Optimal Energy Team - Developing an Electric Car

Kobus Meiring - Chief Executive Officer

Kobus Meiring graduated from the University of Stellenbosch as a mechanical engineer, before joining Denel Aviation in 1988, where he later joined the Rooivalk helicopter and ACE turbo-prop programmes, eventually managing the on-board systems development for both of these projects. In 1996, Kobus became manager of the Helicopter Development Department. It was during this year that Denel Aviation was awarded ISO 9002 certification and Rooivalk received the Denel Chairman’s Award. Kobus was appointed Rooivalk Programme Manager in 1997 and the first production aircraft was handed over to the South African Air Force in 1999.

Kobus then moved to Cape Town where he was appointed as Project Manager of the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) Project. SALT was completed on budget and in time and inaugurated by President Mbeki in November 2005. Upon completion of the SALT project, he co-founded Optimal Energy in 2005 with Mike Lomberg, Jian Swiegers and Gerhard Swart.

Diana Blake - Director: Sales and Marketing

The Zimbabwean born Diana Blake was raised in South Africa where she read an interesting mix of fine art and engineering. After an initial stint in conservation which saw her working in both Botswana and Morocco, Diana joined BMW where she worked in various capacities for some 18 years. Her career at BMW included diverse disciplines, giving her a broad foundation in the automotive industry.

In 2004, Diana was appointed to the executive management team of BMW South Africa as the General Manager for MINI South Africa. Under her leadership, MINI sales grew by some 200% from 2004 to 2006, and MINI won a number of media and advertising awards.

Mary-Ann De Wet - Chief Financial Officer

Mary-Ann obtained her Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Cape Town in 1989 before completing her Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting in 1990. After passing her Chartered Accountant Board Exam (PAAB) in 1991, Mary-Ann went on to complete her articles with Coopers Lybrand, known as PriceWaterhouseCoopers today. Shortly thereafter Mary-Ann decided to branch out and obtained her Bachelor of Commerce in Information Systems from the University of Cape Town in 1995.

Cape Town born Mary-Ann has been in a financial management role for over 15 years, during which she has worked across an array of industries spanning retail, shipping, automotive and oil, and manufacturing. This mother of four has solid experience in ERP systems, including SAP, Navision, and also business analytic software like SAS. Mary-Ann has been involved with several ERP implementations and also has Internal Controls experience, from design to implementation.

Having worked in the automotive industry for four years, she has a working understanding of the MIDP incentive scheme and the new APDP scheme to be introduced in South Africa. She also has extensive experience in international financing, foreign exchange and other treasury related matters. Mary-Ann is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Keith Helfet - Design Director

Multiple award-winning Keith Helfet is one of the few designers to have gained an international reputation in both automotive and product design. Born in the small South African town of Calvinia, Keith’s passion for cars was evident from a young age. His dream became a reality after graduating from the prestigious Royal College of Art when he began working with Jaguar.

It was during this time that he learnt the trade from his mentor, Sir William Lyons. The originality and beauty of his style dovetailed perfectly with the iconic vision of Jaguar. In his 25 year career at Jaguar Keith designed a number of high performance sports cars including the XK8, the XK180 and the XJ220, as well as the F-Type concept cars. Keith has worked with Optimal Energy on the design of both the interior and exterior of Joule since early 2005.

Eleugene Human - Executive Manager: Supply Chain and Procurement

Eleugene has had a long and illustrious career, notably with Johnson Controls Automotive, a global provider of innovative automotive interiors and batteries along with systems engineering and service expertise.

Starting as a Management Accountant, Eleugene quickly grew to IT and Financial Controller for the Group before being selected as Program Manager on several high profile projects including the VW Polo Front End, and Daimler W203 Cockpit and Headliner.

With a career punctuated with four prestigious Chairman’s Awards, Eleugene was appointed Plant Manager to the Group’s Daimler facility followed by Plant Manager for the Northern Region in South Africa. His final promotion with the company was to Purchasing Director, where he played a major role in global negotiations for ocean and air freight, steel, leather and international supply-chain setup.

Born in Port Elizabeth, the father of three graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) from the University of the Western Cape in 1988 before obtaining his Accounting and Auditing articles from Theron Van Der Poel, known today as PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He has a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies from University of Buckinghamshire and is currently completing his MBA.

Jian Swiegers - Executive Program Manager

Jian Swiegers studied at the University of Stellenbosch, graduating with a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering. He spent four years working at the University's Bureau for Mechanical Engineering (BMI). In 1992 he moved into the production environment, working at Langeberg Foods and Ceres Fruit Juices, managing the company’s engineering and production facilities.

During this period he was certified as a Professional Engineer, completed an Honours degree in Business & Administration, as well as attaining a Mechanical Engineer’s Certificate of Competency (Government Ticket). In 1999 he accepted the position of Primary Mirror System Manager on the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) Project.

He is one of the four founding shareholders of Optimal Energy.

Gerhard Swart - Chief Technical Officer

Gerhard Swart graduated in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pretoria in 1984. After starting at South African Breweries as an automation engineer he moved to defence equipment developer with Kentron in 1988 where he worked in various capacities. He was instrumental in Kentron’s registration as an ISO9001 company in 1996 before establishing his own business to consult to the broader industry.

Gerhard worked as Weapons Systems Engineer for the Rooivalk Attack Helicopter, integration Team Leader for the construction of the Hong Kong International Airport, and contributed to several other projects. In 2000, he relocated to Cape Town working on the Southern African Large Telescope project in the capacity of Systems Engineer leading the system specification, integration, testing and software efforts.

Following the completion of the telescope he became one of the four founder shareholders of Optimal Energy.

Ratilal Rowji - Executive Manager: Quality

Johannesburg born Ratilal Rowji is a qualified as aeronautical engineer. He started his career at the CSIR, on the Rooivalk Attack Helicopter in 1984 before moving to Denel Aviation where he would continue his work on the programme. He was one of two original designers to on the Rooivalk Programme at Denel until January 2008.

Although his primary focus areas were helicopter aerodynamics, aeromechanics and flight dynamics, he quickly developed his technical management experience through specialist technical arenas such as fatigue monitoring, vibration analysis and monitoring and rotor dynamics. He would fulfill various roles with the organisation before being appointed as Executive Manager of the Rooivalk, responsible for finalising the contracted baseline aircraft to the South African Air Force and for managing the Rooivalk bid into Turkey.

His career was punctuated by his MBA studies, which he completed in March 2003 and a two year intermezzo in Sweden as Programme Manager for the Skills & Technology Transfer Programme on Gripen Fighter aircraft.

Niels Andersen - Executive Manager: Production

Niels Andersen was born and grew up in East London, where he attended Selborne Primary and completed his schooling at Selborne College in 1979.

His professional career started at Mercedes Benz of South Africa (MBSA) in 1981, where he was employed as student technician.

While at MBSA, Niels obtained his Masters Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Port Elizabeth Technikon, and later his Government Certificate of Competency. Shortly after he was promoted to the rank of management and was sent to Germany on a one-year exchange programme where he gained valuable experience.

His responsibilities grew ultimately to that of Manufacturing Operations Manager for Mercedes-Benz and Mitsubishi. This portfolio covered all the line functions, namely Bodyshop, Paintshop, Assembly, Logistics and Maintenance. He was also instrumental in the success of the Mercedes Benz C-Class export programme, which would see the plant receive the J.D. Power & Associates award for quality, a testament to the level of knowledge and experience that Niels brought to the facility.

Simphiwe Yoli - Executive Manager: Human Resources

Uitenhage born, father of one graduated from the University of Port Elizabeth now known as NELSON MANDELA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY with BA Honours degree. He started his career in 2001 at Volkswagen South Africa, in a Graduate programme, in the Human Resources Department. He worked at VW for six years and left the company in 2006 at a level of a Senior Human Resources Consultant.

In 2006 Simphiwe was appointed as a Human Resources Specialist at Goodyear South Africa and worked for the company for 2 years.

In 2008 he joined Schnellecke South Africa an international logistics company that provides logistics service for Volkswagen South Africa, Ford and Nissan as a Senior Human Resources Manager.