Leadership Team

Noelani King Conradie, Managing Director

Noelani King Conradie is the Managing Director for NKC African Economics. Towards the end of 2002, Noelani decided to launch an independent economic service and founded NKC Independent Economists. The business has since grown into a team of over 30 people and in 2015 Noelani sold a majority stake in NKC to Oxford Economics. The company name was then rebranded as NKC African Economics.

Noelani obtained her BCom (Honours) degree from Pretoria University receiving distinctions for both her undergraduate as well as postgraduate degrees. Her career started in 1995 at RMB Asset Management, before she became a financial economist at ABSA Corporate Bank's treasury department. After a period in the stock-brokering arena at SG Frankel Pollak Securities, she relocated to Cape Town to start an economics department at PSG Investment Bank in 1999.

Francois Conradie, Senior Political Economist

François is a Senior Political Economist at NKC. His area of expertise is politics in North and West Africa, and his other research focuses on topics of wide interest in Africa, especially fiscal and debt dynamics. François joined NKC in 2011.

Francois holds a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and an MPhil in Futures Studies from the University of Stellenbosch. In 2007 he moved to Tunisia where he worked as a stockbroker on the local market, and in 2008 he moved to Morocco to launch the international trading desk for Integra Bourse, a regional financial services company. He returned to South Africa in 2010.

Thalma Corbett, Senior Economist

Thalma Corbett is currently a senior economist within the team focusing on Africa research. She joined NKC in February 2007 and became NKC's Head of Research in 2013. Thalma is particularly interested in macroeconomic and risk analysis of sub-Saharan African countries.

Thalma's qualifications include a Master's degree in Chemistry and a master's degree in Business Management and Administration (MBA) from Stellenbosch University. Thalma obtained both her Honours and Master's degrees in Business Management and Administration cum laude and has published articles in internationally accredited journals in the scientific and economic fields. Before joining NKC in February 2007, Thalma managed bio-analytical services development at a biotechnology firm.

Gary van Staden, Senior Political Analyst

Gary is a Senior Political Analyst at NKC African Economics’ where he assesses the impact of political risk on direct and indirect investment in African countries. He covers the political analysis for ten countries. Gary joined NKC in May 2004 as a full-time member.

Gary holds an Honours degree in Politics, Conflict Resolution and Development Economics from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). He worked as a journalist in the 1980s when among other positions, he served as Bureau Chief for The Star in Windhoek. After working as a senior researcher at the Institute of International Affairs at Wits (1988-91) and as a part-time lecturer in South African politics at the University of Leicester in England (1991-92), Gary entered the financial markets. He was Director of Research (1992-97) at brokerage firm Raymond James Stewart after which he joined SG Frankel Pollak Securities as a Political Analyst. A multiple winner of the Financial Mail Survey Political Analyst of the Year Award, Gary has featured in the top-quartile of the FM rankings for the past 20 years. In the early to mid-1990s he contributed to the development of the new South Africa's economic, trade and foreign policies as an independent consultant.

Christine Colyn, Head of Digital Publishing & Information Systems Management

Christine is the Head of Digital Publishing and IS Management. Her primary focus points are to oversee the publishing of all digital content and marketing material for both promotional and information purposes to NKC branded platforms and ensures the highest quality are met; to set up and managed NKC's publication schedule that covers 310 reports with deadlines on an annual basis; to regulates all NKC IT-related tasks and serves as first-line helpdesk support for NKC while developing new skills on information systems.

Christine holds a BCom degree in Management from the University of South Africa. Before she joined NKC Independent Economists in July 2009, she gained extensive expertise in office management, administration, public relations, personal assistance and organisational skills in the organised agricultural environment and government entities throughout more than 19 years. After she joined NKC in 2009 she extended her expertise in operational management, desktop publishing, and project management for the development of three websites and took on IS Management additionally at the end of 2018 to keep on developing her skills.

Jacques Nel, Head of Africa Macro

Jacques is NKC African Economics’ head of Africa Macro as well as the lead economic analyst for South Africa. His responsibilities include the management of NKC’s subscription services while overseeing the company’s coverage of the Southern and East Africa regions.

Jacques has an MCom in Economics from the University of Stellenbosch. After graduating, he worked as a researcher and big-data analyst at Mxit, a pioneering social media platform, before joining NKC as a junior economist in 2013.

Cobus de Hart, Head of Macroeconomic Consulting

Cobus is currently the Head of Macroeconomic Consulting at NKC African Economics, managing and overseeing consulting projects. Having covered various African countries and worked on a number of ad-hoc projects over the years, he currently also still acts as the analyst for Nigeria. Cobus also provides media commentary and gives economic presentations at conferences. He joined NKC in 2014.

Cobus has a DCom in Economics from the University of South Africa, and a BCom (Hons) in Economics from the University of Stellenbosch after he completed his BCom Econometric Analysis degree at the same University. He spent two years with GSEC, a consultancy focused on strategy-realignment services in the public and private sectors, before moving to B&M Analysts as a research analyst and later project manager.

Jacques Verreynne, Head of Data and Modelling

Jacques is the Head of Data and Modelling where he develops NKC African Economics’ econometric models and is responsible for NKC’s economic forecasts. He joined NKC in 2010.

Jacques has an MCom in Macroeconomics, Monetary Economics and Econometrics from the University of Stellenbosch. He joined NKC as a sovereign risk analyst for the North African region, worked on a range of sectoral reports for the African continent, created a number of indices for NKC and did research on African fixed income markets. Since 2016 he has focused on developing econometric models.

Henk Gnade, Head of Africa Business Development

Henk heads business development initiatives in Africa for NKC African Economics. He joined NKC in 2018.

Henk holds an MCom in Economic Development and Policy Issues from the University of Johannesburg. He has over 12 years sales experience generating new business growing existing client accounts in countries across Africa, specializing in the public sector. He was previously employed as a Senior Business Development Manager at BMI Research and Senior Account Executive at IHS. Henk was also employed as a Specialist Researcher at Accenture and Researcher at Global Insight.

Elton Roupa, Head of Global Business Development for NKC African Economics

Elton is NKC African Economics’ Head of Global Business Development. He's responsible for cultivating new client relationships within the economic and country intelligence fields. He joined NKC in 2017.

Elton has a BCom (Hons) degree in Econometrics from the University of Pretoria. Before joining NKC he worked as a business development manager at IHS Global Insight, where he managed new business initiatives throughout the South Africa and the Sub-Saharan Africa region. He has also worked for the Economist Group.