People
Directors
Stanton Jandrell - Chief Executive Officer
Stanton started his career at Altech Data as a product manager for communication products, shortly after completing his Marketing Diploma. He headed up 3Com's regional structure for South Africa (SA), Namibia and surrounding countries. Stanton joined Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed Frontrange in 1998 and was responsible for the regional operations as well as for developing a channel program. Stanton was appointed to the SA board and oversaw management practices across all the new business units and headed up the Fraxion unit amongst others. Stanton participated in the management buy-out of Fraxion and as Chief Executive Officer is responsible for all Operational aspects.
Mark du Plessis – Head: Research & Development
Mark began his IT career at Old Mutual PLC as a Systems Architect shortly after completing his BA (Economics) atthe University of Cape Town. In 1994 he co-founded IDS, a company that developed custom applications. IDS was acquired by Frontrange in 1997 and Mark took up the role of Chief Software Architect. He was drafted into the Development team in Colorado USA to head up the development of the next release of the product. On his return to South Africa Mark was appointed Chief Technology Officer responsible for development practices of all the incubator companies. Mark participated in the management buy-out of Fraxion and is responsible for all the product development issues as Chief Technology Officer.
John O’ Callaghan – Chief Financial Officer
After completing his BCom PGDA at the University of Cape Town, John qualified as a Chartered Accountant at Ernst and Young. He subsequently joined a public private sector partnership responsible for establishing one of the first successful software incubators in South Africa. John went on to start his own auditing practice, servicing over 100 clients. He joined Fraxion in October 2005, and as Chief Financial Officer, looks after the finance and human resources departments and assumes general operational responsibility.
Ferdi Ladeira – Non-Executive
Ferdi completed a BSc and started his career as a co-founder of Workgroup Systems. Ferdi developed the inventory management system that helped establish Workgroup as the largest distributor of Microsoft Products in South Africa. Workgroup was sold to Datatec and Ferdi, with some other members of the executive team founded Frontrange in 1995. Front range listed in 1998 with Ferdi taking up the role of Chief Information Officer for the global operations. Ferdi is responsible for strategic product developmentat Fraxion, and as Chief Information Officer, is responsible for strategic systems implementation.
Gregory Roberts-Baxter – Non-Executive
Gregory completed his BSc and MSc Electrical Engineering degree at the University of Witwatersrand and went on to complete his MBA at the University of Cape Town. Gregory has a number of years experience in private equity and prior to that he headed a special initiatives division at a major South African bank, focusing primarily on acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances. In addition, he spent a number of years in strategic management consulting with a global strategy consultancy. Gregory is a Chazen scholar of Columbia Business School in New York (with honours) and has published a number of pieces in local and international journals and conferences. Gregory is a non – executive director of Fraxion and sits on the boards of many top organizations, including Venfin Manco (Pty) Ltd and Alexander Forbes Group (Pty) Ltd.
Executive Management
Helena Kotzé - Head of Professional Services
Helena is B. Comm. Honours qualified and is also a Certified Internal Auditor and Certified Information Systems Auditor. Helena worked as a financial accountant at the head office of the Rembrandt Group, before joining PricewaterhouseCoopers for 6 years as a Manager in the Systems and Process Assurance Division in Cape Town and Brussels. She was mainly responsible for managing teams on IT Internal Audits, consulting and SAP security and controls assignments at various multinational companies. Helena joined Fraxion in September 2006.