Investment consulting South Africa

Director

Email: robert.walton@fundrock.com

Robert is a respected pioneer in the financial services industry. His history in the unit trust industry at both Metropolitan and later Momentum spanned a period of 14 years, during which time he was the CEO of the collective investment businesses, building an esteemed capability within the industry. Robert graduated from the University of Stellenbosch, and he is a qualified CA (SA), an FSB approved category FSP2 Investment Manager and CIMA (UK) member. He has also completed various executive management courses at Harvard (USA), Duke (USA), Stanford (USA), as well as at the IMD (Swiss).

Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager

Email: pierre.deklerk@apexgroup.com

Pierre holds a B. Com (Honours) degree in Actuarial Science and is a CFA Charter holder. He started his career at Old Mutual gaining experience in actuarial product development and actuarial marketing. He joined Momentum in 1997 as the Head of Investment Products for Momentum’s Linked Investment Service Provider. In the early 2000’s, Pierre transitioned to a pure investment management career, working in turn for Momentum Multi Managers and Advantage Asset Managers while gaining 10 years of multi management investment experience. In 2007 he was a founding member of Momentum Investment Consulting (“MIC”), a unit responsible for all retail multi-manager activities in the Momentum Group. As the Head of Investments for MIC in South Africa he was responsible for managing an investment team and overseeing investments of R4 billion. Following the merger between Metropolitan Multi Managers and MIC as part of the MMI merger transaction, Pierre became an executive director of MIC, having general management responsibility for the combined business. By 2013, Momentum Investment Consulting had grown its asset base from R9bn in 2011, to just over R22bn, making it one of the largest retail multi-manager offerings in South Africa. Pierre was the lead portfolio manager on a range of top performing portfolios during his employment at MIC. At the end of 2013, Pierre left the Momentum Group to co-establish a new investment consulting and investment management firm – Boutique Investment PMuartners, acquired by Apex Group in 2023, where he is a Managing Director and a senior portfolio manager.

Chief Investment Officer

Email: tavonga.chivizhe@apexgroup.com

On completing his actuarial studies at the University of Cape Town in 2005, Tavonga Chivizhe joined the Metropolitan Collective Investments CEO Robert Walton with the primary goal being to establish a retail multi-manager offering for the Metropolitan Group. This initiative, which began in early 2006, started off with seed capital of just under R5 million. By the time of the merger between Metropolitan and Momentum in 2010, the Metropolitan Multi-Manager division was gaining meaningful traction with assets under management of just over R6 billion. This division boasted a successful range of house view funds, one of which, the MET Odyssey Conservative Fund of Funds, in 2010, was awarded the Raging Bull Award for the best risk adjusted performance over a five-year period. During this five-year period of building the Metropolitan Multi-Manager business, Tavonga continued to pursue his professional actuarial exams with the Institute of Actuaries in the United Kingdom and passed his Actuarial Fellowship exam in 2011. The merger of 2010, saw Metropolitan Multi-Managers being combined with the retail multi-manager offering of the Momentum group, with the joint entity then branded to Momentum Investment Consulting (“MIC”). In 2011, Tavonga assumed ownership of MIC's Investment Philosophy and Process, and was also the portfolio manager of the MIC's six house view funds. The combined assets under management of MIC was then just over R9 billion. This period saw yet another MIC house view fund, the MET Odyssey Balanced Fund of Funds being awarded the Morning Star Award for being the best risk adjusted performer in its category in 2012. Tavonga was responsible for the management of a notable number of the MET third-party / white label portfolios. By 2013, MIC had grown its asset base from R9 billion in 2011, to just over R22bn, making it one of the largest retail multi-manager offerings in South Africa. The same year, 2013, saw Momentum go through a re-structuring exercise, which combined three of its multi-manager divisions: Momentum Manager of Managers, Momentum Investment Consulting and Momentum Alternative Investments. The combined unit was branded Momentum Outcomes Based Solutions and had asset of just close on R150 billion. Tavonga was appointed Chief Investment Strategist of this unit, where his role was to assume full ownership and accountability for the division's investment strategy. At the end of 2013, Tavonga left the Momentum Group, to co-establish a new retail investment consulting and investment management firm Boutique Investment Partners which was acquired by Apex Group in 2023. Qualifications: B.Bus.Sci Hons (Act. Sci), Executive leadership

Portfolio Manager

Email: mitsie.vdwesthuizen@apexgroup.com

On completing her B.Com Economics degree in 1996, Mitsie joined Citadel Investment Services as a Portfolio Manager Assistant. In July 1998, she joined Momentum Wealth where she fulfilled various roles in the client liaison and offshore investment administration departments. As South Africa was starting to open up foreign investment to its residents, Mitsie gained valuable experience in dealing with asset swap transactions and foreign investment management companies. In 2001 she joined Momentum Multi Managers, initially in the performance measurement and reporting department and in 2002 became a member of the investment team. Over the next ten years she gained valuable investment experience as a research analyst at Momentum’s institutional multimanager and from 2007 at Momentum’s retail multimanager, Momentum Investment Consulting, of which she was a founding senior staff member. At the end of 2013, Mitsie left the Momentum Group, and joined a new investment consulting and investment management firm – Boutique Investment Partners, acquired by Apex Group in 2023, as a senior research analyst.

Portfolio Manager

Email: ludwig.harmse@apexgroup.com

Ludwig completed his B.Com and B.Com Financial Management degrees at the University of Pretoria. He entered the industry in 2007 as an equity analyst and was later promoted to fund manager. In 2015, Ludwig joined Dinamika Fund Managers as KI and Portfolio Manager, responsible for the both Dinamika CIS funds. He also completed his Post Grad Diploma in Risk Management that year. Dinamika became part of the Efficient Group in 2019 and he joined the Boutique Investment Partners team, acquired by Apex Group in 2023, as an investment analyst where he continues to manage the Dinamika funds. Within this team he is responsible for the Local House View and is a member of various internal and external Investment committees. Ludwig is currently completing his Masters Degree in Risk Management at the North-West University.

Business Development - Model Portfolios

Email: eugene.braak@fundrock.com

Eugene has over 15 years’ experience in the retail investment-management arena, with excellent knowledge of the needs of financial advisors. After serving little over eight years as Business Development Manager for Momentum Wealth, he joined Momentum Investment Consulting where he became Head of Sales and Distribution. He joined the newly formed Boutique Investment Partners, acquired by Apex Group in 2023, in January 2014 as Head of Distribution and is instrumental in operations and implementation of bespoke solutions.

Investment Analyst

Email: tebogo.moopa@apexgroup.com

Tebogo matriculated at Prestige College in 2009. During this time, he served as Head of the Prefect Body. The following year, he enrolled at Varsity College to purse his studies in Information Technology, where he specialised in Networking. While studying, he became part of the Varsity College Care Committee as the Deputy Chairperson. In 2012, Tebogo obtained his National Diploma in Information Technology Networking at Varsity College and further continued to do various courses in Microsoft (MCITP) and Service Desk Management. Early 2013, Tebogo began working as a support technician engineer at South African Social Security Agency (SASSA). Later, Tebogo moved on to become a team leader for the support technician engineer team. Here, his main responsibility was to monitor and manage the team’s performance, advise in troubleshooting, handling clients’ queries, as well as assist with troubleshooting of SASSA’s executive’s technical issues. While he held this position, he completed a course in Advanced Windows 7 troubleshooting and CompTIA A+. Tebogo then moved on from this role to become a technical account manager at Inet-BFA, where he managed accounts like Investec, Standard Bank, and other big financial companies. Qualifications: RPE (SAIFM), UNISA: Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, National Dip. IT

Technical Support Analyst

Email: mbuso.gwala@apexgroup.com

Senior Investment Analyst

Email: christiaan.leroux@apexgroup.com

Qualifications: M.Com (Financial Risk Management) FRM

Junior Investment Analyst

Email: mutali.mashamba@apexgroup.com

Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Mathematics

Technical Support Analyst

Email: nqubeko.zungu@apexgroup.com

Qualifications: BCom Hons (Finance)

Technical Support Analyst

Email: motshidisi.mateane@apexgroup.com

Qualifications: B.Com (Fin. Management) & Bcom Hons (Fin. Planning)

Technical Support Analyst

Email: bongeliwe.chiyi@apexgroup.com

Qualifications: Bachelor Of Accounting Sciences