Diale Tilo joined the Kgodiso Development Fund as Executive Director in January 2022.

Diale has 24 years of professional experience across public and private sectors. His past 10 years has been spent in middle and senior leadership roles within business banking at Standard Bank, focusing on funding and risk management to micro, small and medium sized enterprises.

Prior to Standard Bank, Diale worked for Potatoes South Africa and AgriSETA. The Potatoes South Africa role focused on farmer development - which entrenched crop production knowledge in terms of scientific and economic aspects of potato production. While at AgriSETA he focused on the impact of structured training (learnership, skills programme) as well as mentorship programs in the agricultural sector.

Diale brings a wealth of experience on farm practical crop production experience, structured training and development, financing of agribusinesses and SMMEs across multiple sectors.

He holds a National Diploma (ED, Agriculture) from the University of Bophuthatswana.

Tshegofatso Selepe joined the Kgodiso Development Fund as Agribusiness Manager in June 2022.

Tshegofatso is a passionate professional in the Agricultural Sector who obtained her BCom Agribusiness Management degree at University of Pretoria in 2011 (majoring in Economics, Agricultural Economics and Financial Management).

Upon completion of her studies Tshegofatso was afforded an opportunity at the Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) as a Research Analyst. She was then afforded an opportunity to work as an Agric Insights Analyst for Standard Bank’s Agricultural division. Her deliverables included compiling Agric reports on shifts in the agricultural sector, which steered the bank on appetite for lending opportunities.

Tshegofatso was promoted to an Agribusiness Specialist (Gauteng) role after two (2) years, where her responsibilities included providing professional agricultural advisory services. This entailed  conducting viability studies, agricultural property valuations, acquisition of new commercial agricultural business opportunities and advising the region on credit and risk-related matters.

Tshegofatso has over ten years of banking and agribusiness experience, and she brings a wealth of knowledge in Agricultural finance.

Masibonge  joined the Kgodiso Development Fund as Finance and Risk Manager in November 2022.

She is a qualified chartered accountant with experience spanning across the FMCG, Manufacturing and Financial Services/Development Finance sectors. Having competed her articles at Unilever South Africa, she then went on to work as a World Class Manufacturing Finance Specialist (based in Leeds) and, thereafter, at Hulamin as the Performance & Optimisation Controller. These roles encompassed building a cost-conscious culture, analyzing data, presenting and tracking waste reduction opportunities and establishing the related governance and reporting structures and systems.

Masibonge then went on to take on the role of Reporting Manager (and subsequently the Cost Optimisation and Reporting Manager) at SA Taxi Development Finance. Masibonge’s most recent role was as Finance Manager for Group Shared Services at Tiger Brands where she managed a cost base of R2.5 billion.

Masibonge prides herself in having both depth and breadth of experience that encompasses both technical and commercial elements. Her strength lies in her commercial background and includes the preparation of forecasts, budgets and variance analyses, implementing process improvements, working collaboratively in cross functional teams to drive business performance and the development of insightful reports for board committees and executives.  Although technically competent, her interest is in developmental economics and ensuring the work she performs has a meaningful impact.

She holds a Bachelor of Business Science Degree (Finance and Accounting) and Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting from the University of Cape Town. She also holds Bachelor of Arts degree (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) from the University of South Africa and is currently studying towards an Honours Degree in Applied Developmental Economics at the University of Witwatersrand.

Setlakalane Alfred Molepo was appointed to the Kgodiso Development Fund’s Board of Trustees in September 2021.

Setlakalane has more than 10 years of experience within the Development Finance sector and is now the Divisional Executive, Strategy, Planning and Significant Investments at the National Empowerment Fund (NEF). His former roles include a decade of professional experience at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), another decade as a Divisional Executive at the SME and Rural Development Division and a secondment to Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) as the acting CEO. At SEFA Setlakalane was responsible for the implementation of the Covid-19 relief fund which assisted more than 1,500 businesses which were affected by the closure of economic activities due to the Covid -19 pandemic. Under his tenure, SEFA grew its blended funding model from R5million lent per counterparty, to R15million. 

In his early career he practiced as a professional engineer in several consulting firms.

He holds a Master’s in Business Leadership (MBL) from University of South Africa, BSc Civil Engineering from University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), and a National Diploma in Civil Engineering from Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).

Christo van der Rheede joined the Kgodiso Development Fund’s Board of Trustees in September 2021.

Christo is the Executive Director of Agri SA where he has been responsible for Agri SA’s transformation programme, national drought relief programme, Agri Phakisa programme and Agri-BEE programme among others. Christo has also served as a CEO of various Non-Profit Organisations in South Africa.  He has experience in training and policy development within Basic Education, Small Business Development and Agricultural Development.

Christo currently serves on the boards of the AgriSETA and Human Resources Development Council and interacts annually with Parliament, the Presidency, Cabinet Ministers, Government Departments, State-owned Enterprises, Corporate Sector and various agricultural stakeholders on a range of legislative, policy and development matters.  

He holds a Higher Diploma in Education, BA degree from University of Western Cape (UWC) and a BA Hons in Public and Development Management and a Master’s in Public Administration from University of Stellenbosch (US).

Nonie Mokose joined the Kgodiso Development Fund’s Board of Trustees in September 2021.

Nonie is an independent professional consultant, specialising in rural development, agricultural food systems and agricultural enterprise development and empowerment. She sits on several Boards including: National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), Central University of Technology, (CUT) Free State and previously the Potatoes South Africa (PSA) and the Potato Industry Development Trust (PIDT).

Her previous roles include a Pilot Consultant for NAMC, a subject matter specialist for the potato industry sector at the Competition Commission, Strategic partner, shareholder and consultant at AB InBev, Consultant partner and specialist Rural Development and Empowerment Consultant at John Deere, and other early career roles at Unilever, H.Golden & Co and Woolworths.

Nonie has extensive practical experience in the empowerment of smallholder farmers, sustainable agricultural development and women and youth empowerment. She has also been actively involved in quantitative and qualitative research studies into the smallholder farming sector, rural and enterprise development, food security, market access, agricultural financing, and commercialisation. She also launched and ran her own successful Commercial potato farming enterprise.

She holds a BSc in Nutritional Science from Cornell and a MA Agriculture from University of Pretoria (UP).

Felix Lombard is Vice President, Transformation for PepsiCo South Africa. He started his career with Pioneer Foods in 1995 as head of information systems at Bokomo and then Pioneer Foods. He held various executive positions at Pioneer Foods including that of CFO and executive director of Pioneer Foods.

Felix holds a MCom (Tax) and is a CA (SA).

Nico Moloto was appointed to the Kgodiso Development Fund’s Board of Trustees in September 2021.  

Nico is currently Director of Corporate Affairs at PepsiCo Sub-Saharan Africa. He has a strong financial background with over ten years’ experience in the financial services sector, having begun his career at RMB Asset Management. Nico then moved to Standard Bank and during his significant tenure, there he was responsible for financial reporting and BEE Lending as well as for structuring corporate Enterprise Development lending schemes. Upon joining Pioneer Foods in 2015, his portfolio expanded to include CSI, Enterprise and Supplier Development, Sustainability and Stakeholder management. Nico also sits on the board of the Pioneer Foods Education and Community Trust (PFECT).

He holds a BCom in Financial Accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), a Post Graduate Diploma in Development Finance and an MPhil in Development Finance from Stellenbosch University (SU).

Derick Appia-Kubi is currently Director of Corporate Affairs at PepsiCo Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Formerly, he was Senior Manager Corporate Strategy & Transformation.

Prior to PepsiCo, Derick spent several years working in consulting, private equity and operations. As a consultant, he led acquisitions, merger integration, divestitures, operations strategy for PwC’s M&A Advisory group and IBM’s Strategy & Transformation group. Within private equity, Derick worked as an Investment Officer at Oasis Capital, a West African focused fund, leading deals within real-estate, hospitality, education, healthcare, and CPG. Derick developed strong operations experience at United Technologies Corporation (UTC), where he completed UTC’s Operations Leadership Program and worked in Supply Chain, Commodity Management, Continuous Improvement.

Derick holds an MBA from Cornell University and a BSc in Engineering & Business from the University of Connecticut.