Sharks shake up hierarchy
The Sharks on Wednesday announced changes to their board of directors which would take effect immediately.
Stephen Saad and Terry Rosenberg were appointed to the board at the shareholders annual general meeting held in Johannesburg 4 October 4, 2012.
Saad assumes the role of chairperson, previously held by John Swain who now becomes an independent director alongside Rosenberg.
Saad was born in Durban, schooled at Clifton Prep and attended Durban High School. He completed a B Com degree at Howard College campus of the then University of Natal and obtained an Associate Degree with The SA Institute of Charted Accountants.
After completing a stint of competitive rugby in Ireland, he returned to South Africa and started Aspen in 1997. Under his leadership, he developed the company with local and international subsidiaries. The company is currently recognised as a world leader in generic medication including Anti-Retrovirals and is the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Africa.
Aspen also builds clinics, hosts voluntary HIV testing and is committed to up-skilling the local workforce. With operations in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia, his plans for the future are focused on expanding Aspen’s global footprint in the emerging market.
Aspen has now been ranked as the best-performing JSE blue chip stock over the past six months. He also set-up Varsity College before selling it to LeisureNet, just four years later. He won the Sunday Times Business Leader of the Year in 2012.
An avid rugby supporter of both the Springboks and the Sharks, he is often found watching the team from his seats at Kings Park. His other passion is cycling, where he recently took part in the Aspen Trans Karoo 240km mountain bike challenge to raise funds for paediatric healthcare in SA.
Saad says his family is his priority, “You have to have balance in your life. I know I’m in balance if I laugh easily and laugh often.” Married with four daughters, he loves spending his spare time with his family at their private game reserve in the Sabi Sands.
Rosenberg has over 35 years of business experience. From 1980 to 1988, he was an International Partner with Anderson Consulting with worldwide responsibility for the firm’s mining practice and Managing Partner.
From 1989 to 1992, he was chairperson of Prefcor Holdings Limited, a public company with over 1 000 retail stores. During the period from 1992 to 1998, he was CEO and deputy chairperson of McCarthy Retail, a large South African conglomerate as well as a non-executive director for five public companies, including Anglo American Industrial Corp and AECI.
Since 1998, Rosenberg has been the chairperson of Oakbrook Investments (Pty) Ltd, an investment house with interests in oil refining, mining, logistics and property. He also sat on the board of Uranium One, a publicly listed Uranium mining company based in Canada, and Chaired SA Bio Products.
Rosenberg started Operation Jumpstart in the 1980s – the first public private partnership in South Africa where they developed a strategy and raised the finance to build the ICC. They also created the Natal Lotto which generated over R300m for charities in KZN.
He is a former chairperson of Tennis South Africa, Business Against Crime and currently chairs Gozololo Centre for Children and the SuperSport Shootout. He also represented Transvaal in tennis and SA in the Vet’s World Cup 2002 in Palm Springs.
Rosenberg holds a B Com Degree and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of the Witwatersrand and has been married to Carol for 38 years, with three children.
Both appointees bring a wealth of experience to the Sharks board, in terms of the shareholders’ strategic plan and vision.
