The Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (Savca) has appointed five new members, including Darshan Daya, Edmund Higenbottam, Liz Kolobe, Ria Papier and Nicola Gubb, to its board.

The new board members were voted in by members of the association, based on their individual and collective skillsets, as well as industry experienced gained.

Chairperson Lelo Rantloane says they join the board at a crucial time, when there is great expectation around the role private markets can play in the region's economy

“Together, they will contribute towards the already diverse board, and provide strategic oversight to the Savca team as they translate the association’s vision into critical activities to drive the growth of private equity and venture capital in the region.”

Daya brings more than two decades of private equity industry experience across many economic cycles to bear, having worked in large cap buyout funds prior to co-founding Capitalworks in 2006.

Through directly sourcing and executing multiple transactions, as well as numerous engagements with both the local and international institutional investor community, Daya has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities available to the venture and private equity industry in South Africa, experience which can be leveraged for the benefit of the greater industry through his participation on Savca board.

In turn, Higenbottam is a veteran investment banker and private capital fund manager, with extensive experience across London, Johannesburg, Lagos and Dubai. His banking career started in 2001, having worked at global investment banks before founding a company called Verdant Capital.

Kolobe has over 13 years’ experience in private equity, advising and executing transactions. She is a principal at Agile Capital, representing the firm on various boards across various sectors including water, mining services, media, financial services, environmental management, medical, property, soft services and energy.

She has worked in both traditional private equity funds funded by pension funds, and in the captive fund space, which will add invaluable insights to the team.

Papier is currently a client director at Old Mutual Private Equity, responsible for leading fundraising and investor relations functions. Prior to this, she was in the client solutions team at Standard Bank Investment Banking. Her investment banking career spans 19 years, where she has worked across diverse sectors, including industrial and consumer, in the origination and execution of equity and debt transactions, mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings.

Lastly, Gubb has more than 25 years of investment and corporate finance experience with a particular niche in broad-based black economic empowerment and gender lens investing, coupled with 17 years of board experience in financial services, media, wholesale fuel supply and private education.

In her previous role as chief investment officer of WDB Investment Holdings, Gubb was responsible for investee strategic value-add and post-deal maintenance of a portfolio with a net asset value of R5-billion, where she built and managed a team of women investment professionals.

The new board members succeed outgoing members Richard Rose, Yvonne Maitin, Rory Ord, Andrea Bohmert and Thiru Pather.

With this also being his last year as the chairperson of Savca, Ratloane thanks the members and fellow board members of the association for the support they have provided, as the association underwent a number of significant changes in the last three years.