The Manufacturing Circle

Manufacturing Circle appoints Executive Director

BRAND ACTIVITY

Jan 30th, 11:50

The Manufacturing Circle takes pleasure in announcing the appointment of Coenraad Bezuidenhout as its Executive Director with effect from Monday 23 January. This appointment is yet another step in the consolidation of the Manufacturing Circle, which set out in 2008 to interact with government and other stakeholders as the apex business organisation representing manufacturing in South Africa. Its main goal is to promote manufacturing in the country and grow employment in this key sector.

Coenraad is a seasoned policy analyst, business lobbyist and advocate, coming to us from Business Unity South Africa, where he served as its Executive Director of Economic Policy. Before that, he headed the BUSA Parliamentary Office – a decades old business facility which had been dormant for some time, which he had re-established to become a vibrant component within the BUSA-fold.

Coenraad began his career as a Parliamentary Monitor, specialising in the public finance and economics portfolios. He subsequently worked as an economics researcher. Since his entry into organised business in 2009, he has also taken on responsibilities such as:
• partner institute liaison for the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index for South Africa;
• becoming South Africa’s Private Sector Liaison Officer for the World Bank;
• serving as a Technical Committee member of the Small Business Partnership’s recently launched SME Growth Index; and,
• convening the Business Constituency in NEDLAC’s Public Finance and Monetary Policy Chamber.

Coenraad holds a master’s degree in South African Politics and Political Economy from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and has been commended for his promotion of business growth in South Africa by Mail&Guardian 200 Young South Africans, 2011 edition.

We are sure Coenraad will prove to be a great resource in promoting the Manufacturing Circle’s fervent belief that for South Africa to be economically strong and to rapidly grow its employment, it needs a strong manufacturing sector. We wish him all the best and invite all stakeholders and South Africa’s manufacturing community at large to interact with him in this regard.