VAN DER STEL CAPITAL DIRECTORS
Fransoa Swart
Fransoa has 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry – 20 years in stockbroking and 17 years in derivatives. His previous employers include well-known investment managers including De Witt Morgan Securities, Sanlam Wealth Management, BOE Stockbrokers and T-sec.
In 2009, Fransoa founded Anchor Capital, the main subsidiary of JSE listed Anchor Group – which currently manages funds in excess of ZAR50 billion. During his time at Anchor, Fransoa served as an executive director and the head of both the trading and compliance divisions.
In 2015, Fransoa exited Anchor and disposed of his shareholding to start several new ventures. This included, among others, Baywater Capital – a hedge fund manager – and Heimdall. Fransoa is involved in a number of other private equity projects as well.
Fransoa holds a BA degree from the University of Pretoria, a registered securities trader qualification through the JSE, an ICMQ through the London Securities Institute and a SAFEX senior dealer qualification through the South African Institute of Financial Markets (SAIFM). In 2019 he received a dual master’s degree with specialisation in investment banking and capital markets, a MA in finance and investment through the London School of Business and Finance in the United Kingdom and a MSc degree in finance and investment through the Geneva Business School in Switzerland.
Erik Wandrag
Erik has over 15 years of experience in the energy and infrastructure investment sectors in Africa. During this time, he worked on a total cumulative project value in excess of US$ 15 billion.
From 2006 to 2011, Erik was an independent business development consultant specialising in growth and energy for companies such as Sasol, Standard Bank, General Electric, Royal Bafokeng Holdings, Harmony Gold, Deloitte, and EnBW. The work he did involved gas infrastructure projects, power generation projects (including coal, gas, hydro, solar and wind), port and rail projects,power transmission and distribution projects, water management; and biofuels. Between 2011 and 2015, Erik was the head of business development at Cennergi– an independent power producer joint venture between Exxaro Resources and Tata Power. From 2015 to 2017, he was the head of energy at Harith and was responsible for the origination, approval and investment in new acquisitions as well as the management of the existing energy portfolio. Since 2017 Erik has been a director of Cajari Limited, a Mauritian company that provides executive expertise to companies globally. In this capacity, from 2017 – 2019, he was the senior transaction advisor for the U.S government’s Power Africa initiative. As part of this appointment, he was responsible for the oversight of 40 transaction advisors in 21 countries. In addition, he was responsible for accelerating project development, providing independent advice regarding transaction issues and assisting in building capacity of key ministries in Africa. From 2018 – 2019 he served as a director of Sanlam InfraWorks (SIW) , a principle investor and manager of third party capital in the Emerging Markets Infrastructure sector. SIW is part of the Sanlam Group of South Africa, the largest non-banking financial services company in Africa.
Currently he serves as senior investment director for Climate Fund Managers (CFM). With offices in The Hague, Cape Town and Singapore, CFM is established as a joint venture between the Dutch government’s development bank, FMO, and Sanlam InfraWorks. CFM is the fund manager of two blended finance facilities which invest in the development and implementation of climate related businesses and projects across global emerging markets. The two funds are Climate Investor One, a USD 850 million fund investing in renewable energy projects, and Climate Investor 2, which focuses on water, sanitation and ocean projects and was seeded with USD 90 million by the Dutch and Danish governments with a targeted fund size of USD 1 billion.
Erik holds a B.Sc. (Honours) degree from the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and is currently completing a masters degree in engineering management at the same institution.
His memberships include Global Reporting Initiative, United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, United Nations Global Compact and MENSA.
Franco de Wet
Franco has been part of the legal profession and the financial services industry in South Africa for the past 16 years. Franco began his career as a candidate attorney at Oelofse Hefer & Wessels Attorneys in 2005 and was admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa in 2007. He was then appointed as an associate attorney at Oelofse Hefer & Wessels Attorneys and in 2009 Franco started his own law firm, Nel & De Wet Attorneys, and has been practicing as a partner of the firm since 2009. In his time as an attorney, he has gained extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of civil litigation, labour law and the legal aspects governing long and short term insurance, fund and collective investment schemes and fiduciary services.
Franco is also the founder and an executive director at Advanced Professional Services, where he heads the fiduciary and legal services department. The company was incorporated in 2017 and renders legal, accounting and tax services to the clients in across multiple industries.
Franco holds B.Com (Law) and LLB degrees from the University of Johannesburg.
Ashvini Nowjee
Ashvini has 19 years’ experience in the financial services industry. During this time, she has worked for businesses, funds and high net worth families and individuals across Africa, Europa, the Middle East and South America.
Ashvini started her career in 2002 in the Finance Department of the University of Mauritius. In 2009, she moved to Guernsey where she joined Northern Trust as a senior analyst. During this time, she acquired extensive experience in fund administration and accounting, especially NAV production. In 2013, she returned to Mauritius and joined Maitland where she managed teams that provided accounting services to private, corporate and institutional clients across sub-Saharan Africa, Malta, Luxembourg, the UK, the Isle of Man, Monaco, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and across Latin America.
Since 2018, Ashwini has been the chief financial officer and an executive director of Van der Stel. She has been instrumental in building the business to its current form. She manages the teams responsible for the production of financial statements for clients, the net asset value calculation for clients’ funds, tax administration services and general administration services.
Ashwini is a qualified member of ACCA.
Jan Wandrag
Jan has worked in the financial services industry for 16 years. During this time, he has served as an executive, a member of board committees (including investment committees), a director and a trustee of companies, funds and trusts with total assets under management in excess of USD 50 billion. In 2009, he was one of the youngest directors on the JSE at the age of 29.
Jan started his career in the financial services industry in 2006 at Integer in the UK and then in South Africa as a legal officer. He formed part of the teams that provided legal and compliance support and developed new products. In 2009, he joined GMG Trust Company where he, as the manager of the structured finance team, provided independent management and administration services to corporate and institutional structures, including syndications, securitisations, BEE structures, hedge funds and investment companies and trusts. During this time, he served as a director of JSE listed companies and finance and investment vehicles created by South African banks and other blue chip organisations. He moved to Maitland in 2013 where he first managed the team responsible for services to high net worth families and individuals and then the operations of the Mauritius office. During this time, Jan served as a director, a board committee member (including audit and investment committees) and a trustee of several multinational companies and trusts created to satisfy the cross-border investment and operational requirements of corporations, institutional investors and high net worth individuals and families. He was responsible for business development for the Mauritius office and developed strong networks across Africa and Europe. In 2016, Jan was appointed as the chief operations officer and an executive director of Lighthouse Capital, a JSE and SEM listed real estate and infrastructure company and held that position until 2021. Following his departure, he has created several of his own ventures.
Jan holds a B.Com (Law) degree from the University of Johannesburg.
DIRECTORS
Fransoa Swart
Fransoa has 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry – 20 years in stockbroking and 17 years in derivatives. His previous employers include well-known investment managers including De Witt Morgan Securities, Sanlam Wealth Management, BOE Stockbrokers and T-sec.
In 2009, Fransoa founded Anchor Capital, the main subsidiary of JSE listed Anchor Group – which currently manages funds in excess of ZAR50 billion. During his time at Anchor, Fransoa served as an executive director and the head of both the trading and compliance divisions.
In 2015, Fransoa exited Anchor and disposed of his shareholding to start several new ventures. This included, among others, Baywater Capital – a hedge fund manager – and Heimdall. Fransoa is involved in a number of other private equity projects as well.
Fransoa holds a BA degree from the University of Pretoria, a registered securities trader qualification through the JSE, an ICMQ through the London Securities Institute and a SAFEX senior dealer qualification through the South African Institute of Financial Markets (SAIFM). In 2019 he received a dual master’s degree with specialisation in investment banking and capital markets, a MA in finance and investment through the London School of Business and Finance in the United Kingdom and a MSc degree in finance and investment through the Geneva Business School in Switzerland.
Erik Wandrag
Erik has over 15 years of experience in the energy and infrastructure investment sectors in Africa. During this time, he worked on a total cumulative project value in excess of US$ 15 billion.
From 2006 to 2011, Erik was an independent business development consultant specialising in growth and energy for companies such as Sasol, Standard Bank, General Electric, Royal Bafokeng Holdings, Harmony Gold, Deloitte, and EnBW. The work he did involved gas infrastructure projects, power generation projects (including coal, gas, hydro, solar and wind), port and rail projects, power transmission and distribution projects, water management; and biofuels. Between 2011 and 2015, Erik was the head of business development at Cennergi– an independent power producer joint venture between Exxaro Resources and Tata Power. From 2015 to 2017, he was the head of energy at Harith and was responsible for the origination, approval and investment in new acquisitions as well as the management of the existing energy portfolio. Since 2017 Erik has been a director of Cajari Limited, a Mauritian company that provides executive expertise to companies globally. In this capacity, from 2017 – 2019, he was the senior transaction advisor for the U.S government’s Power Africa initiative. As part of this appointment, he was responsible for the oversight of 40 transaction advisors in 21 countries. In addition, he was responsible for accelerating project development, providing independent advice regarding transaction issues and assisting in building capacity of key ministries in Africa. From 2018 – 2019 he served as a director of Sanlam InfraWorks (SIW) , a principle investor and manager of third party capital in the Emerging Markets Infrastructure sector. SIW is part of the Sanlam Group of South Africa, the largest non-banking financial services company in Africa.
Currently he serves as senior investment director for Climate Fund Managers (CFM). With offices in The Hague, Cape Town and Singapore, CFM is established as a joint venture between the Dutch government’s development bank, FMO, and Sanlam InfraWorks. CFM is the fund manager of two blended finance facilities which invest in the development and implementation of climate related businesses and projects across global emerging markets. The two funds are Climate Investor One, a USD 850 million fund investing in renewable energy projects, and Climate Investor 2, which focuses on water, sanitation and ocean projects and was seeded with USD 90 million by the Dutch and Danish governments with a targeted fund size of USD 1 billion.
Erik holds a B.Sc. (Honours) degree from the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and is currently completing a masters degree in engineering management at the same institution.
His memberships include Global Reporting Initiative, United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, United Nations Global Compact and MENSA.
Franco de Wet
Franco has been part of the legal profession and the financial services industry in South Africa for the past 16 years.Franco began his career as a candidate attorney at Oelofse Hefer & Wessels Attorneys in 2005 and was admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa in 2007. He was then appointed as an associate attorney at Oelofse Hefer & Wessels Attorneys and in 2009 Franco started his own law firm, Nel & De Wet Attorneys, and has been practicing as a partner of the firm since 2009. In his time as an attorney, he has gained extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of civil litigation, labour law and the legal aspects governing long and short term insurance, fund and collective investment schemes and fiduciary services.
Franco is also the founder and an executive director at Advanced Professional Services, where he heads the fiduciary and legal services department. The company was incorporated in 2017 and renders legal, accounting and tax services to the clients in across multiple industries.
Franco holds B.Com (Law) and LLB degrees from the University of Johannesburg.
Ashvini Nowjee
Ashvini has 19 years’ experience in the financial services industry. During this time, she has worked for businesses, funds and high net worth families and individuals across Africa, Europa, the Middle East and South America.
Ashvini started her career in 2002 in the Finance Department of the University of Mauritius. In 2009, she moved to Guernsey where she joined Northern Trust as a senior analyst. During this time, she acquired extensive experience in fund administration and accounting, especially NAV production. In 2013, she returned to Mauritius and joined Maitland where she managed teams that provided accounting services to private, corporate and institutional clients across sub-Saharan Africa, Malta, Luxembourg, the UK, the Isle of Man, Monaco, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and across Latin America.
Since 2018, Ashwini has been the chief financial officer and an executive director of Van der Stel. She has been instrumental in building the business to its current form. She manages the teams responsible for the production of financial statements for clients, the net asset value calculation for clients’ funds, tax administration services and general administration services.
Ashwini is a qualified member of ACCA.
Jan Wandrag
Jan has worked in the financial services industry for 16 years. During this time, he has served as an executive, a member of board committees (including investment committees), a director and a trustee of companies, funds and trusts with total assets under management in excess of USD 50 billion. In 2009, he was one of the youngest directors on the JSE at the age of 29.
Jan started his career in the financial services industry in 2006 at Integer in the UK and then in South Africa as a legal officer. He formed part of the teams that provided legal and compliance support and developed new products. In 2009, he joined GMG Trust Company where he, as the manager of the structured finance team, provided independent management and administration services to corporate and institutional structures, including syndications, securitisations, BEE structures, hedge funds and investment companies and trusts. During this time, he served as a director of JSE listed companies and finance and investment vehicles created by South African banks and other blue chip organisations. He moved to Maitland in 2013 where he first managed the team responsible for services to high net worth families and individuals and then the operations of the Mauritius office. During this time, Jan served as a director, a board committee member (including audit and investment committees) and a trustee of several multinational companies and trusts created to satisfy the cross-border investment and operational requirements of corporations, institutional investors and high net worth individuals and families. He was responsible for business development for the Mauritius office and developed strong networks across Africa and Europe. In 2016, Jan was appointed as the chief operations officer and an executive director of Lighthouse Capital, a JSE and SEM listed real estate and infrastructure company and held that position until 2021. Following his departure, he has created several of his own ventures.
Jan is currently a director of Heimdall, VFund One and Machada, he is the founder of Van Der Stel Capital and is an advisor to several governments and governmental bodies.
Jan holds a B.Com (Law) degree from the University of Johannesburg.