Kobus van der Wath, Founder & Group Managing Director, THE BEIJING AXIS, Chief Executive, Bateman Beijing Axis, is the Founder and Group Managing Director of THE BEIJING AXIS, a cross-border business bridge to/from China in the areas of Strategy, Sourcing and Investment.

Kobus is also the Chief Executive of Bateman Beijing Axis, a JV between THE BEIJING AXIS and Bateman Engineering N.V. BBA is a China-focused global procurement house that provides high value China procurement services to international firms and global procurement solutions to Chinese enterprises. BBA also does commodity marketing, procurement and trading.

Prior to founding THE BEIJING AXIS he was Head of Investment Strategy and Global Market Research for Asia Pacific for Standard Chartered Bank and previous to that he was a Senior Strategy Consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Asia. Kobus holds an MBA from INSEAD and an MBus (IT) from Curtin University of Technology. He has been working in Asia for over 16 years and is based in Beijing. He is an accomplished author and public speaker on China and Asia.

Nitesh Dullabh joined as The Beijing Axis as a Director in February 2010 and is based in Johannesburg.
His previous experience includes: Senior Risk Consultant at Marsh Risk Consultancy; Senior Project Manager at the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (GEDA); South Africa's Trade and Investment Attaché in Beijing

Nitesh holds an MBA from Henley Management College in the UK, a BA Hons. in International Relations and a MA in International Relations from Rhodes University, and a BA in Public Management from the University of Durban-Westville.

He also recently completed an African Leadership course at Said Business School in Oxford. Nitesh is a fellow of the African Leadership Institute based in London. He is fluent in English, Afrikaans, Gujerati and speaks basic Mandarin Chinese.

Meluleki Nzimandi is a Partner in the Corporate Services department at Webber Wentzel. He is member of the Webber Wentzel International Trade Law Unit which has advised various multinational and South African companies in trade disputes in which trade remedies such as anti-dumping, safeguard and countervailing actions are invoked.

He has also done opinion work, including advising clients (foreign and domestic) the Companies Act, Customs & Excise Act, anti-corruption and gambling legislation. Meluleki also has experience in transaction work, particularly in relation to mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance and has drafted various commercial agreements.

 He is a non-resident member of the African Affairs Committee of the New York City Bar; a  Fellow of the Cyrus Vance Centre foe International Justice Initiatives and participates in International trade programmes organised by the Nelson Mandela Institute.

Matt Pieterse is a co-founder of TBA and Head of the firm's Investment and Strategy divisions. He served as a Non-Executive Director of the Company since 2003 before joining TBA as an Executive Director in 2009. Matt joined TBA from CREATE Ventures, the UK Venture Capital Fund Manager, where he was a co-founder and Investment Director since 2000.

At CREATE, Matt was a member of the Investment Committee where his responsibilities included investment origination, transaction negotiation, structuring and completion; as well as ongoing investee company portfolio management.  Previously Matt worked as an Investment Banker in the Corporate Finance divisions of Crédit Agricole (London and Paris) from 1998-2000 and UBS (Zurich and London) from 1993-1998.
At Crédit Agricole, Matt managed a team in Paris and London that worked on transactions in the Automotive, Financial Services and Logistics sectors.

Dr Martyn Davies is Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Advisory (Pty) Ltd, South Africa’s leading research and strategy-consulting firm that specialises in emerging markets. He has provided business strategy solutions on behalf of listed and multinational clients in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. He is the Executive Director of the Centre for Chinese Studies (CCS) at Stellenbosch University.

Martyn is a Senior Lecturer at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), University of Pretoria, South Africa where he heads the Asia Business Centre and lectures on MBA, Executive and Company-Specific programs.

He has published a number of book chapters in political-economic publications and is a regular presenter at local and international conferences. Martyn has chaired a private session at the World Economic Forum and participated as a panelist at numerous public forums at the WEF. He holds a PhD in International Relations (University of the Witwatersrand).

This is your opportunity to network with key industry specialists, receive first-hand information and develop integral company growth strategies. With a continued focus on developing South African businesses this is a must-attend event for 2011.

Session 1: Welcome & Overview                 Conference Chairman:  Mr Nitesh Dullabh: The Beijing Axis

09h30

Welcome and Opening

WESGRO

10h00

Keynote Address – China in the Boardroom. Determining its role in the company’s strategic map with reference to procurement, export development, strategic collaboration and fund raising

Mr Kobus van der Wath,
The Beijing Axis

10h45

Keynote Address – China in Africa

Dr Martyn Davies, Frontier Advisory

11h30

Networking Refreshment Break

Session 2: South Africa and Raising Capital

12h00

Raising Capital out of China

Mr Matt Pieterse, The Beijing Axis

12h30 

      Finding the Right Supplier 

Mr Eddie du Rand, The Beijing Axis 

13h00

Chinese Involvement in Resources Africa 

Mr Dirk Kotze, Independent China Consultant

13h30

Networking Lunch

Session 3: Logistics & Quality

14h30 

      Trade Legislation & Laws 

Mr Meluleki Nzimande,  Partner, Webber Wentzel 

15h00

Logistics & Supply Chain Management

Safcor Panalpina

15h30

South African Companies Trading with China -
      What you Need to Know

International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa

16h00

Q & A session

16h30

Chairperson's Closing Remarks

Mr Nitesh Dullabh,  The Beijing Axis