Our Team
About Edith
Edith’s work and calling are in research and development and using research and evidence to unlock potential and develop tools that support and facilitate systems of change. Edith has been working to assist various organisations in their journey to create a positive impact on the environments (people and climate) they operate in.
Edith completed her formal education, with a Master’s in Biotechnology at Rhodes University and for the past 5 years has been working as a researcher and facilitator across numerous sectors, including NGO (local and international), Teaching and training (education), corporate (financial services) and enterprise development. It is the unlikely combination of these career experiences that enables me to bring a unique and powerful approach to traditional and bespoke research, analysis and advisory.
Edith’s mission is to unlock potential – in organisations and individuals – through reconnecting people to meaning, purpose and agency, and to each other.
Marsé van der Merwe
About Marsé
Marsé completed her degree in Accounting, as well as her Postgraduate Certificate in Education, at Stellenbosch University, thereby combining her passions. She leverages her experience in education and languages with her unique expertise in accounting and mathematics.
Marsé is very adaptable and has explored a diverse range of work experiences and contexts to inform a unique perspective on the world. These work experiences always have people and social impact at the centre. She has been involved in various different projects across the impact management and measurement space, through which the main goal is optimization and maximization of positive impact.
Marsé is a self-motivated, hardworking and professional person with a passion for helping people reach their full potential.
Anele Ngcwabe
About Anele
Anele completed his degree at Stellenbosch University, having studied finance and marketing. He has market, business and competitor analysis experience, while his marketing expertise allows him to identify areas of opportunity and growth for a business.
His curiosity and drive to uncovering why the world works the way that it does have led him to the path of analytics. His passion for data and analysis was further bolstered in his pursuit to find meaning behind stats and figures.
Anele is passionate about using the knowledge and experience he gains to interpret and support change in real-life situations and circumstances. He has a drive of being able to interpret and find meaning behind the data whilst creating a positive impact for business and society.
Kelvin Ivankovic
About Kelvin
Kelvin completed his bachelors, honours, and master’s degrees (Cum Laude) at Stellenbosch University. Whilst at Stellenbosch, Kelvin majored in financial management, strategic management, and entrepreneurship and innovation management.
Kelvin has a background in research design and execution and has been involved in projects across a diverse range of topics, such as entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, the sharing economy, and impact investing. Kelvin has conducted both quantitative and qualitative research and has experience using a variety of data analysis tools and techniques. He has been involved in research projects on board diversity and corporate social responsibility among South African JSE listed companies. He has also conducted studies on entrepreneurial development in South African high schools, as well as pioneering research on the emergence of the sharing economy in South Africa.
Kelvin has several years of work experience in the non-profit sector through his role as director of a South African based NPO. This is a position that he is particularly fond of as it strongly aligns with his passion and mission to contribute towards community development and upliftment. Through his experience in the non-profit sector, Kelvin has gained direct experience in managing organisational development, stakeholder engagement, marketing, and fundraising. Kelvin has also gained valuable experience as a member of consulting teams which conducted organisational analyses for South African based start-ups, as well as a human behaviour analysis for a division of Toyota in North Carolina USA.
Laila Tasneem Bera
About Laila
Laila is an aspiring changemaker aiming to empower youth to take up space through conversations and actions centred on shaping a more socio-economic inclusive South Africa. She is pursuing a double major in International Relations and Economics at Connecticut College, USA. Her passion for grassroots development was sparked during her student years at the African Leadership Academy. She is a firm believer in the power of education in moulding young minds and is currently conducting research on decolonizing the mind.
Laila is excited to be interning at Relativ and deepening her knowledge of conscious capitalism and social entrepreneurship.
Terri Cawood
About Terri
Terri is a passionate creative with great communication skills and experience with foundation phase learners. She is a mother of two boys aged 7 and 9, who have been part of the in.code club since its’ inception. She is an experienced graphic designer of more than ten years and her duties include concept, layout, content creation, implementation and social media skills. She is currently facilitating coding classes from grade RRR to grade R.
Carla Hyland
About Carla
Carla is a consumer insight analyst who brings with her more than twenty years of commercial media and communications experience. She has been entrusted with a range of multi-sector projects including work for financial teams, an international corporate advisory firm, and an insights analysis team with blue-chip clients. In the last decade, Carla’s roles have crossed over from communications into research and analysis. Insight analysis work allows her heart to connect with the voice of real people and share their messages with the organisations that are there to serve them. Carla would like to focus on ‘doing good work for good people’, delivering only the highest standard of work excellence whilst working on projects that truly matter.
She feels that each work task should be part of her legacy and she cares about the work that she commits to.
Jessica Wilson
About Jessica
Jessica completed her bachelors and honours in Finance and Accounting at the University of Cape Town. While attending the university she ran an outreach mathematics programme which sparked her passion for helping our community and the incredible people that form part of it.
Over the past years Jessica has combined her passions through teaching Investment finance, whilst working as a financial analyst. Both of these roles have given her the skills and knowledge to become a hardworking and dedicated professional. Teaching has taught her the patience and determination she needs to conquer new challenges.
Advisors and Associates
Melanie Jackson
Fundraising and Communications Specialist
About Melanie
Her experience has ranged from philanthropic corporate and trust fundraising, to the more challenging individual giving arena, working in several aspects of individual fundraising. She has worked with traditional direct mail programmes, and more recently with face-to-face fundraising teams.
Through numerous client engagements Melanie spends much of her time guiding organisations in their development strategy and measuring the impact of their interventions. She also is a successful trainer and mentor.
Melanie is also a trustee of Positive Vibes, a Namibia-registered non-profit organisation and a council member of Northlink College
Impact Investing
Specialist
About Stephen
He is passionate about using business to transform society by utilizing private and public finance through impact investing. He also completed the Oxford University impact measurement and management programme in 2018.
Currently Stephen is Senior Analyst at Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Prior, he was a lecturer at Stellenbosch University in the Business Management department and provides impact strategy, measurement and management consultation services. Some of the entities he’s worked with include: WWF-SA, Ukubavimba, SocioNovus, and Adaquo
M&E,
Research Specialist
About Sydney
Sydney has often worked in environments where resources are constrained, such as when she lead the roll out of a UK-wide youth work intervention and supported just under 100 Youth Organisations’ to demonstrate and improve the quality of their work. As a result, she is well versed in applying creativity and innovation together with a structured and methodological approach which optimises the evaluation process. She currently works with Firdale Consulting and 1000 Women Trust, as a qualitative evaluation and fundraising consultant.
Marcel Henry
About Marcel
In addition, he has past teaching experience at the Architectural Department, University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN) and currently the University of Cape Town (UCT) Department of Landscape Architecture and Geomatics.
He is the founding member of Urban Architects CC, Urban Landscape Studio and recently HenryDesign Architecture + Landscape.
Governance Specialist
About Marcus
He has a BA in Human Movement Studies and Psychology from the University of the Western Cape and qualifications in Educational Design Programming, Integrated Solid Waste Management Planning through the USA Environmental Protection Agency, Planning and Management of Special Events, Management Programme for NPOs, Project Planning, Corporate Social Investment Programmes, Health and Safety and Labour Relations amongst others.
He was held a number of senior roles over his 20 years of professional experience including Founding Chairman of Mthunzi, COO for Youth For Christ South Africa. He has also served as Project Lead for the UNHCR Social Cohesion Project in SA. As Consultant to the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Marcus provided protocol and logistical support for the 2013 State funeral of former President Nelson Mandela.He has also served as Advisor to the Chairman of the South Africa Dutch Chamber of Commerce and has extensive interaction as a Relationship Manager for various enterprises in liaising with all three tiers of Government, Political Parties, Private Sector and Civil Society.
Sarah Nielsen
About Sarah
Sarah studied fundraising management and international development, and has been involved with many organizations, both local and international, in Canada and across Southern Africa.
She has experience in multiple levels and areas of social sector management – fundraising, communications, project development, and staff development. Her fundraising expertise includes corporate partnerships, major gift solicitation, direct marketing, grant writing, and peer-to-peer fundraising.
Sarah has worked with funders from all over the world, and she is dedicated to advancing creative approaches to development through sustainable resource mobilisation and community-led partnerships.
Data Science Specialist
About Asmaa
Asmaa’s passion for understanding and improving the world around her has shown itself in her experience beyond mathematics, where she has shown leadership and dedication in numerous non-profit initiatives focused on education and community building. Asmaa has excellent interpersonal skills with a good sense of humour. She is a resilient person and has overcome multiple obstacles in reaching her goals. Since her late teens she has been involved in voluntary work including teaching and mentoring in various contexts.
In her free time, Asmaa loves cooking delicious food – always ready to put a twist on a traditional dish – as well as playing volleyball and tending to her expansive and luscious garden.
About Neil
Neil helps companies develop their digital intelligence capabilities, both in-house or agency. His experience in education has played an instrumental role in coaching and developing marketing analytics teams and individuals. His career in digital spans over 15 years and brought the rigor of analytics to the art of marketing – a critical missing piece to bring data and insights to senior business leaders. He has worked with dozens of brands to help CFOs and CMOs better understand what a true mROI looks like so they can take more meaningful actions for their brands. Since early 2018, he built the Hoorah Digital media and data teams. While doing so, he has also built the data team within AbInBev, an internal agency called Draftline (a global initiative), as well as Nestle’s internal agency, Revolve.
The challenges of too much data within companies and the need to simplify and visualise this data to business leaders is what he enjoys doing most. Seeing businesses adopt a data culture and make data-driven decisions is what motivates him to do great work. In the process he helps break down silos across departments and provides the framework to be more collaborative.
Francophone Specialist
About Naomi
Naomi is a global thinker, drawing on her bachelor’s in political science and master’s in mega-city governance both from the Paris Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po Paris). Her background combines experience in project communications and finance and studies in political science, governance of the commons and urban metabolism. Throughout her studies, she’s developed management and communications strategies for public services, multinationals, and NGOs in Italy, Mexico City, Lebanon and South Africa.
Having graduated in 2020, Naomi is currently a programme management intern for the UN Environment Programme’s Life Cycle Initiative. Building on her training in international relations and project analysis, she assists governments and businesses in implementing life cycle thinking into their decision-making processes.
Her passion and goals are to help organisations deliver water as she believes that “we all need it, we all share it, and so we all need to work together to preserve it”. As she gains experience in helping people work together for the commons, she hopes to join the global community of people answering the question: how can we enhance water resources while we use them?
Nikolaus Hutter
Impact Investing Specialist
About Nickolaus
Nikolaus Hutter is the Founder of New Paradigm Ventures, an advisory firm focused on accelerating the shift to an impact driven economy. He works with International NGOs on Impact Ventures & Investment, is a Director of Impact Investment firm Susterra Capital and serves on the Board of US Development NGO Heifer International, the Hungarian Impact Investors Association and the Hellenic Impact Investing Network.
Together with Impact Hub Vienna, he co-founded the Investment Ready Program (www.investment-ready.org), the first accelerator for social innovators in the CEE region, and the CEE Impact Day (www.ceeimpactday.org), an annual gathering for impact investors, entrepreneurs and practitioners from the region. Previously, he served as Managing Director Europe of the international impact investor network Toniic (www.toniic.com), held operational roles in the Cleantech industry, and worked as a venture capital investor for over a decade. Nikolaus read Business and Political Economy in Vienna, Strasburg, and at the London School of Economics. He lives in Vienna with his wife and two children.
Duncan Parker
Enterprise Development Specialist
About Duncan
Duncan has a unique academic and professional background in the third sector and the investment world and is passionate and committed to blending commercial solutions to social and environmental issues. Appointments include International Director for one of the world’s largest Development / Humanitarian Aid organisations – The Salvation Army, with a global portfolio of economic development and aid projects of £50m p.a. Duncan engaged in long term appointments living and working in Africa, Americas and Asia running field programmes focused on enterprise led development. This included responding to man-made and natural disasters that forced the movement of people. Of note the religious /civil war in Uganda operating child focused psycho social projects in a refugee camp in Lira, and the reestablishment of enterprise following the South Asia Tsunami.
After leaving the third sector to pioneer an African Agricultural investment fund in 2009 and then to create a successful exit, Duncan founded a PE backed social enterprise that created cause marketing relationships between Business and Charity securing partnership deals with BDO and IMG who manage the Ethical Goods brand to this day in addition to an executive role with Crowdfunder having taken a shareholding within the organisation. Duncan is also founding Trustee/ambassador of two anti-human trafficking charities.
Directors
Executive Director
About Colin
His client engagements include executive level negotiation and project completion with enterprises, SMEs, government and civil society organisations. He has played a role in key stages of the tech business lifecycle from startup through scaling growth in the finance, property, marketing and media sectors. Colin has focussed his career on serving organisations with one common feature – clear intent to create positive social and/or environmental impact.
He has contributed to a variety of industry and media reviews and presented at conferences across the world on investment, analytics, fundraising, and strategic communications and the perspectives they bring to business and social systems.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa, a member of the South African Institute of Fundraisers, and serves on the boards of a number of for-purpose organisations.
Gabrielle Habberton
Executive Director
About Gabrielle
Gabrielle completed her formal education, which culminated in a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies, at the University of Cape Town. Gabrielle has since played leading roles in a number of pioneering organisations and projects primarily operating in Southern Africa.
Gabrielle’s work has included areas such as research and analysis; government policy co-creation and design; development of impact management and measurement processes and practices (from theory of change to impact reporting and learning); impact assessment and due diligence of social and impact investments (including a number of evaluations of Jobs Fund investments); deployment and management of impact capital; strategic and product development and planning; and guest lecturing on Masters and Executive education courses.
Executive Director
About Damon
Damon is a purpose-driven social entrepreneur with an interest in creating positive change. He is resourceful, passionate, and has the ability to speak to a diverse audience through original content, storytelling, and experiences.
Non-Executive Director
About Therese
Therèse Havenga has a Masters in Research Psychology. She started her career in the market research industry with a focus on retail and consumer goods but has been working in the financial services industry for the past 18 years. She has a strong track record for leading functions and high-performance teams responsible for insights, research & development, segmentation, value proposition development, client strategy, client experience and more recently also client-led digital solutions and digital transformation.
She has a deep understanding of South African consumers within the financial services, health as well as wellness & rewards industries and is passionate about looking at these consumers through various data lenses. Her proficiency across disciplines allows her to apply a solution-focused approach that connects the right skills and team to solve client challenges. She enjoys working in partnership with businesses to use insights to co-create products and solutions that unlock value for current and prospective clients in a simplified way.
Non-Executive Director
About Chris
Computational thinking is a powerful problem solving strategy which has the power to unlock the door to gritty problem solvers who will impact the future by addressing world problems.
Chris believes in looking at a problem and identifying a solution that can be implemented at its grass-root level. This is why he focused on creating an educational strategy that starts at the earliest level of schooling. He spent time researching, developing and sourcing tools that will supplement the teaching of computational thinking across all year levels which culminated in the establishment of a hands-on research project call ‘incode’ in 2017.
The incode project is designed to bring computational thinking to children’s foundational learning and to develop a clear path of progressive development throughout their schooling career through professional development for teachers and outsourced after-school programmes.
Outside of education, Chris has developed a number of full-stack solutions to address specific needs within schools and businesses. He enjoys creating computational solutions for everyday problems by combining his expertise in software development and database architecture.
Partners and Memberships
