The Character Company Directors are all volunteers and are the fiduciaries who steer the organisation towards a sustainable future by adopting sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management policies, as well as by making sure we have adequate resources to advance our mandate.
One of the most important responsibilities for our board members is to provide foresight, oversight, and insight: think of them as up in the crow's nest scanning the horizon for signs of storms or rainbows to explore, perhaps with a pot of gold at the end!
The Character Company Executive are all volunteers, some of whom are participating MENtors, whilst all are experts in their respective fields. Our executive team directs the functions of the organisation, including fundraising, campaign management, operations, MENtor engagment, development and marketing.
All our executives and MENtors are bound together by a shared commitment to support our efforts to raise boys to be good men.
DIRECTORS
Meet our directors:
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Jaco van Schalkwyk - Dad, Founder & Director
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After starting his career in the financial and then corporate fields, Jaco moved into the NGO sector in 2001. Jaco spent the majority of that time managing a non profit in JHB where he experienced the impact of absent fathers on a daily basis. Despite the invaluable experience he picked up in hands-on involvement with communities and the NGO sector in general, his passion for the fatherless just grew stronger and stronger.
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Jaco is the Dad and Founder of the Character Company and believes that only through intentional MENtorship and establishing a culture of MENtorship in South Africa will we be able to change the current culture of violence, corruption and abuse.
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He is passionate about Jesus and MENtorship.
Thandeka Ngoma - Director
Thandeka is a marketing professional with over 10 years’ experience in managing products, strategy and communications of some of the biggest brands in the country. She has worked across several Africa markets and is passionate about capturing the hearts and minds of consumers in this diverse continent of ours.
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Thandeka is a wife and mother to 2 princesses. Her number one priority is supporting her husband and giving a good foundation to her kids to one day be independent, strong, God fearing women. She believes that God is foundational and that everything she does should be to bring others closer to Christ. She also believes in South Africa and being the change we want to see in this country. She believes that men should be leaders in our homes, but recognises that the reality of our society does not reflect this picture, with a majority of homes headed by women.
“Women are strong fighters who can do anything, but they can never fill the role of a man in a family or child’s life. This is why I am passionate about the work we are doing at The Character Company”.
Francois Joubert - Director
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Francois Joubert is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, business strategist, husband and father. Francois has more than 15 years business experience and his interests include Education, Professional Services, Mobile Apps and Business Networking Clubs.
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He has appeared on major news media networks like CNBC and was interviewed on various radio shows. Through motivational speaking and business coaching, Francois uses his life and business experience to help his clients achieve exceptional business results.
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His personal vision is to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those in need and aims to leave a legacy of significance.
Dawid Krynauw - Director
Dawid holds an MBA and Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) degrees from the University of Stellenbosch. He is a member in good standing at the Institute of Directors of South Africa (IoDSA). Professionally he travelled extensively during the last 20 years and worked in South Africa, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
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Dawid supports the continuous improvement functions of organisations. As an operational efficiency specialist, he focuses on business acceleration projects that delivers measurable results against historic cost, quality, speed, turnover & profitability baselines. His work mostly involves Business Partnerships to achieve operational excellence with minimum-input & maximum-output standards, to purposefully create market and competitive advantage. He enjoys working alongside business owners and executives to further unlock business value. Alongside his extensive experience, he has also held executive positions such as COO and Director in different companies.
Dawid is happily married, with two young daughters.
Janine O'Riley - Director
Janine holds a B. Com Honours in Industrial Psychology and is a Chartered Reward Specialist (AGRP – Chartered Reward Specialist), a qualified Psychometrist (HPCSA - PMT 0088137), member of the IoDSA and SARA. She sits on the SARA Employee Benefits & Tax committee, Conference committee and serves as an independent member and chair for the MIBCO’s Remuneration Committee. She has Human Resource generalist, Remuneration, and Industrial Psychology experience and has been consulting for the last 15 years. She consults to companies in numerous industries and countries with regards to a broad spectrum of reward and remuneration projects such as organisational development, market positioning, benchmarking, reward philosophy, strategy, policy design, job profiling, job evaluations, and Human Resource and Industrial Psychology & Psychometric services. Before operating independently, she worked as General Manager, Key Account Manager, Sales Manager, Reward Consultant/ Specialist, Assessment Bureau Manager and Psychometrist respectively. She has a passion to add real value to businesses in a customised way that makes a difference.
Janine is a mom of two boys, with a deep appreciation for the mission and vision behind the Character Company.