Executive commitee

Johan Enslin (35)
Chief Executive Officer

Johan Enslin was appointed Chief Executive Officer on 1 October 2009.

Johan joined the Lewis Group as a salesman in August 1993. He has, while climbing the ranks within the organisation, held various operational positions including Branch Manager, Regional Controller and Divisional General Manager. In 2002, he was made General Manager, Operations and with effect 1 April 2005, the operations director of Lewis Stores (Pty) Ltd, being responsible for all facets of Lewis and Best Home and Electric store operations. On 1 April 2007, Johan was appointed chief operating officer of the group being responsible for the entire retail operations of the group. On 10 November 2008, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer designate.

Les was appointed the group’s Chief Financial Officer and to the Board of Lewis Group Limited on 1 April 2007 and has been the financial director of the main subsidiary Lewis Stores (Pty) Ltd since April 1989. As Chief Financial Officer, his responsibilities include the full accountability of all the group’s financial aspects.

Les has over 25 years experience in financial management within the retail industry. Prior to joining Lewis Stores, Les spent 5 years as the Financial Director of AMC Classic (Pty) Ltd. His experience covers a wide range of financial, administrative, legal, credit-related, insurance and statutory compliance matters. On 10 November 2008, Les was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the group’s insurer, Monarch Insurance Company Limited (“Monarch”). He has been a director of Monarch for 15 years.

While completing his BCom degree part-time through UNISA, Brett started working for the Edcon Group in 1994. After having held various positions within Edcon Credit Division, Brett joined Standard Bank where he worked in Operational Risk within the Retail Banking Division before joining the Lewis Group in 1999 as the Group Risk Manager.

Since joining Lewis, Brett has seen through the implementation of a centralised credit application processing system, introduced credit scoring and customer credit limit facilities and implemented an account management system focusing on the areas of behavioural scoring, limit management and strategic direct marketing. Brett was promoted to General Manager of Customer Management in 2002, completed his MBA through UCT in 2003 and was appointed to the board of Lewis Stores (Pty) Ltd as Credit Risk Director on 1 September 2006.

Neil joined Lewis as HR Director and as a member of the Lewis Stores (Pty) Ltd Board on 1 September 2008. Neil is responsible for all human resource and training aspects of the business.

Neil is an HR practitioner with 15 years experience. He spent 10 years with the Transnet Group from 1994 to 2003. During his tenure at Transnet he climbed the ranks from a Trainee HR Practitioner at Spoornet Port Elizabeth to a Deputy Executive Manager at Protekon Cape, the Engineering Division of Transnet. Whilst at Protekon, he completed a Masters degree in Business Leadership at the UNISA School of Business Leadership in 2003.

In 2004 he joined the Naspers Group, initially as Group HR Manager for Via Africa and later served 3 years as General Manager Human Resources for media 24, the print media division of Naspers.

Derek was appointed to the board of Lewis Stores (Pty) Ltd on 8 October 2008. He is now responsible for the group’s merchandising functions, which includes inter alia, the sourcing of merchandise, related logistics and product quality control.

His retail experience extends from 1981 when he began ten years with the Pick ‘n Pay Stores Limited group, where his career evolved from trainee floor manager to buyer. Derek gained production experience with Airflex Furniture Industries (Proprietary) Limited as procurement manager before joining Morkels Limited for eight years where he was the electrical merchandise executive from 1997 to 1999. During this time, Derek travelled extensively around the world sourcing products in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Derek joined Lewis as the General Manager: Merchandise in May 2000.

Charles has been IT Director of Lewis Stores (Pty) Ltd since March 1999. In his capacity, he is responsible for ensuring the maintenance and development of the group’s information systems.

Charles has spent his entire working career in the retail industry, specialising for the last 20 years in information technology. During his earlier career, he had operational experience in general retail management. Prior to joining Lewis Stores in 1998, he spent nine years at McCarthy Limited.