Dr Raven Naidoo

Position:

Chairman, Future Perfect t/a Radian (2003 to present).

Advisor to the City of Cape Town, e-Governance projects, telecommunications projects. Responsible for strategy & policy, business analysis, business modeling, application design, project management. Successful projects include Smart Cape Access Project, Digital Business Centres, and Broadband Infrastructure Project (through to project approval). Projects also undertaken for Transnet, Transtel, Western Cape Provincial Administration, National Department of Communications, Trade & Industry, & Pubic Service Administration, AngloGold, Competition Commission, South African Airways, Shuttleworth Foundation, MedPages, Agility Technolgies, Sentient Communications. Prior to this he was the founding Managing Director of Capricorn Technology Park, and was also the Managing Director of the WorldOnline division of Vodacom. He was active in the formation of a Primgro, a black empowerment holding company as well as undertaking other business development projects.

Qualifications:

Masters Technology and Innovation Management (MSc) (University of Sussex);  PhD (Materials Physics) (UCT); MSc (Nuclear Physics) (Univ of Durban Westville)

Motivation for standing:

Raven was the original founder of CITI, which he conceived and helped set up during his time at Capricorn. He has been involved in CITI since its inception. He is currently a member of the CITi board and is a past chairman of CITi.

Raven has extensive experience of business and economic development, especially in the technology sector. Since 1994 he has initiated and managed a number of business initiatives, including director and architect of the Government’s premier small business development projects on Technology and Innovation Management, and Technology and Corporate Strategy; consultant to the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Coordinator of the World Bank study on Technical and Marketing Support to South African SMEs; consultant to the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Coordinator of the British ODA investigation into Business Support Services; member of the Dept of Communications e-Commerce reference team; Senior Consultant to the Cape Town Unicity on the development of an IT Strategy for the Cape Town Unicity and the Development of a Smart City; Senior Consultant to Wesgro on the State of the ICT Industry in the Western Cape; and consultant to Siemens SA on Mobile Business and the Internet.

Other:

Has held board level positions at CITi, the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Tellumat and Sentech.