Charles Adjasi is a Professor of Development Finance and Economics and former Acting Director Stellenbosch Business School. He was previously Head of Research at Stellenbosch Business School, where he also also served as Head of Development Finance Programmes from January 2013-June 2017. He has been an adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, Econometrics and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands from November 2018 to August 2021. He was an Afreximbank Research Fellow from November 2020 to June 2022 and has also been an IMF Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund, Washington DC, USA in Feb/March 2007. Charles previously worked at the University of Ghana Legon, from 2001-2011 and served as one time Head of Department of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School. He has consulted for various institutions; World Bank, UNCTAD, African Union, Copenhagen Consensus, Frederich Stiftung Foundation Ghana, Trades Union Congress of Ghana, Investment Climate Facility for Africa Afreximbank & African Development Bank. He has served on a panel of experts on Special Commodities Unit of UNCTAD and Trade Negotiations and Commercial Diplomacy Branch of Division on International Trade in Goods and Services and Commodities UNCTAD Geneva. He has also facilitated for Tariffs, Trade and Regional Integration within the West African Institute of Economic and Financial Management. Charles is a network member of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Nairobi, Kenya; and the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN USA. He was a Resource Person on the AERC Collaborative Project on Financial Sector Development and Financial Inclusion in Africa 2017-2019, and also a resource person and member of the Project Steering Committee of the IDRC-AERC Collaborative Research Project on Inclusive Finance for Fragile and Post-Conflict Contexts/States in Africa 2021-2022. His research focus is generally in the area of development economics and finance, and he has worked in the mostly in household welfare and access to finance, financial market development and growth, capital flows, and firm productivity. He also has research interests in the economywide development effect of macroeconomic policy interventions and international trade, in particular using applied general equilibrium analysis. He has been a recipient of a number of research grants; Afreximbank, ESRC UK (joint), UNU-WIDER, AERC (joint), GTAP, and DANIDA.

Prof Mesias Alfeus is a Namibian quantitative finance scholar, academic leader, and finance specialist whose work spans financial risk management, derivative pricing, stochastic modelling, and institutional leadership. He earned his PhD in Finance from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in May 2019, after which he served as a Research Associate in the Finance Discipline Group at UTS and later held a lectureship at the University of Wollongong.

He is currently based at Stellenbosch University, where he has held leadership roles in Financial Risk Management and has built a strong profile across teaching, supervision, research, and academic programme development. His expertise covers quantitative finance, financial markets, and advanced modelling techniques used in risk management and derivative pricing.

Prof Alfeus is the Lead Principal Investigator of the NITheCS Quantitative Finance Research Programme (QFRP) at the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS), where he contributes to research capacity development and the advancement of quantitative finance in South Africa and beyond.

He also serves as Editor-in-Chief Mentee at the South African Journal of Science (SAJS), where he is listed on the journal’s editorial team. This role reflects his growing contribution to scholarly leadership, editorial standards, and research quality in Africa.

His academic journey and research profile have also been featured by Nature Africa in the article Thinking ahead to beat the statistics, which highlights his work on global financial risk and recognises him as part of a series on young African scientists to watch.

Across academia, industry, and editorial leadership, Prof Alfeus continues to build a profile defined by mathematical depth, policy relevance, and a commitment to institution-building in finance and higher education.

Prof. Armand Bam is a distinguished academic, social innovator, and leader with over 20 years of experience in private and nonprofit sectors. As an Associate Professor at Stellenbosch Business School, his dynamic approach to teaching fosters critical consciousness and challenges conventional educational models promoting inclusivity, social justice, and democratic values both within and beyond the classroom to cultivate a new generation of socially responsible leaders. 

In his influential roles as Head of Social Impact and Academic Head of the Small Business Academy, Prof. Bam directly shapes community engagement and social innovation on both local and international stages. Notably, he is the first Business School recipient of the Stellenbosch University Individual Award for Social Impact, the institution’s highest honor in this domain.

Dr Barclay is a Senior Lecturer in Futures Studies and Systems Thinking at Stellenbosch Business School. 

Remerta Basson is a chartered accountant registered with SAICA and a lecturer in financial accounting in the School of Accountancy in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at Stellenbosch University. She holds a masters in taxation (cum laude) and joined the university as a lecturer in 2016. She has lectured accounting and taxation and in addition to these fields, her research interests also include engaged citizenship and organisational theory.

Alboricah is a junior researcher and PhD candidate specializing in sustainable development, with a keen focus on the greening and re-industrialization of South Africa’s steel and iron sector. She’s interested in studying and contributing to an energy transition process that catalyzes job creation, boosts local economies and leverages major infrastructure projects to stimulate production demand. The latter has prompted her interest in exploring ways in which the power transmission infrastructure (or grid) expansion can be used to revitalize the local manufacturing industry in a cost effective and sustainable way. Alboricah actively engages with diverse stakeholders, ranging from manufacturing industry professionals and institutional investors to policymakers and climate change activists. She believes that co-creating solutions with affected stakeholders is the best way to identify and action impactful strategies. Through a combination of rigorous research, cross-sector collaboration, and a commitment to addressing socio-economic disparities, Alboricah aims to contribute to shaping pathways for sustainable industrialization in South Africa and other African countries. Alboricah holds a BSc in mechanical engineering from the University of Witwatersrand and a Masters in Sustainable Development from Stellenbosch University, where she currently studies and works. In addition to her academic research, she is an avid creative writer and enjoys writing climate and Africa focused science fiction stories. She’s a co-founder of the Africa Week Network which convenes local artists and entrepreneurs to connect and start imagining a unified, desirable Africa for all.