MIP BIG Data
With 23 years’ software engineering experience, two decades of which have been at MIP across various business units, Demetrius was appointed Executive Head of MIP’s Big Data division in 2019. He very quickly superseded all expectations when he and his team delivered technology that could take data from production systems in near real-time and deliver this data into a repository or data lake to provide business with real-time insights into their data, providing the ultimate platform for any business’s Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning strategy. Today, Demetrius’ division is one of the cornerstones of MIP’s offering.
NAAS JORDAAN
Managing Director of MIP
After obtaining an Industrial Engineering Degree (Cum Laude) at the University of Pretoria, Naas joined Fischer Consulting, a firm specialising in implementing large-scale bespoke systems. He was responsible for the systems implementation and operation of the first census, which covered the entire South African population.
Naas joined MIP in 2006 as Executive Head of the Life Insurance Division, and was appointed Managing Director in 2012. He has had a substantial impact on the growth of the company, from a relatively small local operation to one that has employs 470 people. Naas chairs MIP’s EXCO, and has a passion for implementing process and procedure aimed at ensuring stable systems, and for building and maintaining excellent customer relationships. Naas has a substantial shareholding in MIP.
Quote: “Strive to beat your previous best”
MARY BREED
Executive Head of MIP Individual Life & Risk
Mary is the dynamic and customer-focused Executive Head of MIP’s Individual Life and Risk team. Mary has her roots firmly embedded in the software engineering industry, but stopped coding in 2015 to focus on her management strength. Mary has been at MIP for 14 years, focused on the Life Insurance industry. She is passionate about delivering robust systems that offer full end-to-end digital solutions to MIP’s customers or partners. Mary loves working with her partners to understand their needs and to create dynamic solutions for their businesses that can help them grow and reach their goals.
RICHARD FIRTH
Hard work puts you where luck can find you.
Richard is a stalwart of the South African technology industry, with a successful career that has spanned the financial services and retail industries in a number of roles. Starting off as a junior software engineer, Richard quickly moved on to designing and managing enterprise software projects. He has held numerous board positions, provided mentorship for technology start-ups and acted as an advisor to a NASDAQ-listed multinational software and database company with customers around the globe, including 1,700 independent software vendors, 100,000 enterprise customers and two million developers that used the platform. Richard is a major shareholder and is currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MIP Holdings. He is devoted to his family and enjoys spending time giving back to the community at large.
PATRICK O'REILLY
You either step forward into growth, or step back into safety.
Patrick’s technology career began as a “programmer” with UNIDATA, working on large logistics software solutions such as stock management, warehousing, sales and distribution for diverse customers, including Metro warehouse, Pioneer Concrete, and NSB Tongaat Food Distributors. Patrick was later employed by IHD as head of software development for its distribution systems. These included pharmaceutical distribution with batch tracing, expiring products, refrigerated goods, automated warehousing systems, and fine distribution management with delivery planning and routing. His capability and expertise led to him being appointed as IT Manager.
Since joining MIP in 2000, Patrick has been the head of Web development as well as head of Core Technologies (Research and Innovation), and was appointed as CTO in 2010. Among these roles, beside software development, he has had the opportunity to become familiar with Unix, BSD, Linux, networking, security, hardware and the implementation of ecosystems requiring all these disciplines. Patrick is a member of the Board and a substantial shareholder.
Quote: “There’s always room for improvement!”
FERGUS MCLOSKEY
Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do
Fergus has gained many years of experience working in the roles of software engineer, head of software development and CIO in some of the leading listed insurers in the South African Financial services Industry.
He has been a partner in a Interim CIO Consulting business, guiding and advising large South African manufacturing, banking, financial services and healthcare corporates in technology strategy formulation and execution.
His more recent role has been that of CTO for one of our continent’s largest technology companies. The key to Fergus’s impressive CV, is that he has worked for software companies in South Africa that have built and distributed their own software solutions for use across Africa and the Middle East.
MEET THE TEAM
LET'S PUT A FACE TO A NAME
THE MIP BOARD OF DIRECTORS
NAAS JORDAAN
Be productive instead of busy.
See Credentials
NALEDI MADIBA
Same old thinking gives the same old results.
See Credentials
LYDIA BUDREE
Chase the vision not the money, the money will follow.
See Credentials
GRANVILLE DUNBAR
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
See Credentials
RAEESA MAYET
Sales go up and down, service stays forever.
See Credentials
ZUKO KUBUKELI
Risk and success go hand in hand.
See Credentials
FERGUS MCLOSKEY
Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do
See Credentials
FERGUS MCLOSKEY
Chief Technology Officer of MIP
Fergus has gained many years of experience working in the roles of software engineer, head of software development and CIO in some of the leading listed insurers in the South African Financial services Industry.
He has been a partner in a Interim CIO Consulting business, guiding and advising large South African manufacturing, banking, financial services and healthcare corporates in technology strategy formulation and execution.
His more recent role has been that of CTO for one of our continent’s largest technology companies. The key to Fergus’s impressive CV, is that he has worked for software companies in South Africa that have built and distributed their own software solutions for use across Africa and the Middle East.
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