South Africa Team
Who We Are / The New Forests Company
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.
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.