Keynote Speakers

Dr Sizwe Errol Nxasana is a renowned South African business leader and social entrepreneur with a distinguished career spanning corporate leadership, education innovation and social impact. He began his professional journey at Unilever, before founding Sizwe & Co in 1989 – the first black-owned audit practice in KwaZulu-Natal. In 1996, he became the founding partner of Nkonki Sizwe Ntsaluba, now SizweNtsalubaGobodo (SNG Grant Thornton), which has grown to become the fifth-largest audit firm in South Africa. In 1998, he was appointed CEO of Telkom SA and led the company’s dual listing on the Johannesburg and New York Stock Exchanges. He later served as CEO of the FirstRand Banking Group from 2005 until his retirement from corporate life in September 2015.

Following his executive career, Dr Nxasana channelled his focus into transforming education in South Africa. He is the founder of Sifiso Learning Group – a holistic education ecosystem that includes Future Nation Schools, Nation NXT College (the Group’s teacher training unit, formerly Future Nation College), iKamva Preschool (formerly Future Nation Schools Preschool) and Sifiso EdTech. The Group also encompasses ventures in academic publishing and education-focused property development. Together, these entities are committed to reimagining African education through accessible, technology-enabled and Afrocentric learning, with project-based learning (PBL) at its core to foster critical thinking, collaboration and real-world problem-solving.

Dr Nxasana currently chairs several influential foundations and trusts. He is the Co-founder and Chairperson of the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) and the Founder and Chairperson of the Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme (ISFAP), which supports financially disadvantaged and “missing middle” students.

His contributions have been recognised with honorary doctorates from the University of Fort Hare, Durban University of Technology, the University of Johannesburg, Walter Sisulu University, and UNISA. In May 2025, he earned a PhD in Project-Based Learning from the UNESCO PBL Centre at Aalborg University in Denmark.

Prof. Wil Schilders is a Dutch applied mathematician and international leader in scientific computing, with a career spanning industry, academia and science policy. After completing his PhD at Trinity College Dublin under J.J.H. Miller in 1980, he worked for three decades at Philips and NXP Semiconductors, where he developed world-class algorithms and software for electronic design automation and device simulation. In 1999, he was appointed full professor at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), holding the chair in “Scientific Computing for Industry” within the Centre for Analysis, Scientific Computing and Applications (CASA). He retired in June 2023 and is now emeritus professor at TU/e.

His academic work bridges numerical mathematics, scientific machine learning and model order reduction, and has led to successful European research collaborations and industrial applications, notably in electronics, lighting, and drilling technologies. Prof. Schilders has authored or edited over ten books and supervised more than 25 PhD students. He is the Executive Director of Platform Wiskunde Nederland (PWN), served as President of the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry (ECMI, 2010–2011) and EU-MATHS-IN (2016–2020), and currently leads the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) as President (2023–2027). He is also a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study of the Technical University of Munich.

He is a SIAM Fellow, Honorary Member of ECMI, and Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences. His contributions to science and society have been recognized with the Stairway to Impact award from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), and the royal distinction of “Officier in de Orde van Oranje Nassau.” A passionate advocate for mathematics in innovation, Prof. Schilders continues to champion the role of mathematics in addressing industrial and societal challenges around the world.

Ms Konehali Gugushe is a Chartered Accountant (SA) with more than 20 years working experience, spanning over the financial services sector and development finance. She has worked at various banks and financial services companies, including Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank (now Standard Bank CIB), JP Morgan and Nedbank, gaining experience in credit risk management, investment analysis and private equity.  Kone moved into a development focus in her career, where she has served as the Land Bank’s CRO, and as the CEO of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund where some of her key areas of responsibility included managing multiple stakeholders across the private and public sectors. 

Kone has also completed a number of prestigious leadership programmes including the Aspen Global Leadership Initiative and GIBS Global Executive leadership development programme. 

Kone is currently the Head of Social Investing at the First Rand Group, and offers the perfect blend of business, finance and social investment skills, critical to responding to present day development challenges and to deliver and enable impact at scale. 

Prof Nicky Roberts is director of Kelello Consulting and an extraordinary Associate professor at the University of Stellenbosch. Nicky leads teams of researchers, on a range of education research assignments in education. Her education research uses mixed methods and she has extensive evaluation experience (in South Africa and internationally). Her teams bring particular expertise in mathematics, languages, technology enhanced learning and assessment. The Kelello team offers monitoring, evaluation and strategic research, frequently acting as technical assistants for large entities such as governments or corporates investing in improving education outcomes. Current research assignments include:

• Review of the maths challenge programme for secondary schools in South Africa;

• Evaluation of Siyavula backlogs programme at Grade 8,

• Training and support for Foundation Phase teachers in Sasolburg and Limpopo; and

• Monitoring and evaluation partner for the GDEs Maths and Languages Improvement Programme for Grade R in Gauteng.

Nicky is the principle investigator for the Primary Teacher Education Assessment programme, and co-investigator with Dr Kim Porteus for the Maths4Primary Teachers programme.

Nicky is widely published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and book chapters. She served on the executive of SAARMSTE (Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics and Science and Technology) and is a current trustee for the International Group of the Psychology for Mathematics Education. She has co-edited two books: The Pedagogy of Mathematics in South Africa(with Prof Paul Webb) and Mathematics in the Early Grades in South Africa, (with Prof Hamsa Venkat).

Professor Loyiso G. Nongxa retired as Ad Hominem Professor of Mathematics at the University of the Witwatersrand in December 2018, having spent 18 years at the university. From 2000 until 2013 he served on the Senior Executive Team of Wits University, from 2000 until 2002 as a DVC(Research) and from 2003 until 2013 as Vice-Chancellor and Principal. He attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship and obtained his doctorate in Mathematics in 1982. He has taught at the National University of Lesotho, the former University of Natal in Durban, the University of the Western Cape and the University of the Witwatersrand. He served as one of the two Vice-Presidents of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) from 2019 to 2022.

He was  Chairperson of the Board of the National Research Foundation from 2014 to 2018. He was appointed by the Minister of Higher Education and Training as Administrator of the University of Fort Hare for the period April 2019 to April 2020. From 2016 he has been one of the champions of a National Graduate Academy for Mathematical Sciences which focuses on the development of the next generation of mathematicians and statisticians in South Africa. He is currently Professor Emeritus for Mathematics at the University of the Witatersrand and Honorary Professor at the University of Pretoria.

Prof Ulrich Paquet is a senior staff research scientist at Google DeepMind and the executive director of the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences in South Africa. He co-directs the Deep Learning Indaba, a grassroots movement and community of dedicated peers who strive together to strengthen machine learning across Africa. He holds a PhD in machine learning from the University of Cambridge, lived life on the edge in two high tech startups, the second of which was acquired by Apple. He managed a team in Apple, and with Noam Koenigstein developed the core of the Microsoft recommender system. He was on the initial Xbox One team, and is still itching to build the next big thing.

Prof Renuka Vithal is currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning at the University of Fort Hare and Professor of Mathematics Education in the Faculty of Education. At the University of Fort Hare. Prof Vithal obtained her BA (with Distinctions in Mathematics), BAHonours; University Higher Diploma in Education (with Distinction) and BEd Honours (cum laude) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN); an MPhil in Mathematical Education from the University of Cambridge, UK; and a Doctoral Degree in Natural Sciences (dr.scient., 2000) from Aalborg University, Denmark. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in the Faculty of Engineering, Science and Medicine at Aalborg University, Denmark in 2011. Formerly a high school mathematics teacher, Prof Vithal joined the University of KwaZulu Natal as a mathematics teacher educator and as a lecturer climbed the academic ranks until she was promoted to full professor in mathematics education in the Faculty of Education, where she also served as Dean of the Faculty of Education. She was later appointed as the first Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning. She has served in higher education for over 30 years.

She has researched and published over 90 publications spanning a broad range of areas in education, including mathematics education, teacher education, educational research and higher education. She is recognised internationally as a scholar in the social, cultural and political dimensions of mathematics education. Her most recent publication is the International Commission of Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) Study 24, Mathematics Curriculum Reforms Around the World, which is an international study that she co-edited with Prof Shimuzu from Japan. Prof Vithal has served in leadership roles in mathematics education and research organisations nationally and internationally. She is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).

For detailed CV see www.renukavithal.co.za