Leadership Team
Oxford Economics Africa's wealth of knowledge on diverse areas of Africa economics and politics enables us to consistently provide up-to-date information and analysis. We work as a closely integrated team, which successfully gauges macroeconomic and political risk to help inform Africa investment decisions, expansion strategies and risk management practices.
Noelani King Conradie, Managing Director
Noelani King Conradie is the managing director for Oxford Economics Africa. Towards the end of 2002, Noelani founded NKC Independent Economists as an independent economic service. The business has since grown into a team of over 30 people. In 2015, Noelani sold a majority stake in NKC to Oxford Economics and the company name was then rebranded as NKC African Economics. In September 2021, NKC African Economics decided to fully align its brand with its majority shareholder and became known as Oxford Economics Africa.
Noelani obtained her BCom (Hons) 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.
Henk Gnade, Director of Africa Commercial & Operations
Henk is responsible for managing and coordinating operational and commercial activities geared towards revenue growth at Oxford Economics Africa. He joined OE Africa in 2018.
Henk holds an MCom in Economic Development and Policy Issues from the University of Johannesburg. He has over 15 years of sales experience generating new business and growing existing client accounts in countries across Africa and select international markets. He has subsequently played an integral part in growth strategies and product development for the African market. He was previously employed as a senior business development manager at BMI Research and a senior account executive at IHS. Henk was also a specialist researcher at Accenture and a researcher at Global Insight.
Cobus de Hart, Director for Africa Consulting
Cobus is the director for Africa Consulting at Oxford Economics Africa, managing and overseeing consulting projects. He has covered various African countries as an economist and worked on a number of ad hoc projects over the years. Cobus also provides media commentary and gives economic presentations at conferences. He joined the company 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, which he obtained after completing 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.
Elizma van Niekerk, Finance, HR and Operations Manager
Elizma holds an Honours degree in Accounting from the University of South Africa and recently completed the CIMA degree.
Before joining Oxford Economics Africa, she gained experience as an accountant in a range of sectors, namely retail, farming and telecommunications.
Francois Conradie, Lead Political Economist
François has a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Stellenbosch and an MPhil in Futures Studies from the same university. He started his career in marketing, based in Cape Town, then worked in financial services in Tunisia and Morocco for three years before returning to South Africa in 2010. He joined Oxford Economics Africa as a political analyst in 2011, and was head of research from 2016 to 2019. In his current role, he covers politics in North and West Africa, coordinates the firm’s overall politics coverage, and participates in other research as developments dictate.
Thalma Corbett, Lead Economist & Editor
Thalma is a lead economist & editor within the team focusing on Africa. She is particularly interested in macroeconomic research and risk analysis of sub-Saharan African countries. Thalma joined the company in February 2007.
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 the company in February 2007, Thalma managed bio-analytical services development at a biotechnology firm.
Christine Colyn, Head of Digital Publishing & Information Systems Management
Christine is the head of Digital Publishing and IS Management. She oversees the publishing of all digital content and marketing material for both promotional and information purposes, creates and manages the annual publication schedule, directs IS management, and serves as an extension for for Oxford Economics Africa.
Christine holds a BCom degree in Management from the University of South Africa. She joined NKC Independent Economists (formerly NKC African Economics and now Oxford Economics Africa) in July 2009 as Operational Manager and worked her way up to become Head of Digital Publishing in 2013. She was elected as one of the first Management Committee members for the formerly NKC Independent Economists. She became project leader and chairman to launch NKC's Website/Forumbook (www.nkc.co.za) in conjunction with Vodacom as the product owner. After NKC Independent Economists became part of Oxford Economics in May 2015, she was intensively involved in rebranding of reports and information systems to NKC African Economics and with the transition to Oxford Economics' website. In November 2018, she has grabbed the opportunity to become head of Digital Publishing & IS Management. Since then she has successfully managed the full migration of the Africa Office IT to OE domain together with OE's IT Operations Manager, James Good.
Jacques Nel, Head of Africa Macro
Jacques is the head of Africa Macro at Oxford Economics Africa. His responsibilities include the management of the company's Africa subscription services and he is the lead economic analyst for Nigeria.
After graduating, Jacques worked as a researcher at Mxit, a pioneering social media platform, before joining Oxford Economics Africa in 2013. Jacques has an MCom in Economics from the University of Stellenbosch and a PGDip in Futures Studies from the Stellenbosch Business School.
Jacques Verreynne, Head of Data and Modelling
Jacques has an MCom in Economics from the University of Stellenbosch. He joined the company as a sovereign risk analyst in 2010, focusing on the North African region. In 2016 he took on a new role, in which he oversees our data and forecasts on Africa. As part of this, he has improved the macro models of our African countries, developed exchange rate models, and conducted scenario analyses.
Elton Roupa, Head of Global Business Development
Elton heads global business development at Oxford Economics Africa. He is responsible for cultivating new client relationships within the economic and country intelligence fields. He joined Oxford Economics Africa in 2017.
Elton has a BCom (Hons) degree in Econometrics from the University of Pretoria. Before joining Oxford Economics Africa, he worked as a business development manager at IHS Global Insight, where he managed new business initiatives throughout the South African and sub-Saharan Africa regions. He has also worked for the Economist Group.