JB Maree (CEO)
JB has an Honour’s Degree in Economics from Rhodes University and a B.Com from the University of Natal (PMB).JB displays a flair for all things strategic and has a knack for building businesses, thinking laterally, developing people and deal making. His extensive knowledge of entrepreneurship ensures an open-minded view towards business and an ability to relate to clients.

Over the past few years, JB has been involved in shaping and growing businesses from the inside. At Smacsoft, JB was instrumental in taking their client base from 8 to over 40 and helping the company to an IPO in 1999. He also played an integral role in expanding the company off-shore and developing InterLink, a new product for the multi-manager industry. Under his leadership, they also acquired Common Knowledge from Ixchange.

At Saratoga Software, JB was involved in its turnaround and shaped its transformation and growth strategy. Saratoga Software has grown rapidly and implemented a Black Empowerment deal with one of the country’s most successful empowerment companies – Sekunjalo Investments.

Always involved in the community, JB has been on the board of a new innovative schooling system called Synergy Schooling and, more recently, he was a mentor and facilitator at the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation – the country’s largest social entrepreneurship initiative.



Graeme McKellar (MD)
Graeme has an MBA from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, with a focus on Private Company Valuations and Facilitation.

A dynamic leader and quick thinker, Graeme brings with him the ability to rapidly understand business needs. He is able to immerse himself in a business environment to quickly anticipate the businesses needs and potential pitfalls. Along with his global experience, Graeme has a wide array of expertise and skills, which enable him to provide a holistic view of situations and solutions. He has more than 12 years of industry experience, which covers business leadership, technical architecture, software development and product development, as well as IT and business consultancy fields. Over the past few years, Graeme has facilitated in structures, negotiations and valuations of a number of IT-related mergers and acquisitions and consulted at the board level around operational and financial optimisations and structures.

Graeme is an entrepreneur, highly productive and enjoys helping business owners grapple with strategic issues and often plays an important role optimising operational and financial structures within high growth IT companies.



Bernard Laferla (CFO)
Bernard has a B.Com (Economics), and a B.Acc from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MBA from the University of Cape Town. Bernard qualified as a Chartered Accountant (SA) in 2000 after completing his articles at KPMG.

Bernard has a rare blend of skills and experience. With 12 years of diverse experience across numerous industries ranging from professional services and engineering, to telecommunications and software development, he has developed a deep understanding of the challenges facing fast growing service and project related businesses.

Bernard can hold the fort at any level. He has held numerous positions at an executive level, and has a strong strategic and operational focus. In addition Bernard has had extensive experience in corporate finance, having consulted on numerous large and small deals with companies such as MTN and Toyota South Africa.

He enjoys the challenge of facilitating change within organisations, and has the ability to integrate financial and operational restructuring, while being cognisant of the people issues related to change and corporate activity.

Bernard is a talented creative and strategic thinker that enjoys working with people throughout an organisation to create new and dynamic opportunities.




Hazel Dunbar (Organisational Psychologist)
Hazel heads up Jala People Consulting, bringing her expertise as a people specialist and registered Organisational Psychologist. She has provided consulting psychology services to various organisations across industries, building expertise in assessment, return on learning investments, organisational development and design, management development, human resource management as well as high level facilitated interventions.

Hazel applies the principles of human behaviour within all areas of the workplace in practical ways that help provide sustainable behaviour shifts. Her knack of seeing the human dynamics within complex systems, coupled with her direct communication style and neutral standpoint, helps organisations quickly break down traditional Human Resource moulds and transfer ownership for performance to all parties.

She applies her Organisational Development skills mostly to knowledge intensive companies and is particularly interested in how their growth can be sustained through the adaptive capabilities of knowledge workers – the topic of her PhD research supported by the University of Johannesburg. This breakthrough research will supplement her MCom (Cum Laude) in Organisational Psychology from the University of Stellebosch, and her BCom (Hons) from the University of Cape Town



Alon Hendel (Associate)
Alon has a B Com (Law) and Honours in Economics from the University of Johannesburg.

Alon is fascinated by how businesses innovate in order to solve problems. While at university he co-founded Tycoon.co.za, a business news website targeted at students in conjunction with Moneyweb Ltd. After completing his studies Alon joined Xybanetx Management Consultants as part of a business acceleration programme based at a large short term insurer improving systems and efficiencies. Alon’s responsibilities within Vunani Tech include BEE ratings and financial valuations.

Alon is passionate about watching business develop and fulfil their potential



Marise de Vos (Office Administrator & Accountant)
Marise is responsible for the administration and accounting within Vunani Technology Ventures. We practise what we preach and we often use Marise to help our clients get organised and efficient with their weekly and monthly accounting processes and financial reporting. At Vunani Technology Ventures we value being organised, and it is this skill that allows us to mobilise and launch new programs and initiatives quickly.

Marise is a pro-active accountant that has several years’ experience in the finance industry. She has both the expertise and the ability to communicate what she knows within our customer base.
Vunani Technology Ventures operates as a team, we set high standards for ourselves and our partners and Marise is core to what we do and how we do things.



Rina McKellar (Strategic Marketing)

Rina joins Vunani Technology Ventures as an associate responsible for Strategic Marketing. Having worked across several different industries in both consumer and business -to-business marketing, Rina applies her global experience and leverages different learnings from multiple sectors. Vunani Technology Ventures’ customers benefit because smaller companies cannot usually afford their own marketing capability. Our philosophy is quite simple – we think smaller companies should be marketing their brands, products and services far more than they currently are and we believe that marketing should be strategic and be positioned at the heart of every business.

Gillian Schultz (Psychometrist/Intern Industrial Psychologist)

Gillian joins the Jala People Consulting team with well anchored experience in psychometric assessment, and an deep-seated interest in applying psychological principle to help businesses succeed. Gillian has a Master’s Degree in Industrial Psychology (Cum Laude) from the University of the North West.

She began her studies with a degree in Child psychology and a General Psychology Honours degree from the University of Johannesburg, then went on to qualify and register as a Psychometrist Independent practice. This career path allowed for exposure to the field of psychometric assessment across various industries, which furthered fuelled her interest in the application of Psychology within a corporate environment. As an intern Industrial Psychologist, Gillian enjoys connecting with people and ensuring the principles of psychology are made relevant to people in real life working situations and challenges.