Executive Chairman – Mutle Mogase

Mutle is currently the Executive Chairman of Vantage Capital. Mutle oversees all aspects of the Group's business with a particular focus on Group's proprietary investments with directorships at Incwala and Kwikspace. Mutle also represents Vantage Mezzanine as an observer on the board of the Tsebo Outsourcing Group.

Outside of Vantage, Mutle is the Chairman of African Bank, a listed South African bank focused on the low-income market.

Mutle commenced his working career as a financial accountant at LTA Construction Ltd. Thereafter, he moved to Nedbank where he was a relationship manager in the corporate banking division and was responsible for a portfolio of R1,5 billion. While at Nedbank he was appointed to the leadership team and was seconded to Chase Manhattan for a period, where he gained experience in corporate finance, broking, dealing and middle market operations.

At his next position with ABSA Bank, Mutle was responsible for the implementation of ABSA's micro lending strategy with the creation of Nubank. He started Nubank from scratch and was CEO for 3 years. In addition, he was appointed to the group strategy and operational risk committees at ABSA. During this time, Mutle was also involved as one of the five founding members, in the establishment of Real Africa Investments Limited (RAIL), one of the pre-eminent listed black empowerment companies in South Africa. RAIL is an investment holding company with significant interests in listed companies in the life insurance, investment banking, food and medical sectors.

In 1999, Mutle sold his interest in RAIL and started MMR Equity Capital together with Colin Rezek which after a merger in 2001 was the genesis of the Vantage Capital Group.

As a pioneer of black-owned private equity fund management, Mutle Mogase was closely involved in 2002-03 in the formulation of the Financial Sector Charter ("FSC") on Black Economic Empowerment. Mutle Mogase was also chairman of the Micro Finance Regulatory Council (MFRC) and it was during his tenure that the new credit act was developed.

Mutle holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Cape Town, has completed an Executive Development Programme at the City University of New York and a Graduate Diploma in Corporate Governance at the Graduate Institute of Management Technology in Johannesburg.

Managing Partner – Technology & Risk Capital – Colin Rezek

Colin is a director of Vantage Capital and a founder of the business. He has day-to-day responsibilities for the origination and assessment of mezzanine fund and balance-sheet investments. He is a member of the Vantage Mezzanine Fund's investment committee.

Colin has had a wide range of entrepreneurial experience over the years. The main focus was building and running the Rezek Motor Group with his two brothers over a 13 year period. The group grew from one dealership to the largest privately-owned motor group in South Africa at the time, before being merged with a listed group, Venture Motor Holdings, in 1994. At this time, the turnover of the Rezek Motor Group was R450 million and it employed 440 people. Over the period various complimentary businesses were started, such as short term insurance, import/export and panel-beating.

He then spent 3 years at Venture Motor Holdings, where he played a significant role in various aspects of operations, marketing and new business development. During this period he also established the largest Ultra City in South Africa which employed 230 people. This business has since been sold. In 1998 and 1999, Colin assisted in the establishment and management of the Equity Africa Fund. The Equity Africa Fund is a R100 million fund sponsored by ABSA aimed at developing previously disadvantaged individuals.

Subsequently, Colin partnered with Mutle to establish MMR Equity Capital, a private equity management company which after a merger in 2001 was the genesis of the Vantage Capital Group.

Colin holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Witwatersrand and an MBA from the Witwatersrand Business school.

Divisional Director – Technology – Chris Lister James

Chris is a founder of the business with Mutle and Colin. His primary responsibility is the management of the Vantage Technology Fund and he is also involved in proprietary investments such as ComCorp.

Chris brings a wealth of experience in financial management and in investment banking, particularly in structured finance and private equity fund management. His most recent prior experience was at Real Africa Durolink Investment Bank Limited (RAD) where he established and managed a technology venture capital fund. Prior to his career at RAD, Chris was Financial Director of McCarthy Motor Holdings which was the largest motor retailer in Africa.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree, a Diploma in Accountancy and Higher Diploma in Taxation from the University of Natal. He passed his Chartered Accountant Board Exam in 1983 and completed a Management Advancement programme at the Wits Business School in 1992. Chris played first class cricket for Natal for 4 years and represented the South African President's XI versus Australia in 1986.

Managing Partner – Risk Capital – Luc Albinski

Luc Albinski is a director of Vantage Mezzanine and a member of the Fund's Investment Committee. His primary responsibility is the assessment, structuring, execution and post-transaction monitoring of mezzanine fund investments. Luc has played a key role in all seven investments executed by Fund I and Fund II to date for a total of over R1 billion ($125 million).

Prior to Vantage, Luc established Standard Bank's Mid-Size Private Equity department which focussed on executing mezzanine transactions in the mid-market as an alternative to traditional private equity solutions. Luc headed up Standard Bank's Mezzanine Finance department where he co-led several noteworthy transactions. These included providing R800 million in funding for the buy-out of the South Africa subsidiary of Waco International and providing R1 billion in mezzanine funding for the De Beers empowerment transaction.

Luc has strategy consulting (Bain & Co., Accenture), business development (employee benefits) and private equity investing (International Finance Corporation, Brait) experience.

Luc has a Masters of Business Administration from the INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France.

Managing Director – Vantage Debt Capital Markets – Ashley Benatar

Ashley Benatar is the managing director of Vantage Debt Capital Markets and has over 11 years' experience in investment banking. Vantage Debt Capital Markets is focused on raising public and private debt, for large corporates, in the local and international debt capital markets (including corporate and hybrid bonds). The business also provides debt advisory services including debt restructurings, distressed debt advisory, and refinancing. Ashley's primary responsibilities include originating, structuring and placing debt instruments in the debt capital markets.

Prior to joining Vantage Ashley was a Director of Investment Banking and a Director of Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities at Renaissance Capital, a global investment bank dedicated to emerging markets. There Ashley headed up high yield debt capital markets for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ashley spent 6 years in Structured Finance at Investec Bank and prior to that Gensec Bank with a focus on sourcing, structuring and funding significant senior, mezzanine and preference share finance transactions.

Ashley was formerly a fund manager at Global Capital, an International Private Equity and Venture Capital Fund. The portfolio he managed consisted of a diverse group of private companies in the manufacturing, telecommunications, IT, FMCG, healthcare and media industries in South Africa, United Kingdom and Australia.

Ashley was a founding shareholder and director of an international exploration drilling company which he later sold to Brait Private Equity and has sat on the board of several companies including being the joint managing director of the largest commercial vehicle armouring company in the southern hemisphere..

Ashley qualified as Chartered Accountant after completing his articles at Grant Thornton.

Chief Financial Officer – Vantage Capital Group – Warren van der Merwe

Warren is Chief Financial Officer of Vantage Capital Group. As such, he is responsible for the financial management of the Group's proprietary investment activities. He is also responsible for risk management, portfolio monitoring and reporting on Vantage's mezzanine funds.

Warren plays a significant role in the assessment of all new investments being considered by the mezzanine funds.

He served a year of academic articles at the University of Witwatersrand and the remainder of his articles at Arthur Andersen before starting his banking career with Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

His first position was Account Executive in the Corporate Banking division, managing the bank's relationships with certain of its mining clients. He then assumed a new business development role and later led a team of transactors in this new business team.

During this time he concluded numerous bank funding deals including several leveraged finance transactions. His last position was in the Bank's acquisition finance team where he successfully concluded a number of leveraged finance transactions, before joining Vantage Capital in 2007.

Chief Commercial Advisor – Risk Capital – Ian Heron

Ian Heron serves as a senior advisor to Vantage Mezzanine and plays a day-to-day oversight role in monitoring the existing portfolio and reviewing new investment opportunities. Ian is the Fund’s observer on the board of Safripol Holdings.

Ian has an extensive track record of managing large South African and international businesses which have included Joy Manufacturing, a manufacturer and distributor of mining equipment in South Africa and the subsidiary of a large US group, Kersaf Investments, a publicly listed casino and leisure group, Sappi Southern Africa, a leading forest products company, and the Premier Group which included SA’s largest cotton, medicine distribution, photographic and book & stationery retailing businesses, as well as SA’s second largest food company.

Ian was a partner in a private equity company that managed Standard Bank’s private equity business for five years and prior to joining Vantage, he was as a senior banker in the Corporate and Investment Banking division of Standard Bank.

Ian is a Chartered Accountant by training.

Chief Risk Advisor – Risk Capital – Daisy Naidoo

Daisy serves as Chief Risk Advisor to Vantage Risk Capital and her work entails reviewing deal profiles and financial models and providing input into term sheets; and offering guidance on Investment Committee applications.

Daisy served her articles from 1994 to 1996 at Ernst and Young and was seconded to their Seattle office in 1997. In Sept 1997, she joined South African Breweries as a financial planner. In 1999, she began studying part-time for her Masters of Accounting degree and joined Deloittes in May 1999 as a corporate tax consultant. During this time, Daisy consulted to mostly listed corporates and was seconded to BoE Bank Limited (now part of Nedcor) to perform the bank's tax function. She left Deloittes in April 2001 where her last position was assistant tax manager.

Daisy joined Gensec Bank (now Sanlam Capital Markets) as a dealmaker and worked there until the end of May 2010, where her last role was that of Head: Debt Structuring Unit. During this time she concluded numerous funding deals including several leveraged finance transactions. Daisy has concluded approximately R1.5bn mezzanine transactions, mostly to facilitate and fund BEE transactions. She was appointed to the sub-credit committee of the Sanlam Investment Cluster - the operational committee to consider investment into credit/fixed income assets (the Sanlam Group has in excess of R120bn in fixed income assets). She also represented Sanlam as its nominee on the audit and credit committee of Fintech, she was a director of Safair Lease Finance (a joint venture with Imperial Holdings with assets in excess of R4bn), she was Sanlam's shareholder representative on the board of Life Healthcare and she represented Sanlam as its advisory board member on the Vantage Mezzanine Fund I (a R1bn fund set up in 2007).

Daisy completed the Sanlam Management Development Program from the University of Stellenbosch in 2005 and in 2007 was seconded to Citi London as part of the ABSIP/Eskom programme to enhance financial skills in South Africa.

Daisy is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a Masters of Accounting degree (specialisation in Taxation) from the University of Natal Durban.

Currently, Daisy is a member of SAICA, ABSIP, AWCA, BMF, BWA and the Institute of Directors Southern Africa.

Associate Partner – Vantage Capital - Mokgome Mogoba

Mokgome Mogoba is associate partner at Vantage Risk Capital. His primary responsibility is the origination, assessment, structuring, execution and post-transaction monitoring of mezzanine fund investments.

Prior to joining Vantage, Mokgome headed up the BEE, FIG and Public Sector team within Standard Bank's Leveraged and Acquisition Finance division whereby he led several noteworthy transactions. These included providing R1.2bn of investment capital to the Shanduka Group, providing R1bn of growth capital to Old Mutual Finance, and concluding a debt advisory and capital structuring mandate for Kenya Airways.

Prior to that, Mokgome was a founding member of Standard Bank's Mezzanine Finance division which was set up by Luc Albinski whereby he co-led the conclusion of a number of transactions. These included arranging and underwriting senior debt and mezzanine debt funding for a number of transactions including R6.9bn to fund the Sasol Inzalo empowerment transaction, R6.2bn to fund the De Beers Ponahalo empowerment transaction, R350m to refinance Metrofile's restructured debt and provide additional expansion capital, R600m to fund Worldwide's acquisition of a 20% stake in Engen and R1.5bn to fund the Sasol Tshwarisano empowerment transaction.

Mokgome holds a Bachelors of Commerce (Accounting) degree summa cum laude from the University of Natal and is a qualified Charted Accountant.

Associate Partner – Vantage Capital - Zaheer Cassim

Zaheer Cassim is an associate partner at Vantage Capital and his primary focus is on the mezzanine fund's activities.

Prior to joining Vantage, Zaheer spent 2 years as an Investment Banker in the Diversified Lending and Leverage team at the Standard Bank of South Africa based in Johannesburg, where he worked on a variety of large leverage transactions. Before that, Zaheer was instrumental in establishing the Equity and Leverage Finance team within the Business Bank of Standard Bank, where he spent 5 years, starting out as a dealmaker and later moving on to head up the team. During this time he was involved in a number of leverage and BEE transactions. Zaheer also spent a year, on secondment from the investment bank, in the Business Solutions area of Standard Bank focusing on large restructures during the credit crisis.

Prior to joining Standard Bank, Zaheer was a transactor at the National Empowerment Fund and was instrumental in the establishment of the first Private Equity fund within the organization.

Zaheer holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Business Finance, Accounting and Economics majors) from the University of Witwatersrand and an Honours Degree in Investment Management from the Rand Afrikaans University.

Senior Associate – Risk Capital – Johnny F. Jones

CFA, CPA, Economics Degree (Duke University), MBA (Wharton)

Johnny is primarily focused on the mezzanine fund's activities. Prior to joining Vantage, he worked in the leveraged finance group at UBS Investment Bank in the U.S. In this role he specialized in the basic materials sector assisting in underwriting transactions and providing relative value investment recommendations for listed debt securities.

Johnny began his career in 2000 working as an equity research investment analyst at Wachovia Securities in Atlanta, Georgia. His focus was on macroeconomic trends and investment strategy. Later he spent two years at KPMG in the Economic & Valuation Services division based in New York. In this role he worked as a generalist providing debt and equity value indications for companies in industries including Financial Services, Steel and Entertainment.

Johnny received his Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Duke University in North Carolina. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2007 and passed the Certified Public Accountant exam in 2003.

Senior Associate – David Kornik

David Kornik is a senior associate at Vantage Capital and his primary focus is on the mezzanine fund's activities.

Prior to joining Vantage, David was an associate director at Barclays in their leveraged finance team based in Dubai, where he worked on a variety of leveraged buyout transactions within the Gulf region. Before that, he worked as a finance manager for Barclays in their London head office, and for KPMG in Johannesburg as a supervisor in their financial services division.

David holds a Bachelor of Business Science (finance honours) and Masters in Commerce from the University of Cape Town. He is a qualified CA (SA) and Chartered Financial Analyst.

Senior Associate – Bafana Molomo

Bafana is a Senior Associate at Vantage Capital and his primary focus is on Mezzanine fund activities.

Before joining Vantage, he was an associate with VPB Namibia and a member of the founding team managing the Namibia Growth Fund. There he helped the fund reach first closing as well as develop a significant deal pipeline.

Prior to that, Bafana was with VPB in Botswana where he participated in a number of notable local transactions for their PE and VC fund. He started his career with Fleming Asset Management Botswana, performing research and analysis on various listed counters on the Botswana Stock Exchange. He has also served on a number of boards in the ICT, healthcare, retail and manufacturing sectors.

Bafana graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics and Finance) from the University of Cape Town and a Post-graduate Diploma from University of Pretoria's GIBS. He is due to complete his Masters of Business Administration with UCT's Graduate School of Business in 2011.

Analyst – Vantage Capital – Nina Essandoh

Nina joined Vantage Capital as an analyst and her primary focus is on the mezzanine fund's activities.

Before joining Vantage, Nina worked as an Investment Advisor with Awethu Ventures, where she analyzed early-stage business opportunities developed by young South African entrepreneurs. Prior to that, she worked as an analyst with Cape Venture Partners where she evaluated business proposals and monitored the firm's portfolio companies.

Nina began her career in 2007 working as an Investment Banking analyst with Credit Suisse in New York. In this role, she completed equity offerings, financings, and M&A transactions across a variety of sectors, including metals, mining, chemicals, agribusiness, building products and infrastructure.

Nina graduated with Honors from Spelman College and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics.

Financial Manager – Lauren Handler

Lauren Handler recently joined Vantage Capital as Financial Manager. She commenced her career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers where she worked for 6 years gaining valuable auditing as well as accounting experience. She then moved into commerce where she was employed by various companies including Gray Security Services, Chubb Security, Lithotech, Virgin Mobile, Gearhouse and Finwood Papers.

Lauren is a qualified FCIS (Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators) and received her diploma in 1995.

Consultant – Deidre Gebhardt

Deidre joined Vantage Capital in September 2006. She started her career at what was then UAL Merchant Bank (now Nedcor Ltd), and thereafter spent four years as Company Secretary at Arcay Group Ltd. Her most recent position was in the FMCG industry as Financial Manager for the local subsidiary of a multinational. Deidre received her Chartered Institute of Secretaries Diploma in 1992.

Financial Controller – Siyanda Gule

Siyanda joined Vantage Capital as a Financial Controller in February 2011. He commenced his career at Standard Bank where he served his TOPP articles under the Standard Bank Group TOPP programme. During his training he moved to various divisions of the Group including: PBB Retail Finance, CIB Financial Control, Group Internal Audit and CIB Corporate Finance.

Siyanda did his B Com Accounting undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (previously known as University of Natal). Siyanda is a recently qualified chartered accountant.

Financial Accountant – Cebile-Hlophe

Cebile joined Vantage Capital as Financial Accountant in January 2011. She commenced her career at Inhlava Management Consultants as an assistant accountant and then moved to The Mvula trust and worked as a financial administrator.

Cebile has a B Com degree majoring in accounting and finance from Wits University, a B Com honours in financial management from Unisa, and she is currently doing her Chartered Management Accountant qualification with CIMA.

Finance Clerk – Pumla Ngete

Pumla joined Vantage Capital in August 2004. Between 1995 and 1998, she did her Senior Education Diploma at Vista University (Port Elizabeth Campus). While at Vista she was appointed as a gender officer on the SRC. From 2000 she was employed at African Bank as a receptionist. Pumla holds a diploma in Office Administration and Bookkeeping.

Mezzanine Corporate Affairs – Brenda Wild

Brenda joined Vantage Capital in 2008 in the Mezzanine Corporate Affairs division. She started her career in 1989 as a legal clerk in conveyancing and litigation and thereafter joined the financial sector.  She worked at Kagiso Financial Services from the beginning of 2002, attending to the company's events management and providing executive assistance to the Directors.  Subsequently Brenda joined Gem Diamonds as Corporate Affairs Co-ordinator where she gained further valuable experience in establishing the company's Corporate Identity and co-ordinating and implementing road-shows, conferences, site visits and events.

Brenda has a Certificate in Public Relations from Unisa's Centre for Business Management and is completing a BA degree in Communication Science, also through UNISA.

PA to Executive Chairman – Maggie Morei

Maggie joined Vantage Capital in February 2004, as office manager and personal assistant to the Chairman of the group.

Maggie started her career as a legal secretary. In 1992, she joined the Southern Sun Hotels & Holiday Inn Group, where she gained experience in Guest Relations & Front Office Management.

In 1998 Maggie joined Capital Partners, a Private Equity Company, which later merged with Capital Alliance Group to become Brait SA Ltd. Maggie has a Secretarial Diploma, a Certificate in Frontline Public Relations, a Diploma in Business English from Damelin College and a Certificate in Customer Relations from Rosebank College. Maggie is currently studying for a Diploma in Sales & Marketing.

Receptionist/Office Manager – Lee-Ann Brooks

Lee-Ann joined Vantage Capital as office manager and receptionist at the Cape Town office. She previously worked as a secretary in the medical industry for close to two years, and prior to that she was a customer service consultant in various retail outlets for eight years.

Lee-Ann obtained a diploma in Office and Business Administration in 2009.

Office Assistant – Sophy Lekalakala

Sophy Lekalakala joined Vantage Capital in February 2007 as an Office Assistant. She was previously employed as a shop assistant at Gently Worn for a year between 2006 and 2007. In 2004 she did a Diploma in Accounting and Information Systems through PC Training and Business College. Sophy is currently registered part time for a diploma in Corporate Governance and Administration through Wits University.

Office Assistant – Sithabile Nkosi

Sithabile joined Vantage Capital in January 2009 as an Office Assistant. She studied office administration through Rosebank College during 2010.

Driver – Andries Makhuvela

Andries worked for Vantage Capital part time for 3 years, and in October 2010 he joined Vantage Capital in a permanent capacity as a Driver. Previously, from 1983 until September 2009, Andries worked at Rezek Motors as the company's driver.