Introducing our new Chief Financial Officer:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Kamlesh Riga to the positon of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Rhodes University with effect from 01 January 2020.

With the retirement of the Executive Director: Infrastructure, Operations and Finance, Dr L‘Ange the executive management structure was reviewed and a decision was made to reinstate the Registrar: Finance and Operations post and rename it Chief Financial Officer.

Mr Riga is a qualified Chartered Accountant and also holds a Masters’ Degree in Domestic and International Tax. He has held various senior management and executive roles in both the Public and Private Sectors and has served on the Executive Council, the Council and the Audit and Risk Committee for 10 years at the Nelson Mandela University.

Mr. Riga has worked at a strategic financial management level at the Office of the Auditor-General, SARS and the BKB group where he worked for over 10 years. The BKB group includes several subsidiary companies in the agriculture and agro-processing sectors. He was responsible for advising the Managing Director and Board on financial and ICT matters as well as investments, mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Riga successfully managed a diverse team at BKB and was integrally involved in the diversification and transformation strategies at BKB. In addition, Mr Riga is very conversant in both the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and Companies Act, Procurement, Higher Education Governance, Audit and Risk management, Treasury Management, as well as business related to lending activities, for instance Compliance, Credit, Credit Risk, and Business Development and Support.

We are delighted that our University has been able to attract a person of Mr. Riga’s ability and wealth of experience. He will add value to Rhodes University and we look forward to his contribution. We welcome him to the Rhodes University community and wish him well in his time with us.

Issued by Dr. Mabizela and the Human Resources Division