Robbie co-founded Nando’s in 1987, over the next two and a half decades, Nando’s grew from a single shop into a global brand now spanning more than 1,200 restaurants across over 20 countries. He built it on a philosophy that’s become legendary in South African business, that culture, creativity and people matter more than process, and that great brands are built from the inside out.

Since stepping back as CEO, Robbie has poured the same founder’s energy into social impact and civic work, from anti-malaria initiatives to the Jozi-My-Jozi movement aimed at rebuilding confidence in Johannesburg. For anyone building a brand or a culture, there are few people in the country with more hard-won perspective to share.

Brent is the founder and editor of Good Things Guy, South Africa’s leading good-news platform, which he launched in August 2015 after turning a viral drinking-game nomination into a random act of kindness that spread around the world. What started as one positive story a day now reaches tens of millions of South Africans and has become the country’s go-to home for good news.

A self-taught journalist, author and sought-after speaker, Brent has been named one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans and a Primedia LeadSA Hero. His talks blend storytelling with practical tools for building resilient, purpose-led teams, a genuinely different lens on leadership and the stories we tell ourselves about our country.

A serial entrepreneur across nearly five decades, Ian founded Sorbet in 2005, buying and rebranding six salons despite having no background in beauty, and grew it into South Africa’s largest salon chain before selling it to Long4Life in 2017. His real expertise isn’t beauty at all; it’s culture, and the belief that getting the people and the environment right is what makes a business genuinely hard to copy.

Today Ian teaches exactly that through the Hatch Institute, coaching entrepreneurs and executives on leadership and customer service. A vocal advocate for honest conversations about culture and inclusion in South African workplaces, he’s one of the country’s most respected voices on building organisations that treat people with dignity, and make money doing it.

Rapelang is an internationally renowned technology entrepreneur who featured on the cover of Forbes Africa before the age of 30. She first made her name co-founding Yeigo Communications, a pioneer in mobile VoIP, before founding Rekindle Learning, an edtech company that helps people and organisations learn faster through bite-sized, mobile-first experiences.

Named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and an Entrepreneur for the World, she’s spoken on hundreds of stages alongside the likes of Malcolm Gladwell and President Paul Kagame. With a computer science and business background from UCT, Rapelang offers a rare combination of deep technical insight and a clear-eyed view of where learning and work are heading on the continent.

Erik is a bestselling author, keynote speaker and executive coach known for transformative work in leadership performance. Holding a Master’s in Executive Coaching from Wits Business School, he’s worked with organisations including PepsiCo, Toyota, Microsoft and Anglo American, and was named to the Global Gurus Top 30 Leadership Professionals for 2026.

Drawing on psychology, neuroscience and real-world business experience, Erik gives leaders practical frameworks for navigating complexity and building resilient teams. His core insight, that team transformation flows downstream from leader transformation, anchors talks that are as actionable as they are engaging.