Speakers

Keynote Speaker 1: Dr Cobus Pienaar

Arbinger Institute

Dr Cobus Pienaar was born and raised in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He graduated from the University of the Free State in 1994 and completed his postgraduate studies in 2005, obtaining all his degrees with distinction.

He is registered as an organisational psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, and has been appointed as senior psychologist and organisational development consultant for a number of organisations. From 2002 to 2015.

Cobus was employed as senior lecturer in the Department of Industrial Psychology at the University of the Free State. He also chaired that department from 2007 to 2010. He still conducts research on topics related to leadership, careers and dysfunctional leadership and organisations, and has published in numerous peer-reviewed academic journals. In addition, Cobus has read scientific papers at various international conferences.

Cobus has been representing the Arbinger Institute in South Africa as Managing Director since 2008. The Institute is a world-renowned management consulting and training firm and scholarly consortium that specialises in changing mindset. Cobus is leading the delivery of Arbinger’s programmes and consulting services in South Africa and is often consulted by companies in the private and public sector, focusing on the development of leaders, teams and organisations.

Keynote Speaker 2: Prof Rodney Lowman

Lowman & Richardson Consulting Psychologists, San Diego, USA

Rodney L. Lowman, PhD, is currently Distinguished Professor, Organizational Psychology Programs, California School of Professional Psychology, and is past provost/vice president of academic affairs and past acting president of Alliant International University.

The author or editor of nine books and monographs, Dr. Lowman has published more than 130 scholarly publications and made hundreds of professional presentations all over the world. His books include An Introduction to Consulting Psychology: Working with Individuals, Groups, and Organizations. He is past editor of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, the flagship journal in the field of consulting psychology, and as series editor of the Fundamentals of Consulting Psychology book series, and was founding editor of The Psychologist-Manager Journal. He has also served on the editorial board of other journals and has lectured widely both in the United States and abroad on professional ethics, consulting psychology, and counseling and psychotherapy of work dysfunctions.

Dr. Lowman is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), Divisions 12 (Clinical Psychology), 13 (Consulting Psychology), 14 (Industrial-Organizational Psychology), 17 (Counseling Psychology), and 52 (International Psychology) and he is a Diplomat of the American Board of Assessment Psychology. He also serves on the board as well as heads the Scientific Advisory Board of Leadership Worth Following, a Dallas-based consulting firm. He is past president of the Society of Consulting Psychology and for the Society for Psychologists in Management. Currently, he is research domain leader and has served as elected APA council representative for the Society of Consulting Psychology and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Dr. Lowman has received many honors and recognitions for his professional work, including the Richard Kilburg Service Award from the Society of Psychologists in Management, the Service Award from the Society for Consulting Psychology, APA’s Presidential Citation, and the International Multicultural Provost’s Award from Alliant International University.

Speaker: Dr Fortunate Silinda

University of South Africa

Dr Fortunate Silinda is the Chair of Department and a Research Psychologist at Unisa’s Department of Psychology. Her research interests involve understanding how social and psychological factors influence university students’ desires to finish their degrees. She has presented research papers at national and international conferences.

Her involvement as a Peer Helper and Assistant Student Counsellor at UNISA ignited Dr Silinda’s research interests. She started her career as a Peer Helper and Assistant Student Counsellor at UNISA’s Directorate of Counselling and Career Development, where several students approached the offices seek personal counselling, academic and career guidance; it was not long before she left the directorate to take up a Research Internship position at UNISA’s Bureau of Market Research. This move was influenced by the experiences she had encountered during the consultation sessions with the students that made her realise the need to understand students’ experiences at university to recommend interventions through research.

Her experience as a lecturer encouraged her to plough back to society by empowering high school learners through her work at Winning Youth Foundation. The organisation aims to build a group of Alumni from rural areas, giving back and continuing to build this area to be the best possible.

Speaker: Dr Renate Scherrer

JvR Consulting Psychologists

Renate Scherrer is the Managing Director of JvR Consulting Psychologists, a trusted people partner in the area of scientific assessment and development solutions centred on empowering individuals, teams and organisations to thrive in a changing context.  She is a registered Clinical Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa and holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology. 

Renate has several years of general consulting experience across numerous industries. She consults mostly in the field of Management and Leadership, focusing on understanding and optimising human potential in the organisational context. She is passionate about the assessment and development of people, i.e individual coaching; enhancing team synergy through facilitated discussion, awareness and growth; succession planning and executive on-boarding. From a clinical perspective, Renate has a specific interest in the topics of Leadership Derailment, Psychopathy in the Workplace, Toxic Leadership, and Counterproductive Work Behaviour.  She is an internationally accredited user and trainer of various psychometric assessments, as well as a regular speaker/presenter at conferences, learning events and tertiary institutions.

Speaker: Mrs Liezl Groenewald

The Ethics Institute (TEI)

Liezl is the Senior Manager Organisational Ethics at The Ethics Institute (TEI) in South Africa and immediate past President of the Business Ethics Network of Africa (BEN-Africa). Liezl holds a BA (Communication Science), a Masters degree in Applied Ethics (University of the Witwatersrand) and is currently a PhD candidate in Applied Ethics (Stellenbosch University).

Liezl has been in the field of organisational ethics since 2004. Her main expertise lies in advising organisations on ethics management and strategies, conducting organisational ethics risk and culture assessments, facilitating ethics workshops, conducting ethics investigations, auditing Whistleblowing Service Providers, advising whistle-blowers and training Boards and Social and Ethics Committees. She is also responsible for researching the ethical status of corporate South Africa on a three-year basis.

She is a seasoned facilitator for TEI and the Institute of Directors South Africa, frequent guest lecturer at the Innsbruck University of Applied Sciences (Austria), Nelson Mandela University Business School (South Africa) and the University of Stellenbosch Business School (Executive Development). She regularly speaks at local and international conferences, is a commentator in the media on organisational ethics and whistleblowing, moderator, author of business and military ethics related articles and the Whistleblowing Management Handbook. She is also co-author of the Ethics and Compliance Handbook, as well as a contributor to The Ethics Office Handbook.

30 years’ working experience includes being a national security manager, VIP protector, intelligence analyst, corruption and ethics investigator and Ethics Manager. Liezl is a Council member of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), is Chairperson of the CPUT Governance and Ethics Committee, member of the HR Committee, Honorary Awards Committee and the Senior Search and Selection Appointment Committee. She is a member of the Inaugural Committee of the African International Society of Military Ethics (Afro-ISME), and a research associate at US (Philosophy Department). In addition, Liezl represents South Africa on the global technical working group responsible for the development of ISO 37002, the ISO Whistleblowing Management Standard, as well the global working group responsible for drafting of ISO 37000, the ISO Standard for the Governance of Organisations.