Alan Hirsch is Professor of Development Policy and Practice and has directed the Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice at UCT since 2013. He was born in Cape Town and educated in Economics, Economic History and History at UCT, Wits and Columbia. After teaching economic history and economics at the University of Cape Town, he joined the South African Department of Trade and Industry in 1995, managing industry and technology policy. He worked at the South African Presidency from 2002 to 2012 where he managed economic policy, represented the Presidency at the G20, and was co-chair of the G20 Development…

The Director of Economic Rise Consulting, Shirley Robinson is an economist advising on public policy concerns, primarily targeted towards urban and regional economic development. She is also working part-time as a technical assistant for National Treasury’s Technical Assistant Unit, Economic Development and International Relaitons portfolio. Shirley holds a master's degree in Business Science (Economics) from the University of Cape Town and has worked extensively in the public sector with the National Treasury's budget team, the Western Cape Provincial Treasury and Premier's Office, as well as in the non-governmental sector, with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa's Budget Information Service.…

Dr Thomas has a +18-year track record of outstanding performance as a senior executive, advisor on regional infrastructure and PPPs, development finance, private sector development, risk management, governance, trade and investment, and policy and capacity development in Africa with extensive knowledge of key regional economic concerns in Africa. She is currently a partner in a new enterprise, in partnership with a New York based Investment Bank, to form a joint venture - Africa Rising Capital (Pty) Ltd trading as Nova Capital Africa - providing investment banking services in South Africa and the rest of the continent. As a Director of…

Nimrod Zalk is Industrial Development Policy and Strategy Advisor at the South African Department of Trade and Industry (the dti). Prior to this he was Deputy Director-General of the Industrial Development Division of the dti. He also sits on the board of the South African Industrial Development Corporation. Nimrod holds an MSC in Economics (with reference to Africa) from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He has been involved in a range of processes related to South African and African industrial development including: Development and implementation of South Africa’s National Industrial Policy Framework (NIPF) and…

Faizel Ismail has a PhD (Manchester, UK), MPhil (IDS, Sussex, UK), LLB (UKZN-Pietermaritzburg) and a BA (UKZN-Pietermaritzburg). His PhD for which he obtained an A grade pass is titled: An Empirical Analysis of Apartheid South Africa in the GATT: 1947 to 1994. Faizel is currently an Adjunct Professor at the UCT School of Economics. He is also an advisor/consultant (part-time) to the Department of Trade and Industry on International Trade and a Special Envoy on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). He was appointed as the Chairperson of the International Trade and Administration Commission (ITAC) for a three-year term…

Neva Makgetla is a Senior Economist at TIPS. She has undertaken extensive research into South African economic issues, published widely, and contributed to a number of national economic policy processes and debates from 1994. Until 2015, she was Deputy Director General for economic policy in the Economic Development Department. Before that, she was Lead Economist for the Development Planning and Implementation Division at the Development Bank of Southern Africa. She has worked at a senior level in the Presidency and other government departments, and for seven years was head of the COSATU Policy Unit. She has a PhD in economics and before 1994 worked for over 10…