Leadership Team

Noelani King Conradie, Managing Director

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. 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 25 people and in 2015 Noelani sold a majority stake in NKC to Oxford Economics. The company name was then rebranded as NKC African Economics.

Francois Conradie, Head of Research

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 and has been doing political analysis for NKC since August 2011.

Thalma Corbett, Senior Economist

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. Thalma became NKC's Head of Research in 2013. She is particularly interested in macroeconomic and risk analysis of sub-Saharan African countries.

Gary van Staden, Senior Political Analyst

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. He then joined NKC Independent Economists in 2004 as a full-time member of the team.

Christine Colyn, Head of Digital Publishing

Christine is Head of Digital Publishing and IS Management at NKC African Economics. Her primary focus is to execute and manage the publishing of all subscription reports, and the maintenance and developments going with that. The Is Management is a novelty position developed from a need at NKC to have someone at their office to manage IS related issues. That means new fields of interest, research and training for her.

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. She joined NKC as Operational Manager, and her experience with websites and information systems started after that when she was chosen to oversee and run the implementation of NKC's first website.

Jacques Nel, Chief Economist (South & East Africa)

Jacques is NKC African Economics’ Chief Economist for the Southern and East Africa regions. His responsibilities also include media commentary and the in-depth macroeconomic analysis of Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda. Jacques joined NKC in 2013.

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.

Cobus de Hart, Chief Economist (North & West Africa)

Cobus is NKC African Economics’ Chief Economist for North and West African countries and specialises in the economies of Angola, Nigeria and Ghana. 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 Business Development: Southern & West Africa

Henk heads business development initiatives in Southern & West 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 of 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 Business Development: Southern & East Africa

Elton is NKC African Economics’ Senior Business Development Manager and is 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.