Management Team
Rupert Barnard – Founder and Group Managing Director
Over the past 20 years, Rupert has consulted to both the public and private sectors across Africa, Europe, the US, the Middle East, and India. In 1998, he established Kaiser EDP, a specialist economic development consulting firm focusing on economic policy, sector and regional development, trade and investment facilitation, infrastructure development, and programme management in Africa. Key clients include national and provincial governments, multilateral organisations, development agencies and public-private partnerships.
Rupert has specific expertise in developing policy and strategy to leverage economic benefits of mining in Southern and West Africa, through supporting local content/local procurement. He also specialises in value chain development, trade analysis, investment requirements analysis and feasibility assessment. In addition, he leads Kaiser’s renewable energy business.
Country experience:
Belgium, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, France, Guinea, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, United States, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Zambia
Michelle de Bruyn – Managing Director
Michelle joined Kaiser EDP in 2002. She has consulted to both the public and private sectors across Africa and the Middle East. Michelle is an expert in economic policy and strategy development. She has managed over 50 economic development projects. Her content specialisations include sector development, SMME support, design and innovation, and spatial economic development. She also has extensive process expertise in stakeholder management and policy drafting.
Michelle’s previous work experience included being a policy drafter and coordinator for the South African Department of Trade and Industry’s Executive Management Unit, and the Trade and Industry Chamber Coordinator at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
Country experience:
Botswana, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia , Mozambique, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa
Anushia Moodliar – Office Manager
Anushia has worked at Kaiser since 1999. She is responsible for general day to day office administration, including: Finance, Human Resources, and PA to the Managing Directors.
Partners
In addition to the expertise of the core team, Kaiser EDP has established partnerships and works with organisations and individuals to provide expertise in local procurement, community benefits, design thinking, innovation management, urban planning, socio-economic impact assessment, and renewable energy.
Linda Wedderburn – Independent Sustainability Consultant
Linda is an independent sustainability consultant with over 25 years of experience in the mining industry. She was most recently Anglo American’s Global Head of Safety and Sustainable Development Business Performance. Linda wishes to use her leadership skills, passion and drive to make a meaningful contribution to social equity in South Africa, through education, supplier development and local procurement. During her years in the mining industry, Linda led a number of diverse projects across South Africa, South America, UK and Australia, from system implementations to transformational sustainability programmes. Linda holds a BSc in mathematics and computer science, a diploma in project management, and a MSc in Science Education from the University of the Witwatersrand. In November 2014 Linda passed her Masters in “Sustainability Leadership” at Cambridge University which included a dissertation on “Multiple perspectives informing local procurement”. Linda is currently contracting to the Australian-African Partnership on skills development in the Extractives Industry. Kaiser EDP and Linda have recently collaborated on a World Bank initiative to increase local procurement in the mining industry in West Africa.
Victor Cusí – Managing Director of NORMAWIND
Victor Cusí has worked with Kaiser EDP over the last five years through NORMAWIND’s joint venture with WWK on wind farm project development in South Africa. NORMAWIND has provided comprehensive wind energy services worldwide since 1998. These services are aimed at promoters, engineering firms, financial institutions and civil service. NORMAWIND’s multidisciplinary team includes experts in the fields of wind resource assessment and engineering, with expertise in wind measurement and resource assessment, due diligence, grid connection, engineering and strategic consulting.
Professor Pete Britz – Fisheries and aquaculture specialist
Pete has expertise in facilitating policy development, sector planning, management plans and implementation of fishery and aquaculture projects. He has a special interest in how aquaculture and fisheries can support rural livelihoods and facilitate entry into value chains. Pete’s strength is in integrating bio- technical aspects of aquaculture and fisheries with the social and economic aspects, and much of his research is of an inter-disciplinary nature. He has experience in governance analysis, fisheries management, aquaculture technology development, business planning and economics, socio-economic impact analysis, and project facilitation with communities, government and the private sector. Kaiser EDP and Pete have previously worked together on an aquaculture market development strategy for the Western Cape and opportunity identification for the 12 designated fishing harbours.
Heidi van der Watt – Managing Director of EDGE Tourism Solutions
Heidi is a tourism expert with over 20 years’ experience. She is an expert in developing sustainable tourism sector strategies for international markets, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa (Botswana, Gabon, Cameroon, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, and Tanzania), as well as Russia and India. Her specialties include: sustainable development, responsible tourism, local economic development, destination strategies, monitoring and evaluation, social impact assessments, and market and financial feasibility studies.
Heidi was previously a Project Manager at Kaiser EDP, and since then has collaborated on various projects with Kaiser EDP.