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| Contact Info: Rhodes University Trust USA Donovan Neale-May |
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Rhodes University Trust USA Board Members
Adriane is originally from East London, South Africa. She graduated with a BA LLB from Rhodes University in 1991. After completing her articles at C&A Friedlander in Cape Town, she was in-house counsel at the Cape Town City Council during South Africa's transition to democracy. She presented a course to the City's 13,000 employees on the impact of South Africa's brand-new constitution on the daily functioning of government. She got an LL.M in constitutional law at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1998, and then moved to the United States. She practiced as a Deputy District Attorney in Colorado Springs, Colorado, before moving to Tucson, Arizona. She now has her own law firm, focusing on environmental and public-interest litigation against state and federal government. She is currently the chair of the board of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest (a non-profit law firm that brings precedent-setting lawsuits against the government), and is the immediate past chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the State Bar of Arizona. She is a member of the state bars of Arizona, Colorado, California and South Africa. She has two children, Finlay (a mathematics high school teacher) and Lucy (a student at the University of Arizona). She is married to David Tomizuka, and has a blended family of seven children. Adriane returns often to South Africa to see her family (her sister Vivienne Holmes, also a Rhodes alum, lives in Johannesburg). She remains close to her Rhodes diaspora, including Matthew Rose-Innes, Jonathan Elliot, Rolfe Casewell and Alex McGowan.
As president of health solutions, Bryony Winn is responsible for ensuring that the ~50 million consumers in Elevance Health’s family of health plans have access to high-quality, affordable, equitable care. Leading a division of 11,000 associates, she is accountable for building and managing relationships with care providers across the nation, total cost of care, clinical strategy, advanced analytics, operations excellence, and more. Previously chief strategy officer, Bryony was the architect of Elevance Health’s enterprise strategy to become a lifetime, trusted health partner to stakeholders from across the healthcare ecosystem. Before joining Elevance Health in June 2020, Winn was chief strategy and innovation officer for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. There, she defined a multi-faceted, five-year enterprise strategy; led M&A; negotiated and closed ~20 investments, including incubating two new companies; spearheaded a nation-leading value-based care strategy; and more. Prior to that, Bryony spent a decade with McKinsey & Company providing strategic and operational counsel to a wide variety of clients across Europe and Africa. She relocated to the U.S. in 2011 as a partner in McKinsey’s Chicago office where she advised numerous healthcare CEOs and state leaders seeking to improve systems of care and transform payment models. A native of Zimbabwe and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Bryony has been long active in supporting communities and helping to lead companies. She serves on the board of directors for Unified Women’s Healthcare, BioCrossroads, and Apree Health. Recent professional appointments include those with the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, the Fast Company Impact Council, and the Executive Forum of CMS’ Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network. A wife and mother to three children, Bryony resides with her family in Indianapolis. Follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Over the last 20 years, Caroline has become recognized as both a formidable business leader and prolific global film-maker and story-teller. She founded New Moon in 1996 and grew the business to become a multi-million dollar strategic and creative agency, producing over 120 award-winning promotional and documentary films over that period. Now living between California and London, Caroline is British / Swiss citizen and was educated in South Africa. She has twice been nominated as Entrepreneur of the Year in Britain, was awarded South African Woman in Business of the Year in 2013 and nominated as British South African Business Leader of the year in 2015. In 2016, Caroline was awarded the Distinguished Rhodian Award by her Alma Mater, Rhodes University. Her creative awards include an Emmy nomination for ‘FIRST: The Official Film of the London 2012 Olympic Games’ as well as the New York Festivals Grand Prix and IVCA Grand Prix for her work for London 2012. Caroline’s strategic advisory skills stem from her high level of exposure to business and government on five continents, her extensive network of global contacts in sport, education and the arts, a strong understanding of rights, digital content strategy and execution as well as audience acquisition and stakeholder engagement campaigns. Caroline is highly commercially astute, but with a strong creative insight and enviable global network. She brings a pragmatic approach to problem solving at a senior level as well as being an inspirational presenter and interviewer. A former competitive swimmer, Caroline is an enthusiastic horsewoman, golfer, private pilot and keen skier.
South African-trained Dr Clive Shiff is one of the most experienced full-time researchers and lecturers in America’s entire health sector. Dr Shiff completed an MSc in Zoology and Entomology in 1956 and a PhD in 1964 at Rhodes University. He serves as a Professor at Johns Hopkins within the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Department. The Rhodes University alumnus has been a key member of teams that have crushed the tsetse fly as a public health threat in Southern Africa which now has a data-enriched handle on the malaria and bilharzia parasites. As a young researcher and field officer, Dr Shiff helped develop several life-saving innovations, including low-cost hygienic pit latrines and simple environmental interventions for village water supplies. In his current role at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Dr Shiff has lead key research in the relationship between bilharzia (now called schistosomiasis) and bladder cancer and remains an investigator at the Malaria Institute in Macha, Zambia. This functions as a core facility for the Research community at Johns Hopkins University, with a focus on field research. He has successfully championed an environmental, Africa-specific model for the West’s response to African parasitic diseases. Dr Shiff has contributed to a number of research findings including: The Diagnosis of both African species of schistosomes by detection of specific DNA fragments from filtered urine samples; Rural health centres, communities and malaria case detection in Zambia using mobile telephones: a means to detect potential reservoirs of infection in unstable transmission conditions; Sensitivities and Specificities of Diagnostic Tests and Infection Prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium estimated from data on adults in villages north west of Accra, Ghana; PCR detection of Plasmodium falciparum in human urine and saliva samples and the Clinical Utility of squamous and transitional nuclear structure alterations induced by Schistosoma haematobium in chronical infected adults with bladder damage verified by ultrasound in Ghana. Dr Shiff is currently working with colleagues in Argentina to improve the diagnosis of Strongyloides stercoralis by detection of DNA fragments in urine. Dr Shiff initiated a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in collaboration with five of his colleagues, to support science and scientific training in Zimbabwe at the Biomedical Research and Training Organisation (BRTI). The original vision of the BRTI in 1995, was for it to become a sustainable project administered by scientists and managers working principally within Africa. Since then, the BRTI has not just survived but has grown into a vibrant and strong Zimbabwean institution that has made a significant contribution to health and development. Dr Shiff was twice President of the Rhodesia Scientific Association, a body that originated in 1896 and represented the wide range of scientists who contributed greatly to the development of local science. Due to his expertise, he holds a position within the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Integrated Vector Control, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Committee on DDT and its use against malaria. Dr Shiff is a member of the Rhodes University Trust USA Board. His selfless character and appreciation of the institution are what makes Rhodes University proud to award him the Distinguished Alumni award.
With a doctorate from Harvard University Business School, Rhodes alumnus Dr. Deborah L. Soule is an enterprise transformation specialist with 20+ years guiding technology-enabled innovation and economic growth initiatives with research-based insights. She has extensive experience spearheading high-impact research, building cross-sector partnerships, and informing programs that cultivate thriving technology and organizational solutions. Provides client-centered research, thought leadership, training, and advisory services on digital transformation, technology use, data management and effective organizational change. Growing up in South Africa, my father’s family had deep roots in Makhanda, then Grahamstown. I went to boarding school there, and then followed my sister and both parents to Rhodes University. I studied Computer Science at a time when personal computers were in their infancy and benefited from the stimulating leadership, collegiality and ingenuity present in that department; Prof Pat Terry and Prof Pete Clayton were two of my favorite and admired people, and I developed strong ties with my Honours cohort. Through Rhodes’ AIESEC (International Association of Economics and Commerce Students) club, I had the opportunity to travel overseas for a four-month business internship that turned into a wonderfully rewarding information systems role lasting multiple years in Switzerland and France. That early work experience exposed me to multi-lingual, multi-cultural settings and projects spanning disciplines and locations, which pushed me to consider what made distributed, tech-enabled collaboration effective; the theme eventually became the focus of my doctoral dissertation. These days, as I teach and research how organizations adapt to, and optimally use digital connectivity and pervasive data to benefit all stakeholders, I see close ties to the origins of Rhodes computing and its early efforts to keep South Africa connected to the wider world. It’s great to know that Rhodes is still playing a crucial role in bridging boundaries in important academic, scientific and social domains.
Desmond Low-Kum is an Operational Due Diligence (ODD) Consultant and Business Development professional in the alternatives investment industry. Previously Desmond was Director of Operational Risk Management and Compliance at Stanford Management Company (SMC), which was established to manage Stanford University's financial and investment real estate assets. Desmond was responsible for planning, managing and conducting the operational risk management/due diligence reviews for both pre investment and post (ongoing) investments. He has over 35 years of experience working in private industry, public accounting, internal auditing and operational investment management. Prior to joining SMC in December 2005, Desmond spent 16 years working at the University's Internal Audit and Institutional Compliance Department with responsibility for managing audits in a number of diverse areas such as SMC (Investment Management), DAPER (Stanford Athletics), SLAC (High Energy Physics Laboratory) and the University Controller's Office. He joined the University's Internal Audit Department in November 1989, after working in internal audit in the S&L and mortgage banking industry in San Francisco, and public accounting (KPMG in Johannesburg, South Africa). Desmond qualified as a Chartered Accountant, a Certified Investments and Derivatives Auditor, an Associate of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants, and a Certified Information Systems Auditor. Desmond has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Rhodes University, South Africa, and a Bachelor of Accounting Science (Honors) from the University of South Africa. Desmond is a past president (1998-1999) of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association. He was a member of the Stanford Federal Credit Union supervisory committee (audit committee) for many years. Desmond has been the Treasurer and a Trustee of the Rhodes University Trust (USA) since 2004.
Based in Toronto, Son Kee is a Financial Advisor with Raymond James, providing investment management and customized investment solutions for a diversified range of clients. He also works with business owners and consultants to maximize their "after-tax" returns on cash and investments. Son Kee graduated with a B.Comm from Rhodes University in 1973 and emigrated to Toronto in 1990 after holding a variety of professional accounting positions in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has been in the Financial Planning and retail brokerage industry for the past 17 years and has, since 2003 run his own independent brokerage practice in Mississauga. Gerry keeps in close touch with the SA Chinese Rhodes alumni in Toronto. Son Kee has taken the lead in organizing Rhodes alumni gatherings in Canada. Son Kee attributes much of his success as a Financial Advisor to being a "people's" person and a community man at heart. He is a past director of the Canada South Africa Chamber of Business based in Toronto, and a Charter member of the Knights of Columbus chapter at his local church. Son Kee is married to Eunice, formerly of Johannesburg and has two adult daughters, Lynn who is an Electrical Engineer and Brenda who is a budding Physiotherapist. His interests include family, golf, ballroom dancing, travel, reading, church and charity.
John was born and raised in Zimbabwe and graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Rhodes University in 1994. He is Sony Pictures Entertainment's (SPE) EVP of Distribution, Networks, and Production for Latin America. He assumed this role in January 2021 and oversees all lines of business for TV distribution, production, media networks, and home entertainment for SPE across Latin America. He is currently based in Miami. From 2018 to 2021, John served as EVP, Distribution, and Networks for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East & Africa for Sony Pictures Television (SPT). In this role, which was based in London, he was responsible for television and home entertainment businesses and managing SPT-owned networks in the region. Before this, John was based in Budapest for seven years as SVP and Managing Director of Networks, overseeing six brands with 26 distinct channel feeds across 13 Central European countries. In this capacity, he launched the dedicated SVOD service AXN Now as well as AXN Spin; led the acquisition of Viasat channels, which significantly grew Sony Pictures’ portfolio in Hungary; established in-house distribution sales and marketing in four countries; and built a stand-alone ad sales team. During his tenure at HBO from 2004 to 2011, John made significant contributions as the SVP of Sales, Operations and Business Development. He was responsible for expanding HBO into five additional countries and launching the Cinemax and HBO Go business lines, which led to remarkable double-digit revenue growth. John first joined Sony Pictures in 2000 as a director of business development and finance. He began his broadcast career as a senior financial analyst at Walt Disney Television International.
Justine is a Managing Director in TD Cowen, a division of TD Securities', Consumer & Retail Investment Banking Group responsible for coverage of the apparel, accessories & luxury sector. Justine has transaction experience across numerous consumer industry segments including juvenile products, beauty & personal care products, leisure, food, agriculture, and home products having worked in the US, UK and across Asia. Justine joined TD Cowen from Stifel where she was a Managing Director in New York responsible for coverage of the apparel, accessories & luxury sector. Prior to Stifel, Justine was Co-Head of Personal Care globally and US Managing Director covering Consumer at Alantra Partners, Global Head of Consumer & Luxury at BDA Partners, a global boutique focused on cross-border deals with offices across Asia, US and Europe, and a director at DC Advisory Group (previously Close Brothers Corporate Finance) in London. Justine has won a number of industry accolades including being named one of M&A Adviser “40 under 40” in 2013, Women of Influence in the Middle Market” by Mergers & Acquisitions magazine in 2018 and 2022 and she also received a “Top USA Women Dealmakers” award from Global M&A Network in. 2023 She is a founding Board Member & Investor in Exponent LLC, a New York-based networking organization established in 2017 focused on promoting women in finance in the middle market. Justine is also a board member of the US Trust of Starfish Greathearts Foundation, a South African based non-profit which focuses on supporting orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa by working in partnership with community-based organizations. Justine went to Victoria Girls' High School in Grahamstown before completing a BCom and Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting at Rhodes University. She started her career in public accounting at KPMG in Cape Town and London. She also completed the program to qualify as a CFA Charterholder and qualified as a Chartered Accountant (South Africa) Justine currently lives in Scarsdale, NY, with her husband, Jason, who she met at Rhodes University, and their two teenage boys.
Sherwin Bryce-Pease, 33, is a graduate of Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies. He began his working career in marketing, as Rhodes University’s International Communications Liaison based in the United States. While there, he completed a comprehensive internship with GlobalFluency/Neale-May & Partners working in the global marketing and strategic communications agency’s New York and Palo Alto offices. After his return to South Africa in 2002, he took up a position in News with the SABC. He has been with the organization ever since – starting with Newsbreak in the Special News Services Division followed by a stint as Bulletin Writer and News Presenter on SAFM, the national English radio broadcaster. In 2005, Sherwin was appointed Insert Producer and Co-Anchor of SABC News’ Weekend Breakfast Show – Weekend Live. During the same period he was also the stand-in presenter on SABC 2’s Morning Live – the largest breakfast television show in South Africa. In March, 2008 Sherwin was appointed SABC U.S. Correspondent, based at the United Nations in New York. He covers the North American region for the broadcasting company. His interests include the arts, current affairs, reading and a variety of sports that include rugby (Blue Bulls fan), cricket, F1 auto racing, tennis and golf. He is an eloquent and entertaining public speaker. Highlights during his career include interviewing U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, South African Presidents Jacob Zuma, Kgalema Motlanthe and Thabo Mbeki, Chile's former President Michelle Bachelete, actor Morgan Freeman and Nobel laureates Nadine Gordimer and Shirin Ebadi among others.
St. Claire Adriaan is the Principal of Encore High School for the Visual and Performing Arts in Hesperia, California. He is also a co-founder of the Success Preparatory Academy charter school in New Orleans, Louisiana. Prior to co-founding Success Preparatory Academy, St. Claire Adriaan had a 17-year career in education. Growing up under the apartheid regime in South Africa, St. Claire attended the Dower College of Education where he received his diploma in elementary education. He then enrolled at The University of Port Elizabeth (now Nelson Mandela University) where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education. He also holds two post-graduate degrees from the University of Port Elizabeth (NMU), a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Biblical and Religious Studies and Bachelor of Education. He also holds a Post Graduate Diploma from Rhodes University in Educational Leadership and Management. In 2020, St. Claire received a Master of Science Degree from The International Institute or Restorative Practices Graduate School in Restorative Practices. He is currently a candidate for the Education Leadership Masters Degree at Harvard University. St. Claire trained teachers at Kagisanong College of Education in South Africa before coming to the United States in 1999. He was also Adjunct Professor in the School of Education at Dominican University, River Forest. St. Claire came to the United States in 1999 through the Visiting International Faculty and began teaching in North Carolina. Then he moved to Chicago to teach at Noble Street Charter School, one of the nation's highest performing high schools. He then moved to San Diego to teach at Kipp Adelante, where for two consecutive years (2005-06, 2006-07) his English Language Learner students were the highest scoring in math the entire San Diego County and in 2007 they were the highest scoring in the State of California. St. Claire also presents workshops for math teachers throughout the country. After his work at KIPP, he moved to Cleveland to become the founding principal of Villaview Lighthouse Community School, where after just five months the school had the highest gains in math and second highest in reading on the Northwestern Evaluation Association (NWEA). During his teaching career in the United States he has been recognized for his many achievements: Disney Teacher Award Honoree — 2006, San Diego CW5 Dream Classroom winner- 2006, University of Kentucky, Teacher who made a difference — 2006 and 2007, North Carolina Wal-Mart teacher of the year (Fayetteville)-2002, VIF Cultural Educator of the year -2002. St. Claire's biography has also been included in Marquis Who's Who In America for 2 years in a row. He has commendations for exemplary teaching from the Mayor of San Diego, United States Congress, and the United States Senate./p>
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Donovan Neale-May
Adriane Hofmeyr 
Bryony Winn,
Caroline Rowland
Clive J. Shiff, PhD
Dr. Deborah L. Soule
Desmond Low-Kum
Gerry Son Kee 
John Rossiter
Justine Mannering
Mark Simoncelli
Sherwin Bryce-Pease
St. Claire Adriaan
Tanya Accone
Trevor Hastie
