Leadership
Executive Directors
Adrian Gore
Founder, Executive Director and Group Chief Executive
Adrian is the founder and Group Chief Executive of the Discovery Group. In 1998, he was recognised as South Africa's Best Entrepreneur by Ernst & Young and was chosen as South Africa's leading CEO in the annual Moneyweb CEO of the Year Awards in 2004. In 2008, he received the Investec Award for Considerable Contribution in a Career/Profession, and he was named Sunday Times Business Leader of the Year in 2010. Alongside his commitments, he works with other leaders to stimulate entrepreneurship in South Africa. In 2017, Adrian received the Frost and Sullivan Visionary Innovation Leadership Award for Africa, and the Ernst & Young Global Life Time Achiever (Entrepreneurship) Award.
Deon Viljoen
Executive Director, Group CFO
Deon joined the Discovery Group in May 2017 as Group CFO. He serves on the boards of various of the Group's subsidiaries and committees, including the Group Executive Committee. Before joining Discovery, he was with the Alexander Forbes Group, where he joined in 2003 as Finance Director of Investment Solutions. He later became Finance Director of the group's African operations and, in 2007, assumed the role of Group CFO. In this role, Deon served as Executive Director on Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited's Board and the listed special purpose vehicle Alexander Forbes Preference Share Investments Limited, as well as various subsidiary boards and committees. Deon was instrumental in strategic repositioning during the private equity holding and the relisting in 2014. He also served as interim CEO in 2016. Deon was named CFO of the Year 2015 by CFO SA. Earlier in his career, he was a Partner and Director of PwC Johannesburg. As part of his specialisation in banking and financial services, he advised clients and presented on topics such as financial risk management. While in the accountancy profession, Deon was a member of the SAICA Banking Industry Group and chaired the Investment Management and the Collective Investment Schemes industry groups.
Barry Swartzberg
Executive Director, CEO: Vitality Group
Barry is the co-founder of Discovery. He was instrumental in establishing Discovery Health's marketing, distribution and operational functions as Chief Marketing Officer from 1992 to 1996 and Chief Operations Officer from 1997 to 1999. He then served as CEO from 2000 to 2005, launching the first low-income medical scheme plans and Discovery Health's administration services business for closed medical schemes. From 2005 to 2014, he served as Group Executive Director responsible for Discovery's strategy and new business development. In this role, he initiated Discovery's strategy to launch a retail bank, helped start Discovery Insure, secured the shareholding in Ping An Health Insurance, established the first insurance partnership with AIA and established Vitality USA. Barry now serves as Vitality Group CEO, responsible for expanding Discovery's Shared-value Insurance model beyond South Africa and the UK. He also serves on the boards of Discovery Insure, Vitality Group and Ping An Health Insurance in China.
Non-Executive Directors
Mark Tucker
Independent Non-Executive Director
Mark is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 35 years' experience in the financial services industry in the UK, US and Asia - including 25 years based in Hong Kong. Mark is the Non-executive Group Chairperson of HSBC Holdings. Most recently, Mark served as Group Chief Executive and President of AIA Group Limited, where he spearheaded its world-record-breaking initial public offering in Hong Kong in 2010. Before AIA, Mark held various senior executive roles with Prudential, including Group Chief Executive of Prudential plc. He was the founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Prudential Corporation Asia Limited. Mark was also an Independent Non-executive Director of the Goldman Sachs Group and served on the Court of the Bank of England as a Non-executive Director from 2009 to 2012.
Monhla Hlahla
Independent Non-Executive Director
Monhla is a highly experienced executive and business leader with over 35 years' experience in infrastructure development and management. Monhla has a depth of experiences in corporate governance, based on a demonstrated history of nonexecutive directorships in a variety of industries. Her experiences are a combination of strong operational experiences and extensive exposure to private and public sector governance and leadership, that places Monhla uniquely among the leading Executive Coaches from the African continent. She previously served as Managing Director of Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), and under her management, ACSA embarked on its biggest ever capital expenditure programme to cater for the increasing number of passengers going through South African airports. She also served as the Chairperson of the Johannesburg Water Utility, the Trans-Caledon Water Authority and the Industrial Development Corporation. In 2014, Monhla was honoured by the President of France with the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur and, in 2005, both the Black Business Quarterly and the Businesswomen's Association named her Businesswoman of The Year.
Bridget van Kralingen
Independent Non-Executive Director
Bridget started her career as a senior researcher for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa, after which she became a managing partner for strategy and organisation development at Deloitte South Africa. In 1997, she moved to New York City to serve as national managing partner for financial services at Deloitte. Bridget joined IBM Global services in 2004 and served in multiple roles. As Senior Vice President of IBM Global Business Services, she led IBM's Industry Platforms, establishing IBM as the leader in enterprise blockchain. In 2020, Bridget was named Senior Vice President of IBM Global Markets managing IBM sales teams, business partners, business development and industry capabilities globally. In this role, she was responsible for IBM's revenue, profit, and client satisfaction worldwide. Bridget brings a wealth of global business experience and technology and artificial intelligence expertise to the Board, which supports Discovery's global expansion.
Faith Khanyile
Independent Non-Executive Director
Faith is a founding member and CEO of WDB Investment Holdings. Faith has over 24 years financial services sector experience. She held various senior and executive roles with Standard Bank Corporate and Investment Banking between 2001 and 2013. She was the Head of Corporate Banking, where she was responsible for strategy development and execution, people leadership, key client relationship management and business development. She also served on Standard Bank's CIB Executive and Credit committees. Before joining Standard Bank, Faith was with Brait Private Equity. In May 2016, Faith was accorded Doctor of Law by Wheaton College. She is also a recipient of the 2017 Business Woman of the Year Award (Corporate category) from the Businesswomen's Association of South Africa
Richard Farber
Non-Executive Director
Richard joined Discovery as CFO in 2003 and was appointed Financial Director on 1 July 2009. Richard relinquished these roles on 30 April 2017 and has since remained a Discovery Board member. He was a partner at Fisher Hoffman Sithole (PKF) from 1998 until 2001, before joining Investec Bank as Group Accountant until 2003.
Marquerithe Schreuder
Independent Non-Executive Director
Marquerithe is a qualified actuary and has been a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa since 2000. She was an Independent Director of Hannover Re Africa Group, where she acted as the Chairperson of the Actuarial and Risk and Remuneration committees. Marquerithe was also a Director at the Actuarial Insurance Solutions division of Deloitte. Further, she continues to serve on the Actuarial Society of South Africa's Life Assurance Tax Subcommittee.
David Macready
Independent Non-Executive Director
David was an audit partner at Deloitte in South Africa and, subsequently, in London for six years before entering financial services. He held positions as Managing Director of Syfrets Private Bank, Managing Director of Nedbank Wealth, CEO of Old Mutual Investment Group and CEO of Old Mutual South Africa. Over a period of 21 years, he served on the Group Executive of Nedcor Investment Bank, Nedbank Group Limited and Old Mutual Limited. David retired following the Old Mutual managed separation at the end of 2018.
Lisa Chiume
Independent Non-executive Director
Lisa was a Senior Director at Deutsche Bank South Africa from 2002 to 2014, where she was involved in mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets. Lisa joined RMI Holdings Limited and RMH Holdings Limited in 2014 as a Senior Investment Executive until March 2023. Due to RMI/RMH's previous shareholding in Discovery Limited, Lisa has worked closely with Discovery and senior Discovery management over the years on strategic issues, including capital allocation, remuneration, mergers and acquisitions activity and new business initiatives. She was involved in a substantial value unlock for the shareholders of RMI/RMH through the unbundling of RMI/RMH interests in FirstRand, Discovery and Momentum Metropolitan, the sale of Hastings as well as the rebranding of RMI to OUTsurance and its subsequent listing on the JSE. Lisa is currently an Executive Director at Alphacode Holdings. Alphacode is responsible for the management and orderly disposal of the remaining fintech and asset management businesses of OUTsurance (formerly RMI) as well as raising and deploying third party funds to invest in fintech and related verticals in Africa.
Christine Ramon
Independent Non-executive Director
Christine is a seasoned finance executive with extensive board experience at large listed entities across industry sectors, including natural resources, media and entertainment, and energy and chemicals. Christine was the CFO of AngloGold Ashanti Limited from 2014 to 2022, where she also served as interim CEO from 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2021. She was the CFO of Sasol Limited from 2006 to 2013 and, prior to this, was the CEO of Johnnic Holdings. She also served as a Non-executive Director on the boards of MTN Group, Rand Refinery, Lafarge SA, Johnnic Communications, Transnet, the World Gold Council and the International Council on Mining and Metals and the International Federation of Accountants. In 2007, Christine was nominated as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. Christine currently serves as a member of the Presidential Council for State-Owned Enterprises.