Trading Places

The board of directors of the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (Savca) has appointed Lelo Rantloane as its new chair.

Rantloane, the founding CEO of Ata Capital, has served on the Savca board for five years. He was formerly head of debt capital markets at Deutsche Bank’s Johannesburg branch. He began his career with Rand Merchant Bank as a transactor in debt capital markets and later became a transactor in acquisition and leveraged finance.

UK-based BoardroomAdvisors.co, a company that helps small businesses by giving them access to experienced part-time directors, has appointed Mike Gray as its first director in SA.

Gray, former founder and MD of SA Express Airways, Federal Air and Uniglobe Travel SSA, will spearhead BoardroomAdvisors.co’s operations in SA and across the continent.

Gray, who worked as an accountant, will use his director-level experience to support travel, light manufacturing, mining, electronics and tech firms, among many industries.

Alon Lits has been appointed chair of emergency dispatch platform Aura.

Lits, who has an MBA from Insead, joined Uber in August 2013 as general manager in Johannesburg, moving up to become general manager of Sub-Saharan Africa in mid-2015.

He began his career in the leveraged finance division of Investec Bank, where he provided debt and preference share financing solutions to corporations and private equity funds. He interned with LeapFrog Investments, focusing on investment opportunities throughout Africa.