South Africa Team
Who We Are / The New Forests Company
Quentin Scorgie - Chief Financial Officer
Quentin graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Accountancy from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1986 and 1987 respectively and qualified as a Chartered Accountant (SA) in 1990 having completed articles with KPMG in Johannesburg. Entering commerce in 1991, Quentin held various senior financial roles at a medium-sized engineering firm for 5 years and in 1996 joined Southern Sun Hotels, Africa's largest Gaming and Hotel Group, in a project finance role. Quentin was then appointed to the Board in 2000 in the role of Financial Director, a position held until 2008. In 2007, Quentin graduated with distinction from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business in a Masters of Business Administration. Seeking new challenges Quentin entered the retail industry in 2009 as Chief Financial Officer for Truworths International, a large listed South African retail and fashion chain based in Cape Town. For personal reasons, Quentin decided to remain in Johannesburg and consulted to major South African property investors before joining New Forests Company in April of 2010.
Anton Greeff - Head of Forests
Anton received his National Diploma in Forestry from Saasveld in 1988. He completed his MDP in 1992 and his B.Com management degree in 2005. Anton started his forestry career with the Department of Forestry in 1989 and joined the Twello forestry company later that year. With Sappi taking over the Twello business, Anton was transferred within the Lowveld for the next 19 years, doing duty in the Barberton, Ngodwana, Sudwala and Nelspruit regions. During this period Anton developed from plantation forester to district manager, and resigned from Sappi as the Regional Manager for Mpumalanga. Anton has gained substantial plantation management, silviculture, harvesting and people management skills during his 20+ years forestry career. Anton is a seasoned manager and leader of teams who believes that team collaboration, structure and discipline is a critical part of any business’s success.
Anton joined NFC in July 2009.
Lee Cunningham - Head of Planning
Lee received his forestry degree from Stellenbosch University, South Africa in 1992. He joined NFC in October 2005 from Sappi Usutu (Swaziland) where, for three years, he was technical manager (forests) responsible for the tactical delivery of one million tons of timber to the Usutu mill. At Usutu, he was also responsible for ensuring the sustainability of the 52,000 hectare plantation through correct site species matching and intensive silviculture. Before this, he worked on mensuration and growth & yield analysis at Sappi in Pietermaritzburg and also spent two years as a contractor doing forest engineering research for NMMU's Department of Forestry. He has worked in Malaysia, as planning co-ordinator for Borneo Pulp and Paper, and in Malawi doing forestry management for Press Agriculture.
Lee was based in Uganda for just over three years, firstly as General Manager and then later as Chief of Operations. With the appointment of Anton Greeff, the COO post was split and Lee has been appointed as Head of Planning.
Estelle Viviers - Head of Human Resources
Estelle’s career span assignments with Liberty Life (SA), Global Risk Strategies (UK) and Africa Online, a Pan African ISP where she was regularly responsible for merger & acquisition assignments, restructuring exercises and both strategic & transactional HR portfolio’s. In her last role with the Indian conglomerate, Essar, she was involved in a green fields project from inception to establish yu, a successful mobile operator in Kenya. During her career she had the opportunity to work across Sub Saharan Africa, the UK, India and the Middle East in the disciplines of HR and Project Management. She graduated from RAU with a B.Com degree majoring in Accounting and Industrial Psychology in 1996, and completed her B.Com Honors degree in Industrial Psychology & Human Resource Management in 1997. Her appreciation for the development of human capital across Africa brought great depth to her approach to progressive people management practices on the continent. She joined The New Forests Company in March 2010 to establish the HR Function for the Group.
Kate Sharum - Head of Corporate Responsibility
Kate Sharum holds a Bachelor’s degree in Politics and Women’s Studies (double major) from St. Mary’s College of California, USA; and a Masters in Women’s Studies from the University College Dublin, Ireland. Kate came to South Africa in 2005 to manage a UNICEF-funded Orphans & Vulnerable Children (OVC) Project under the Ndlovu Care Group in Mpumalanga. In 2007 Kate took over management of all child-related community development projects and created the iNdlovana iyaLandela Children’s Programme. During her tenure with the Ndlovu Care Group, Kate collaborated with Voluntary Services Oversees and colleagues in the OVC field to form the Hlanganani Children Care Network—an information & skills sharing network of over 20 organisations throughout South Africa working for and with OVC. In 2008, Kate joined Habitat for Humanity International as the Orphans & Vulnerable Children Specialist where she designed, monitored and supported housing programmes for OVC in 8 countries throughout South, East and West Africa. Kate joined NFC in March, 2010 as Head of Corporate Responsibility.
Phoebe Sullivan - Carbon Manager
Phoebe joined NFC in May 2010. She is a graduate of Smith College and holds a Masters degree in International Trade and Sustainable Development from l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Paris. Fluent in French, she most recently performed her Fulbright Fellow research in Madagascar and Uganda tracing the links between forest-based carbon projects and community engagement. Prior to moving to Africa, she managed the sustainable development program for an innovative Fair Trade coffee company based out of Western Massachusetts, launching the company's first comprehensive CO2 audit and reporting to the United Nation's Global Compact. She's worked on trade and environment related issues for the United Nations, the French Parliament, and in rural India for a small grassroots non-profit.
Willem Jacobs - Planning Forester
Willem is a young forester with a B.Tech in Forestry from NMMU (Saasveld). He was previously employed by York Timbers and Hans Merensky in their planning departments. He is well skilled in MicroForest and GIS software. Willem is responsible for the collation and maintenance of all the compartment and spatial data for NFC.
Marianne Hollick - Office Manager