African Business Network

ABN BULLETIN

May 2010

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The Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) established in 2006 the African Business Network (ABN) as a forum for organisations with extensive involvements and long-term interests in Africa.

The principal purposes of the Network are:

to provide an intellectually stimulating environment in which senior individuals from private and public sector organisations, who have strategic responsibilities in and for Africa, can meet, exchange views and learn from one another and from specialist outside inputs on developments on the continent
to contribute to building a body of knowledge about doing business in Africa, including understanding what constitutes good and bad practice in different circumstances, for the immediate benefit of its members and for dissemination in due course via academic and executive teaching, conferences and scholarly and press articles.

There are currently 22 members of the Network, including departments of government, and companies from the financial, mining, construction, , information technology, capital equipment, industrial products and legal industries. They are listed below. All are represented by very senior executives.

A key feature of the Network is the interaction between the public and private sector participants, which in turn has led to recognition of the potential benefits of greater strategic alignment between South Africa’s political and economic posture and actions with respect to dealings on the continent.

The Network is chaired by Nick Segal, formerly director of the UCT Graduate School of Business and an Extraordinary Professor at GIBS, and is coordinated by Anne Wilson.

ABN’s core activity comprises a number of high-level meetings on topics chosen by the members, with lead-in presentations by outside experts as necessary. Topics have ranged widely, a listing is below: