Coenraad Petrus Bester
Coen initially lectured in the faculty of Electronic Engineering at Potchefstroom University. From there he went on to become the founder and CEO of two companies. Following the sale of the second company to a listed entity, he founded BrainWorks Management in 1999. Amongst his responsibilities, he acts as mentor to a number of high-technology companies in the information, communications and electronics markets and serves on the boards of a number of such companies. Coen earned an Electronic Engineering Degree from the University of Pretoria and an Honours Degree in Electronic Engineering at the University of Potchefstroom. He completed an MBA at Pretoria University and an OPM course at Harvard Business School. He recently completed a postgraduate diploma in Future Studies at the University of Stellenbosch.
Juergen Dresel
Juergen completed his IT and Telecommunication studies with a Dipl. Ing degree at the Technical University of Munich, Germany in 1993. In 2000, he completed an MSc in electrical engineering at Wits University. Juergen started his engineering career with work that comprised antenna design and development in the frequency range from 10 kHz up to 6 GHz, antenna placement simulations, and project management. In 2005, Juergen took over the management of the defence section of Poynting Antennas where he concentrated his efforts on management and sales of large Defence-related projects. In 2000 Juergen was appointed to the Poynting board of directors. He was part of taking the company public in 2008 and became group CEO of Alaris Holdings in 2015.
Gisela Therese Heyman
Gisela studied at the University of Pretoria and obtained her Honours Degree in BCom (Acc) in 2001. She completed her articles with Deloitte and qualified as a chartered accountant in 2005. She started her corporate career as group accountant with Datacentrix, a complete ICT systems integrator, listed on the JSE. She spend the last three of the seven years with Datacentrix as the Group Financial Manager in charge of the full financial function. Subsequently she was appointed as Financial Director of G4S Secure Solutions, a multinational UK listed organisation in the security industry. Her responsibility spanned from finance with strict working capital management to IT – and ERP systems, legal, company secretarial, procurement and logistics. She has been involved in foreign and local acquisitions including valuations, contract negotiations and post-acquisition implementation processes. Gisela has been appointed as Managing Director of Alaris Antennas, with effective date 1 April 2019.
Richard Charles Willis
Richard qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1994 after having completed his articles at Deloitte. Since then Richard has occupied various positions, both locally and internationally, including chief operating officer of Standard Private Bank and Melville Douglas and financial director of Virgin Money South Africa. Currently Richard is chief operating officer at Clive Douglas Investments Proprietary Limited.
Carel van der Merwe
Carel started his career as a radio frequency development engineer and gained his first international experience by working in Germany from 1984 to 1986.
In 1996 he was appointed as Managing Director of GEW Technologies who is active in the field of providing radio communication system solutions to international customers. He has held this position until his retirement in April 2018.
Chris Neser
Chris Neser has over 5 years’ experience in investment
advisory and strategic involvement in Operating Entities,
Asset Management and Group Restructuring. He has
been extensively involved on boards of various investment
entities with experience in hedge funds and unit trusts,
including the listing of the Pivotal Fund in 2014 and
Tadvest Limited in 2016. This includes the restructure
and enhancement of balance sheets of companies within
the Abcon Group of Companies. Chris completed his
studies in accounting at the University of Stellenbosch
in 2010 and qualified as a CA(SA) in 2013. He started
his career at Deloitte in financial institutions auditing,
completing his articles at their Cape Town office
followed by a secondment in San Francisco.
Chris Buckenham
Chris Buckenham – Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Head of HR. Chris trained and qualified as a chartered certified accountant in 1996 and registered auditor in 1998, working in a local accountancy practice where he became Partner. He specialised as a Lead Advisor with Grant Thornton’s corporate finance team in 2000, focused on SME’s and traditional industries, providing advice, working with management teams alongside financial institutions and professional advisors on a range of transactions and mandates before leaving the profession in 2005 to focus on a career in industry. Prior to joining the Alaris Group in May 2023, he held Finance Director and CFO positions in both privately owned and listed businesses operating within manufacturing/engineering and SAAS/software businesses within market sectors including decorative corrugated print and packaging/point of display; automotive design/ niche vehicle build /composite materials development; electro-mechanical engineering, and geospatial software.
Elsie Müller
Elsie studied at the University of Pretoria and obtained her Honours Degree in BCom (Acc) in 2009. She completed her articles with Grant Thornton and qualified as a chartered accountant January 2013. Elsie started her corporate career as the group financial manager of Bumbo International, a local manufacturing concern
which mainly export their products where she obtained valuable experience in the manufacturing and sales exporting environment. She joined Alaris Antennas as
Finance Manager in June 2015 and has become involved in the Alaris Holdings Group management functions from 2016. On 1 July 2019 she was appointed as the full time
Group Financial Director of the Alaris Group.
Peter Anania
Peter initially was a commercial lender before founding a Merger and Acquisition firm in 1987, which he sold in 2008. He has been and is currently the CEO/President or founder of over 20 various manufacturing companies many of which are metals manufacturing and/or microwave concerns. He currently serves on the Board of several companies, the Maine Heritage Policy Center and the US Export Council for the Northern New England district. Peter earned a BS Business Administration from the University of Maine with a double major in Marketing and Management and a minor in Finance. He completed an MBA from the University of Southern Maine and complete an intensive course through the Institute of Civic Leadership.
