financial and operationaloperational review: executive committee
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| Alan Smart | Johan Enslin | Les Davies | Chris Heiberg | Charles Irwin | Brett van Aswegen |
Neil Jansen | Derek Loudon |
Alan Smart (64)
Chief Executive Officer
Alan Smart is the chief executive officer and his biography is here.
Johan Enslin (35)
Chief Executive Officer Designate and Chief Operating Officer
Johan was appointed chief operating officer of the group with effect 1 April 2007 and chief executive officer designate on 10 November 2008. He is responsible for the entire retail operations of the group.
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 Electric store operations.
Les Davies (53) CA(SA)
Chief Financial Officer
Les Davies is the chief financial officer and his biography is here.
Chris Heiberg (61)
Group Marketing and Merchandise Director
Chris has been the merchandise and marketing director of Lewis Stores (Pty) Ltd since February 1984 and has retired with effect from 31 March 2009. His responsibilities included the management of all product offering to consumers and marketing strategies for all Lewis’ divisions.
Chris’ career with the Lewis Group spans over 30 years. He became a regional controller in April 1980 and a divisional general manager in April 1982. In 1984, he was appointed merchandise and marketing director.
Charles Irwin (55)
IT Director
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.
Brett van Aswegen (34) –
BCom, MBA
Credit Risk Director
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 Jansen (37) – MBL
(UNISA), Diploma in Labour Law
Human Resources Director
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 three years as general manager: human resources for media 24, the print media division of Naspers.
Derek Loudon (46)
Merchandise Director
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.
His retail experience extends from 1981 when he began 10 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.