ANTON SWANEPOEL

In July 1998, Anton joined Citadel Investment Services as a Portfolio Advisor Partner and became a Wealth Manager Partner early in 2000 in the joint venture company of Deloitte & Touché and Citadel Investment Services called Deloitte & Touché Private Client Advisors.

He was appointed at PSG Investment Services as Director: Financial Planning in June 2003 and when the company merged with PSG Konsult Limited, Anton held the position as Director: Products and Training.

Anton is the co-founder and non-executive director of Crux Consulting, a compliance practice based in Johannesburg. He also serves as a director of Cruxprop 2000 (Pty) Ltd, an independent consulting business and Crux Capital, an independent investment company.

In June 2007 he successfully completed his Masters degree (LLM) in financial planning and the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, titled: A new perspective on:

• the legal relationship between adviser and client
• the advisory and intermediary service process, and
• professional practice management

Anton's public speaking activities include guest appearances at numerous FPI meetings, breakfasts, business conventions and the APICS International Business Conference in Australia (May 2004). Anton is the author of numerous books on business, practice management, compliance, financial and investment planning and personal spiritual growth based on biblical values.

He acts as a lecturer for the University of the Free State’s Centre for Financial Planning, The Gordon Institute of Business Science in association with The University of Pretoria as well as ICESA. He acts as an independent consultant for South Africa's largest intermediary body, one of the major local banks and some of the leading investment companies.

BETH-ANN GALVIN

Beth-Ann Galvin is Managing Director and a shareholder of Business Presentation Skills, a division of Business Communication Skills Holdings (Pty) Ltd. For the past eighteen years the business has been a recognised leader in the specialist field of grooming and coaching business communication skills.

Since its inception in 1986, Business Presentation Skills has attracted clients from many of the country's top 200 companies. She acknowledges that her business know-how, leadership skills and reputation as one of South Africa's top specialists in the art of business communication, stems from her long association with highly successful organisations, such as Anglo American, Oracle, Discovery Health and Sage Life, amongst others. She is a graduate of the Institute of Marketing Management as well as the London Institute and a popular and well-respected presenter on the "speakers' circuit". Her polished, lively and informative presentations have inspired many of the country's top business people to take action.

Beth-Ann Galvin was been selected out of 70 international speakers, to be one of the showcase speakers at 'The Global Speakers Summit & International Gathering Event' in June 2007 in Dubai.

CRAIG BEHR

Craig Behr graduated from Thames Valley University in London with a Masters Degree. He also has an IMM Diploma from the Graduate School of Business and a Higher Certificate in Financial Markets.

He is a Director of the Red Cherry Group of companies, comprising Red Cherry Recruitment and Red Cherry Training, Executive Director to the Marketing House – an outdoor advertising company as well as a Strategist, Coach & Facilitator.

DELIA THOMPSON

Delia Thompson is the Managing Director of The Communication Academy. She holds an ATCL & LTCL qualification in Speech Tuition from the Trinity College of London, which is associated with Cambridge University.

She has been giving training in Communication and Presentation skills for the past 8 years, and has trained many executives. Some of her better known clients include Selby Baqwa, ex- Public Protector, as well as the infamous Bad Brad from Big Brother.

Her firm belief is that everyone is capable of being a good presenter, some just need a little push.

MARC THOMPSON

Marc Thompson has a National Diploma in marketing and sales management from the Pretoria Technicon as well as a Sales Project Diploma and 'Train the Trainer' from the Industrial Society of London. He has sixteen years of experience in sales – from being a sales executive all the way through to group sales director for a global business information company at the age of thirty one and has experience in selling in a cross section of industry including: fmcg, retail, luxury goods, business information, IT, financial services, consulting, training, calls centre and recruitment.

He has also established sales divisions for four large global companies in London, New York, Lagos and Johannesburg, with regards to manpower, systems, strategies, policy and procedure he has also completed training in finance, labour law, human resources, project management, conflict resolution, change management with various training institutions both locally and internationally. In addition he ran two large global accounts, Samsung and HP, for a top consultancy.

DOUGLAS KRUGER

YES, THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A 'QUALIFIED' COMMUNICATOR… Douglas is conversant in a range of communications mediums.

For starters, he is a 4 x Southern African Champion of Public Speaking. He is also Africa's only 2nd place World Champion! Competing in Reno, Nevada in 2004, he achieved the highest ranking Africa has ever attained.

He is the author of the book 50 Ways to Become a Better Speaker and co-author of the upcoming 50 Ways to Become a Better Leader.

Douglas has been a radio presenter on SAfm, and Talk Radio 702. He writes regular columns for Entrepreneur magazine and Sales Guru.

In Africa, Douglas has spoken to and provided training for organisations like Vodacom, ABSA, Old Mutual, Wesbank, Nedcor, FNB, Revlon, Alexander Forbes, Advantage Asset Managers, Standard Bank, the JCCI, Clarins and many more.

With a knack for capturing audiences, Doug’s style is easy and entertaining. He is eloquent, friendly and highly informative.

MARILYN OVEREND

Specialist trainer Marilyn Overend has been at the cutting edge of leadership development for the last ten years. Her leadership communication programme, recognised for its merits and measurable outcomes by leading organisations and institutions, is the result of 15 years of hands-on experience and research.

Marilyn has been involved in specialised corporate education since 1984 and as the first franchisee of the Academy of Learning in South Africa, Marilyn was an overnight success, leading the field as an entrepreneur, champion trainer and business focused training visionary. Her services were engaged and extended by her enthusiastic franchise principals to set up and train other branches in South Africa. By 1989 Marilyn joined a multi-million dollar international training organisation where her portfolio was broadened to include sales instruction. Since then, leadership-communication training with measurable outcomes has remained her specialised focus.

Clientele includes large multinational corporations, national companies and smaller entrepreneurial focused businesses. The application of her material has proven successful in the following inter alia: financial institutes, manufacturing plants, plastic and printing industries, insurance, pharmaceutical research, development and distribution companies, government, IT and parastatals. Her company philosophy is the fulfillment of training objectives for all parties, within a framework of honesty and integrity.

PAUL NAIDOO

Paul Naidoo is a talented and accomplished sales conference speaker and sales training specialist.

He has been in sales for 15 years, during which time he has enjoyed an illustrious sales career decorated with gold championship achievements. More importantly, he gained invaluable experience and an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the sales profession. This knowledge and experience empowers salespeople for leading-edge deliverables and results.

Since March 2000, many sales people have benefited from Naidoo's Sales Training programs, and have demonstrated a raised standard in their performance. Available references bear testimony to this. Sales Training programs are directed at retail, call centre and corporate environments. His current customer base spans the financial services, IT, telecoms, industrial, consumer and services markets.

Delegates can be assured of take-home value that is practical, effective and easy to apply. Paul is unique in that he guarantees results and provides customised follow up programs. By popular consensus, Paul Naidoo is regarded as undoubtedly one of the best sales trainers in South Africa.

TONY CROSS

Early career
Tony started his working career in 1989 after completing a Diploma in Computer Programming, working for a freight and transport company developing various business applications. He then moved to a software consulting company and consulted to clients as diverse as local government, manufacturing and direct marketing. Tony headed up a development team at this company and assisted a number of clients progress their business requirements through to implementation of technical solutions.

Tony followed this with a role at a leading financial services company where he spent time learning the retirement industry, detailed database design techniques and business management. During his four years at this company Tony consulted to and dealt with all levels of management.

Management & Strategy Experience
He was head-hunted to join a leading technology company to build their professional services capacity and Tony built and managed this team for the next 3 years. Tony undertook various training courses in sales and marketing and was responsible for market strategy, research and development, pre-sales consulting, and liaison with the EMEA region of the international market. He gained extensive knowledge in the facilitation of business process development.

Tony was awarded the National Top Damelin Business Management Student of 1998.

Sales & Marketing Experience
In 2002 Benefit Recovery Services (BRS) was formed and Tony was seconded by his company to start the business operationally and to conduct detailed marketing and market research. Tony was appointed as the Sales and Marketing Director during 2004. He was also responsible for all marketing strategies, PR initiatives and Customer Service activities and training.

His operational and data background was used to good effect in the design of the operational processes and systems. Tony built up an excellent knowledge of the Retirement Funds industry and was asked to consult and present to industry organisations on numerous occasions. As the spokesperson for BRS Tony appeared in 8 TV, approximately 20 radio and over 35 media interviews and wrote more than 25 industry-related articles for various publications. Tony co-developed a detailed mentorship program which was implemented for a group of selected managers over a 12-month period. He has spoken at various industry, sales and customer conferences on a variety of subject matters.

Consulting: Sales & Leadership
Tony established his own consulting company in 2005 and during 2006 also founded a services organisation called Funanhi to service a niche financial services role in South Africa. The company merged with another organisation and now has over 55 staff and a turnover of around R18m per annum. Tony is responsible for the sales and marketing strategy at this business and also is contracted to provide overall responsibility for strategic sales management of both business areas.

His sales and leadership consultancy experience ranges from assisting small teams in entrepreneurial enterprises through to sales teams in excess of 200 at large listed companies. Tony has organised and been master of ceremonies at sales conferences and has presented numerous papers on the advancement of the sales profession.

Professional
Tony is a proud sales professional and in May 2008 was elected as the Chairperson of the United Professional Sales Association (UPSA) of Southern Africa (part of the International UPSA in Washington, DC, USA). He has been tasked to set out the strategy and implementation of the board-approved strategy for 2008-2010 in order to grow the organisation to meet its internationally-set targets. Tony is qualified as a Certified and Registered Sales Professional (CRSP), having successfully written and passed the UPSA examination with distinction.

Tony is renowned for his down-to-earth practical presentation style and hosts workshops on topics such as creative thinking, strategy, goal-setting, the Pareto Principle and numerous others. Tony has facilitation experience and regularly facilitates high-level and medium-sized group strategic planning sessions, idea formulation workshops, problem solving think-tanks and other business-related meetings.

VAL VAN DER PLOEG

Val van der Ploeg has been involved in adult and child development education since 1976. She believes that development of people has to be regarded as 'work in progress' – ever changing, exciting and fun.

Val has worked abroad and her experience and expertise has enabled her to develop new ideas, concepts, solutions and strategies in the South African workplace.

She is a seasoned public speaker and has had the privilege of presenting at conferences, company seminars, schools and in-house meetings.

Val's in-depth experience with a world class international cosmetic company gives her the edge when partnering with organisations to improve their selling skills.

Val has, over a period of 20 years, successfully owned 4 of her own companies and has held executive management positions with international corporations which give her international experience. However, at heart, she remains an entrepreneur. The methodology of her development solutions is specifically designed, written and developed in conjunction with her business partnerships, companies, their teams of people and their specific objectives and requirements.