About us

Ms. Masango worked as a Junior Project Engineer but currently she is a PhD candidate in Nuclear Physics at The University of the Western cape. She was part of a major African led experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) where she was the only woman in the group and received an honour to be the first African woman to be part of an African led experiment at CERN.
She is the founder and chairperson of Senamile Masango foundation. She is passionate about Science and Engineering and endeavor to empower women in Africa. The foundation offers programmes for middle school students to professionals, including a conference for middle and high school students, academic and career preparation programmes for college students, mentoring, internship, scholarships, a living-learning residential community and much more.
Senamile is the Leader of a research team representing South Africa at BRICS Youth Energy Agency. This is a volunteer international youth organisation established to secure cooperation of the youth from BRICS countries in the field of energy and to promote development of its research and scientific potential. She was part of the International Women’s Conference hosted by South Africa’s Parliament where she addressed issues that are faced by women in Africa.
Her past leadership roles include Deputy Secretary of Peace Aid International, Chairperson of Young African Women in Leadership, Chairperson of United African Youth as well as being an NEC member at Progressive Professionals Forum (PPF).

Some of her achievements include being one of South Africa’s successful black woman Scientist under 35 years, 2019 Mail and Guardian 200 young South African Science and Technology.

Mr Shayi holds Master of Business Leadership from University of South Africa (UNISA) as well as Master of Science in Chemistry from University of Pretoria. He has an illustrious career of over 20 years in the Nuclear Industry.  He started as a Scientist at the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) in the uranium enrichment programme called Molecular Laser Isotope Separation (MLIS). He later was appointed to leadership roles as General Manager and Group Executive reporting to the CEO at Necsa.

Shayi has served in several committees nationally and internationally on Nuclear Safeguards and non-proliferation matters on behalf of the South African Government. He was a member of the South African Council for the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction from 2001 to 2009. During his tenure at the Non Proliferation Council, he also served in the nuclear subsection, and also the chemical group subsection where he was also a Chairman.

He has experience in the nuclear fuel cycle, research and development, nuclear safeguards and non-proliferation matters. He also established relationships and networks with the IAEA and other experts within the IAEA member states.

Some of his achievements include, managing HEU storage facility according to the IAEA requirements and accredited by the USA nuclear regulator to purchase HEU from the USA.

Ms. Adila Chowan is a qualified Chartered Accountant (SA) and Registered Auditor with experience in both governance and finance. She has held Chief Financial Officer positions at Alexkor and CEF. Ms. Chowan also serves on the Boards of Legal Aid South Africa and Action Aid South Africa. She serves as the Chairperson of the Audit Committee and as a member of the Board Executive Committee. She obtained a Bachelor’s Degree as well as an Honours Degree in accountancy where after served the three-year period articles at Deloitte & Touche, from 1997 until 2000, in order to qualify as a chartered accountant. In 2019 Ms. Chowan completed her LLB degree with cum laude.

Ms. Chowan has extensive experience as a chartered accountant in the corporate world. Once she qualified as a Chartered Accountant at the end of 2000, she stayed on at Deloitte & Touche as the audit manager for about a year.

She thereafter spent about a year in the United Kingdom where she was employed at Ernst & Young. Upon her return to South Africa, she joined Rand Merchant Bank where she worked in the capacity of Treasury Accountant for about two years. In 2004, she joined the Central Energy Fund (CEF) first as the Financial Manager and she was later promoted to the position of Chief Financial Officer.

Dr. Gregory Davids is a Philosophiae Doctor who qualified from the University of Western Cape. Having authored the book titled “Local Government Capacity for Policy Implementation in South Africa: A Study of the Saldanha Bay and Swellendam Municipalities in the Western Cape Province”, which was published on 26 July 2009. Jerome as he is affectionately known, is highly respected in the industry of local government and promotion of good governance. Dr. Gregory Jerome Davids is a Senior Lecturer and faculty Chairperson and member of the Senate Assessment Committee in the School of Governance at the University of the Western Cape. He has also lectured at the Peninsula University of Technology, where he served in numerous committees within the University.

As Harvard South African Fellow, Davids also completed a Programme for Management Development at the Harvard School of Business in the USA. Davids has authored, edited and supervised numerous books on the topics of governance and public sector management.

Some of the leadership roles include Non-Executive Director (Chairperson of Research and Development Committee-Wits), as well as Chairperson of Lungile Mtshotwana Foundatiom which forms part of a collaborative research team that focuses on equitable resource allocation for local government in the Western Cape.

Dr Namane Magau holds a Doctorate in Education from Harvard. She also served on the Board of Harvard Educational Review during her doctoral studies at Harvard Graduate School of Education.  Currently she is a Board Chairman of NTP and Bertha Gxowa Foundation. She also serves on the Nozala Trust Board of Trustees, UCT Graduate School of Business Advisory Board. Past boards on which she served include Murray & Roberts, Merrill Lynch South Africa and Santam.  She is a member of a women’s investment Group Tselane Energy which invests in the energy sector.

Her past management and executive roles include the senior management position at the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) as a Director in the Human Resource Policy division. From the DBSA she joined the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as the Executive Vice President for Human Capital. After five years at the CSIR she became part of the executive team at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

The experiences she had in designing policy for National Programs like the HR strategy for the RDP and guiding development of management systems and programs for the science and innovation systems at the CSIR extended her understanding of promoting performance of organizations through engaging people at all levels and using efficient information management systems. She is an expert researcher on women economic empowerment and has been involved in several studies to promote participation of women Owned Enterprises in the economy.

As an educator, she is also passionate about development of others and has therefore been active in women development programs and was President of Business Women’s Association (BWA), as well as President of International Women’s Forum South Africa (IWFSA). She also mentors young leaders, a role that she finds very enriching and inspiring.

Dr. Magau embodies a rare character of a feminist, entrepreneur and educationalist who is passionate about Africa’s development and assumption of her rightful place in the global economy.

Mr David Nicholls is highly respected in the nuclear industry and regarded as a non-compromising leader who gets things done. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering (2-1) from the Royal Naval Engineering College, Manadon.

He was responsible for the nuclear new build programme and overseeing the Koeberg power station until his retirement in December 2018. While at the utility he revitalised the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), an area in which South Africa was a world leader.

He had worked his way up through the ranks at Eskom, working in its nuclear engineering department in the early 1980s before being appointed as Technical Support Manager at Koeberg in the early 1990s. He headed up the PBMR project. He was later appointed Chief Nuclear Officer at Eskom, and has experience managing Koeberg, which is the lowest cost provider of electricity to the grid. With 33 years of experience at Eskom, Dave Nicholls is no stranger to the Nuclear industry. Previously Chief Nuclear Officer at Eskom, accountable for all Eskom’s nuclear activities, including the operation of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. He was also the General Manager for Nuclear Engineering, accountable for Nuclear Engineering at Koeberg and new build nuclear programme.