Douglas Band

A chartered accountant by early training, Douglas Band served as Chief Executive of three different JSE-listed companies over a 20-year time span. After retirement from his executive career, he continued for a further extended period as an Independent Non-Executive Director on the board of a number of South Africa’s most renowned companies.

Ilze Roux

Ms Ilze Roux is the Bidvest Corporate Affairs executive and holds a BComm (Honours) CTA and CA(SA) qualification.
Prior to joining Bidvest in 2017, she was an EEMEA Industrial and Consumer Equity analyst at Merrill Lynch SA. Ilze serves as a non-executive director and trustee of several Bidvest subsidiaries, investment companies and funds.
Her areas of responsibilities include investor relations, corporate activity, remuneration, risk, ESG as well as intellectual property.

Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn joined Bidvest in May 1997 and has held various financial positions within Bidvest Freight, culminating in his appointment as Chief Financial Officer of Bidvest Freight in 2012.
Mark was appointed to the Bidvest board as chief financial officer, effective 1 March 2018. He serves on all South African divisional boards, divisional audit committees and serves as a trustee on the various Group retirement funds.
Mark was appointed as Non-Executive director of the Adcock Ingram board of directors in April 2023.

Professor Petro Terblanche

Professor Petro Terblanche has a successful track record in the strategic and operational management of technology intensive organisations. She has played a key part in the design and implementation of South Africa’s biotechnology strategy and is Chief Executive Officer of Afrigen Biologics (Pty) Ltd based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Prof. Terblanche also holds a part time position as Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the North-West University. A considerable part of her career was spent in research, development and innovation at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) as well as the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). She has held and holds several strategic public and private sector Board positions in SA as well as the position as President of the Stakeholders Organization for the Global Alliance for TB Drug Discovery and Development (2007-2010). Her qualifications include a Master of Science and a Doctor of Science in Medical Oncology from the University of Pretoria. Post-doctoral, she was a visiting scientist at Harvard University School of Public Health and thereafter, completed a Management of Technology program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in addition to several management and leadership programs from leading institutions globally.
Prof. Terblanche is the author of more than 200 scientific publications and conference papers in public health. She was recently acknowledged as one of the legends of science by the Academy of Sciences South Africa.

Dr Kit Vaughan

Dr Kit Vaughan’s experience over the past four decades includes a post-doctoral fellowship in orthopaedic engineering at Oxford University, a tenured professorship at the University of Virginia, and 14 years as the Hyman Goldberg Chair in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
During this latter period he pioneered the medical device industry in South Africa, contributing to the establishment of Disa Vascular, Acorn Technologies, Lodox Systems, Strait Access Technologies, and CapeRay Medical. 
Dr Vaughan is a Fellow of the International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering, and his qualifications include a BSc (Honours) in applied mathematics and physics (Rhodes), a PhD in musculoskeletal biomechanics (Iowa) and a DSc (Med) in biomedical engineering (UCT). He is the holder of multiple United States patents in the field of biomedical engineering, with a focus on breast imaging.

Prof. Peter Zilla
Founder, CHIEF MEDICAL AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

Professor Zilla’s background as a heart surgeon and incumbent of the Christiaan Barnard Chair is reflected in two MDs, a PhD and a PD degree, as well as four surgical specialist qualifications in Europe and South Africa. For decades he has dedicated his passion towards the fight against Rheumatic Heart Disease - something clearly shown in his 31 international patents for implantable cardiovascular devices, including the design of SAT’s innovative, intuitive and inclusive transcatheter technologies.

Prof. Deon Bezuidenhout
Founder

Professor Deon Bezuidenhout, Technical Director of Strait Access Technologies passed away on April 16th, 2023.

Professor Bezuidenhout had been Technical Director of SAT from the very beginning of the company and made many significant contributions to technology development and the protection of intellectual property during the last 12 or so years. His early academic career was undertaken at the Universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town, earning bachelor’s and doctorate degrees. He specialized in polymer science and engineering, with a particular emphasis on the medical uses of polymers.

Professor Bezuidenhout had established himself as one of Africa’s leading scientists in the broad area of medical technology. His work focused on the design and application of polymers for implantable devices, particularly, but not only, in the cardiovascular field. One of his major contributions to the standing of SAT has been his management of the whole of the company’s intellectual property portfolio, overseeing 15 different families of patents, with 90 applications and 74 issued to date, with a significant international representation.

Academically, his work has been fully recognized internationally, with his many scientific papers being published in some of the best journals, often being highly cited. He travelled extensively in Europe, North America and Asia to deliver high quality papers and lectures and was well respected by colleagues the world-over; he was heavily involved in collaborative projects with top-level institutes in other BRICS countries. That respect was also profound at the local level, where he supervised many honours, masters, and doctoral students, with a special, and unique, flavor of incorporating research-led medical engineering modules into both clinical and engineering degree courses.

Deon was a highly valued member of the teams at both SAT and UCT, with a tremendous capacity to work with individuals at all levels, from students, technicians and staff engineers to clinical colleagues and professors, with the objective of encouraging everyone to perform at the top of their ability.

Prof. David Williams
Founder

Professor David Williams is one of the world’s leading authorities on biomaterials and implantable medical devices, with 40 years experience in the academic, governmental, legal and industrial aspects of this business. He was head of the Department of Clinical Engineering and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool; Editor in Chief of the high-impact journal “Biomaterials”. He has consulted with most global medical device companies and was a member of Scientific Committees of the European Commission.