CiTi appoints former head of management consulting at KPMG

The Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) has extended its expansion efforts with the appointment of three new directors to its board, one of whom is Tamara Esau, the former Partner and Director at global professional services firms KPMG and PwC in Cape Town.

CiTi is designed around the objective of ensuring that businesses from Africa contribute to and capitalise on the global digital economy, which is estimated to reach a value of $100 trillion by as early as 2025. To this end, the entity looks to foster collaboration and invest in skill development in the digital sphere.

One item currently at the top of the firm’s agenda is tackling the growing menace of youth unemployment across South Africa, which is under threat of being accentuated by a rapid wave of automation that will displace a number of those who do have jobs. Around 5.7 million jobs in South Africa are reportedly under threat from automation.

To support this initiative, the incubator firm has made three new appointments to its board, taking its size from 7 to 10 executives. The three new additions hail from a variety of backgrounds, including the online services domain, the digital consultancy sphere, and the management consulting domain.

From the online services domain, the new board member is Aisha Pandor, co-founder of the online home cleaning services firm SweepSouth – a platform for individuals to book, pay for and manage home cleaning services. The second appointment is that of former CEO at digital services firm BCX, Ian Russel.

From the management consultancy domain, the firm has appointed Tamara Esau, who has worked for both Big Four accounting and advisory firms PwC and KPMG. She began her professional career at PwC, where she spent over a decade and eventually ascended to the position of Partner and Director at the firm’s Cape Town office.

Following a brief spell at the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Esau then joined KPMG as a Partner. Over the course of her seven-year spell at KPMG, Esau rose to the positionof Head of the Management Consulting division at KPMG’s Cape Town office, following which she left the firm to pursue a career in independent consulting.

Commenting on the new appointments, Chairman of CiTi Joshin Raghubar said, “The new board members will bring specific domain expertise in the area of technology, technology clusters, impact skills development and entrepreneurial development, digital transformation and a strong understanding of the youth unemployment challenges faced by SA.”