BlaPau is 100% black owned by its two founding directors. As the company grows, our intention is to become a flagship empowering company.
DR LAWRENCE GADZIKWA – Managing Director
Lawrence graduated with PhD, MSc, BSc Degree and a CIS diploma. He is founder and managing Director of BlaPau Management Consulting, a company specialising in strategy development and execution across different sectors. Lawrence has varied working experiencing straddling fields of academia, development, and consulting work. Specifically, he has experience in business development, turnaround strategy development and execution, economic development, agricultural and agribusiness consulting, research and training, project and programme management. Lawrence has delivered complex projects at Khula Finance, Development Bank of Southern Africa, Eskom Transmission, Cities Network and ICASA as a generalist management consultant. Currently, he offers entrepreneurship modules at the University of Johannesburg and is a cluster leader on Gauteng Department of Economic Development project. Lawrence is a licensed Insights Discovery Practioner.
JOANAH GADZIKWA – Director
Joanah is a media and communications specialist. She is a founding member and director of BlaPau Management Consulting. A holder of an MA in Media and Cultural Studies, BA (Hons), BA English & Communication and a Diploma in Education, Joanah drives business development support and project management initiatives on various assignments the company is engaged in. Joanah is also a lecturer at Monash University in Media and Communication studies.
Our Consulting Resources
The success of our business is based on our ability to attract and retain the best people from a variety of backgrounds. Our people are our most important resource. BlaPau provides on-going training to all its consultants to ensure that they stay abreast with cutting edge developments in the management consulting field. We work through a network of associate consultants who are specialist in their own right. This ensures that each and every project is adequately resourced and executed thereby delivery value for the client.
Our people are passionate and motivated about what they do. They believe in their work and are always ready to tackle complex challenges and go an extra mile. Our success is mirrored in our clients’ performance. Seeing beyond the horizon is always our guiding principle when dealing with clients’ issues.
Associate Consultants
Dr Alastair Paterson (DSc, MSc, BSc, Agric Diploma – Livestock Expert)
Alastair was raised in a farming community, trained as a learner farmer, and obtained a broad based agricultural training at Gwebi Agricultural College and the University of Rhodesia. After lecturing at Gwebi college for three years he traveled extensively obtaining practical experience in Sheep production (Australia), Dairy production (New Zealand) and Pig Production (Scotland). In South Africa he became the Pig Specialist at the Irene Institute and went on to develop the Bovelder breed of cattle at the Johannesburg Municipality. While working on these projects he obtained three degrees in Animal Science from the University of Pretoria ending up with a DSc in Agriculture. The next twenty years were at Stockowners Marketing Co-operative in KZN as a consultant to 7,000 commercial farmer members of the Co-op. In 2004 Alastair started Paterson Agri-Services, a private consultancy, and has completed numerous consultancies throughout Africa and in the Middle East. The majority of these consultancies involved the whole of the meat value chain or part of it. From 2006 until the present he has been involved with SANBI evaluating the whole Red Meat Value Chain from ‘farm to fork’ in South Africa and implementing standards for livestock production and veld management on 70 farms in the Grasslands Biome as well as standards throughout the chain.
During these years Alastair has worked, studied and travelled in 51 countries covering all continents. He has produced ten scientific papers, over 100 other publications and delivered over 1000 invited presentations. Recently he has been invited to present a proposal for the development of livestock in Oman and also the development of livestock production in Swaziland.
DR CLEOPAS SANANGURA – Investment Consultant
Cleopas is an acknowledged expert in the areas of finance, corporate strategy, corporate finance, economic research and analysis, corporate risk advisory and corporate governance (investor relations); advising organizations operating or considering investments in emerging markets. He has held a number of senior executive positions including with a leading merchant bank based in Johannesburg, South Africa and with Messer Griesham responsible for Africa and Asia. During his time with Messer Griesham he built the company’s partnerships in Asia and then led their expansion to Algeria, Egypt, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Iran and Japan. He later headed the corporate finance business unit at Africa Resources Limited, a Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed resources company.
Cleopas is a graduate of the Nottingham Business School (NBS) where he graduated with a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA). He also holds an MBA (Corporate finance) specializing in emerging markets from NBS and a BSc (Hons) Applied Accountancy from Oxford Brookes. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators (FCIS), Fellow Chartered Institute of Business Management (FCIBM-SA), Affiliate Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA-UK). Cleopas is an independent Board member for Africa Resources Limited, Chairman of PFM Group and PFM Swaziland Ltd, independent Board member and chairman of the audit committee for City of Johannesburg’s social housing company, Johannesburg Tourism Company, as well as the City’s group audit committee. He is also an Audit Committee member of the Gauteng Provincial Government. He is the founder and CEO of Dawn Asset Management (Pty) Ltd and Dawn Advisory Services (Pty) Ltd, a leading financial and corporate strategy group based in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a client portfolio of business and governments across Africa.
JOHN PHIPSON (BA, Dip) – Agriculture Expert
John graduated from the University of KZN with a BA in 1959. This was followed by a University Education Diploma and 3 years of evening class Economics, also at UKZN. He attended and passed a UCT Graduate School of Business course on international business management. Over the years John attended numerous training courses and seminars on various aspects of agriculture, covering mainly soil, nutrient and crop management, environmental management, irrigation and field husbandry at Cedara Agricultural College, the South African Sugar Association Research Station, various centres of the Agricultural Research Council and industry leaders.
Relevant Recent Project Experience
- Land potential assessment, preparation of business plans, motivation for funding and outlining implementation procedures, 50 000 ha of restitution farms KZN and Mpumalanga Provinces.
- Land potential assessment and turn around proposals for dysfunctional community irrigation schemes, KZN, Mpumalanga and Limpopo Provinces.
- Development of workable templates for rural agribusiness projects, associated mentorship and capacity building. Variety trials for alternate energy sources.
- Assessment of the impact of King Shaka Airport and the Dube Trade Centre, on the future of sugar production and milling on the KZN North Coast.
SIKHUMBUZU DUBE – OD Consultant
Sikhumbuzo graduated with MPA, BSc, Diploma Labour Law, and Diploma HRM. He is a human resources consultant specialising in performance management, organisation development, business process re-engineering, monitoring and evaluation, policy evaluation and review, training and development. He moved into consulting following a 20 year career as a human resources expert in the public, manufacturing and mining sectors.
NERSBERT MUTSAKA – Financial Consultant
He served his articles of clerkship with BDO International and to date is a member of the following institutions:-Association of Chartered Certified Accountants UK (affiliate), Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa and Institute of Risk Management South Africa. He is a certified SAP FICO consultant and also has a certificate in pastel accounting including the report writer. Mr Mutsaka’s 19 years of experience in the industry includes financial consultancy and training, internal and external auditing, forensic investigations, risk management consultancy, bookkeeping and accounting, IFRS and GRAP implementations, systems development and audits, SAP consultancy, forensic auditing, and project management.