Senior Management
InternetAntonie RouxCEO of MIH and of Naspers Internet Operations Antonie Roux joined the Naspers group in 1979 and was a founding member of M-Net in 1985. In 1997, Mr. Roux was appointed chief executive officer of M-Web South Africa and in 2002 as chief executive officer of the Naspers internet operations. Effective 1 April 2011, he was appointed as chief executive officer of the MIH group.  Charles SearleCEO MIH Internet Listed Assets Charles Searle joined the Naspers Group in 1997. He is currently responsible for the internet group's listed and social media assets, including Tencent Holdings Limited, a leading Chinese Internet company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and Mail.ru, a leading Russian Internet company listed on the London Stock Exchange. He is also involved in the MIH Internet Group's M&A activities where he previously held the position of Internet Chief Investment Officer. Mr Searle is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.  Hein BrandCEO Internet Latam Hein Brand joined the Naspers group in 1998 as finance executive. He is a Chartered Accountant and a former financial director of Media24, chief executive officer of Via Afrika and later managing director of Media24. He was appointed as chief executive of MIH Internet Latin America in August 2008, but retained responsibility for all MIH print media investments outside of Africa, most notably the investment in the leading Brazilian magazine publisher Abril and two Chinese print investments.  Oliver RippelCEO Internet SE Asia, India & Africa Oliver Rippel was appointed CEO Ecommerce Africa & Middle East by MIH Internet in July 2009. This business includes various internet assets including kalahari.com, Leisure Books, and Pricecheck in South Africa, as well as Mocality and Dealfish in several other African countries. He was recently appointed to head up internet divisions in India and Southeast Asia as well, including Ibibo in India and Multiply in Southeast Asia. He joined Naspers in January 2009 as Head of Business Development in Southeast Asia before relocating to Cape Town, South Africa. Prior to working for Naspers, Oliver spent nine years at eBay - first in his home country Germany and then as part of the Asia-Pacific region in China, Korea, and Southeast Asia. There he mostly focused on strategy, business development, as well as category management and marketing operations. Oliver studied economics in Berlin, Germany. He is married and has two children.  Brad PorteusRegional GM, MIH Internet Southeast Asia Brad Porteus has been working inside consumer Internet companies since 1996 including stints with multinationals like MTV and eBay and early stage growth companies like Yelp, Elance and Bubble Motion. At MIH, Brad works with regional portfolio companies in Southeast Asia offering strategic and operational guidance to the CEOs and management teams in growing our businesses by building great products and services that users love. Brad lives in Singapore with his wife and two boys.  Hein PretoriusCEO Allegro Group Hein joined the Naspers Group in 2000 as CEO of kalahari.com. In 2002 he became CEO of N-Direct (kalahari.com and The Book & Music Clubs) and in 2004 Hein relocated to China in the role as Internet Business Development Director, first to Shanghai and then to Beijing, to further the group’s investment activities. Hein was involved in the investments in Mail.ru, Nimbuzz, Gadu-Gadu and the Tradus Group (Ricardo & Allegro) and was relocated to the Netherlands in 2007 taking on the role of COO for the Internet Division in Europe. In September 2008 he was appointed as the CEO of the Internet Division in Europe and in April 2012 Hein was appointed to the position of CEO Allegro Group. He is a director of a number of companies in the MIH Group.  Arjan BakkerChairman Allegro Arjan Bakker was a founding member and director of Cadena, a company focusing on IT solutions from 1991-1999. In 1999 he co-founded Allegro.pl, the leading auction service in Poland. During the past 10 years he has developed a group of services in Poland and in Central and Eastern Europe, making Allegro Group one of the most successful enterprises.  Romero RodriquesCEO BuscaPé Romero holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electric Engineering with major in Computing by the Polytechnic School of University of São Paulo. Romero founded BuscaPé at the age of 20 and has been the CEO ever since. BuscaPé.com, which began in a garage in July 1988, has grown into an internet group with 18 properties operating in 28 countries. The company currently employs 1,100, distributed in nine offices in Latin America and reaches more than 60 million consumers every month.  Neil SchwartzmanGM Dealfish.com  Tomasz JażdżyńskiCEO Gadu-Gadu Tomasz Jażdżyński started his professional career in the financial industry in 1995. In 1999 he was appointed CEO of Interia.pl, the third largest Polish internet portal. As the youngest CEO in the history of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, he led an IPO of Interia.pl in 2000. He is the only CEO in Poland to IPO two companies, the second one being Bankier.pl, a leading Polish financial portal, in 2006. In 2004 he was recognized as Polish Internet Man of The Year by InternetStandard editorial. Between 2004 and 2005, as CFO of Wirtualna Polska, the second largest portal in Poland, he was responsible for the restructuring of the business. In 2008 he again joined Interia.pl as CEO until 2010, after which he joined Gadu-Gadu. He received the prestigious Mixx-award for Lifetime Achievement by IAB Poland in 2009.  Ashish KashyapCEO ibibo Group Ashish Kashyap set up and launched "ibibo group" in 2007 and drove the creation of leading internet and mobile assets in India comprising: No 1 casual gaming platform (ibibo games); fast growing e-commerce platforms such as Goibibo.com (travel) and Tradus.in (online shopping) and Payment gateway: PayU India. Prior to launching "ibibo Group", Ashish was the Country Head of Google India, wherein he set up the domestic business operations from ground up. Before joining Google, Ashish "founded" E-Commerce businesses at Indiatimes.com and drove them to a profitable and scale position. He architected first of its kind “Reverse Auctions" platform called “Tell Your Price”; created India’s first "Travel Auction" platform and also launched ‘fixed price market places’. Ashish holds an "Economics (Honors)" from University Of Delhi, India and an "International Masters in Practicing Management (IMPM)" from Insead, Fontainebleau, France.  Gary NovitzkasCEO kalahari.com Gary Novitzkas joined the group in 2010 as GM Marketplace for kalahari.com, a pioneer and market leader in the South African online retail industry, and he was appointed CEO in the same year. Prior to working for MIH, Gary spent 5 years at VeriSign Inc in various positions including Sales Director for Worldwide Retail Sales and Country Manager for South Africa. He is married and has three children.  Riaan BassonMD Korbitec Riaan read Law at Stellenbosch and Queens' College, Cambridge (1986-1993) and practised as an attorney in Cape Town, Amsterdam and London, specialising in M&A work and Telecommunications Law (1994-1999). He was the business development director at M-Web from 2000-2005 and has been Managing Director of Korbitec/Property24 since 1 August 2005.  Richard TanCEO Lelong Richard is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Interbase Resources Sdn. Bhd. which operates lelong.com.my, Malaysia’s largest online auction portal and Superbuy.my, a fixed price online mall. A Chartered Accountant by training, Richard worked in chartered accounting and manufacturing companies, before entering the software industry as the Regional Finance & Business Development Director for System Software Associates Inc (SSA) in Singapore. In this role, he set up operations in Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and China. He later moved on to become Managing Director of SSA Malaysia in 1994. Prior to setting up Interbase Resources in 1999, Richard was the Managing Director and Shareholder of JBA Asia Sdn Bhd, an international ERP provider. Richard holds a First Class Honours degree in Commerce and Administration from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants New Zealand and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.  Ben ColaycoCOO LevelUp! Ben Colayco, along with his father, founded Level Up! and was the driving force in launching Level Up!’s online game companies in the Philippines, India, and Brazil. He has lived extensively in each market and has is now based in California where he manages Level Up!’s North American Joint Venture with KOG Studios from Korea. As COO he oversees the North American, Brazilian and Philippine subsidiaries. During the last 9 years in the online game business, Ben has seen the category evolve from what was originally viewed as a quirky trend in Korea, into a multi-billion dollar business model across the globe. A graduate of New York University, Ben was in the New York advertising and online advertising industry before returning to Manila to start Level Up! in 2002.  Dmitry GrishinCEO Mail.ru Dmitry Grishin graduated from Moscow State Technical University in 2001 with a degree of honour in computer-aided design. From 2001 to 2003 he served as Technical Director of Mail.ru. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Mail.ru in April 2003. Currently Mr Grishin also serves on the board of directors of Mamba and Molotok.  Jonathan MuirGM Mocality.com Jonathan joined MIH in 2005 as a project manager for the Innovation Zone. Prior to this he was the software development manager at biotech startup Electric Genetics. He subsequently moved to 24.com and was involved in the establishment and running of the 24.com search division as technical product manager. In 2009 he joined Mocality as Head of Data/Search and was subsequently promoted to Chief Technology Officer. He was appointed General Manager in January 2011. Jonathan has a Bachelor of Commerce degree (Information Systems & Statistics) from the University of Cape Town.  Fabrício BloisiCEO Movile Fabrício Bloisi is one of the founders and CEO of Movile (formerly Compera nTime), one of the largest mobile value added services companies in Brazil and pioneer in launching services such as mobile web app stores, mobile video, smartphone apps, mobile marketing, mobile marketing, SMS voting, Mobile TV, alerts and mobile personalization. Fabricio has a Bsc in Computer Science (UNICAMP) and a MBA/MSC (FGV-EAESP). He started in the mobile industry in 2000, as the founder of Compera nTime and has actively participated in initiatives with the goal to accelerate the growth of VAS industry in Brazil, including as Chairman of Amcham Mobile Business comitee and Director of AMMB (Mobile Marketing Association of Brazil).  Vikas SaxenaCEO Nimbuzz Vikas is the CEO of Nimbuzz, one of the most scaled Mobile Instant Messaging platforms globally. Prior to this Vikas worked as the founding General Manager for 3G Operations at Aircel Ltd in India. In this role he is responsible for rollout and operations of one of the India’s first private sector build-up of 3G networks nationwide.  Alec OxenfordCo-CEO OLX Alec Oxenford is an Argentine entrepreneur focused on the Internet Space. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Alec worked as a business consultant for The Boston Consulting Group in Europe and Latin America where he advised top management of leading companies on market strategy and organizational effectiveness. Prior to OLX, in 1999, Alec founded DeRemate.com, which he built into one of the two largest online trading platforms in Latin America. DeRemate was sold to an eBay affiliate in 2005. In 2003, Alec also co-founded DineroMail.com, a leading payment platform in Latin America. In March of 2006, Alec co-founded OLX.com with business partner Fabrice Grinda and as co-CEO, Alec leads the company’s Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo offices where the technology, content and customer service teams are based. Alec participates in numerous NGO Boards and was elected Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Alec graduated as MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School in 1997, having received First and Second Year Honors.  Fabrice GrindaCo-CEO OLX As an Internet entrepreneur and investor, Fabrice has successfully transposed, adapted and invested in business ideas between the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America. As co-founder and co-CEO, Fabrice drives the company’s business development, investor relations, M&A and product development efforts. Prior to OLX, Fabrice was the founder and CEO of Zingy Inc., which he built into one of the largest wireless media companies in the Americas while successfully closing deals with some of the top wireless providers in the world. Within four years, Fabrice successfully grew the business to $200 million in content sales before selling the business in 2004 for $80 million. In 1998, Fabrice co-founded and was CEO of Aucland S.A., one of the top three auction sites in Europe. Before that Fabrice worked as a business consultant for McKinsey & Company. Fabrice graduated Summa Cum Laude from Princeton University in 1996 and was awarded the Halbert White prize, given to the most distinguished economics student, as well as The Wolfe Balleisen memorial prize, awarded for best thesis.  André de WetGM PriceCheck André de Wet started his internet career more than 15 years ago when the internet and mobile explosions were just taking shape. He weathered the storm through the burst of the first bubble and brings a real depth of understanding in these fields to the table. He's worked in the internet, mobile and financial arenas on different continents with main focus areas being Africa, Europe and Asia. He held a range of international director and CxO positions, giving him a wealth of knowledge and experience that he now brings to the MIH group. André joined the group after returning from a CEO position in Singapore in 2010 and is now involved with heading up PriceCheck, to steer and expand it as the largest price comparison site in Southern Africa.  Heiner KrokeCEO ricardo Heiner Kroke was appointed CEO of the ricardo Group of companies, Europe’s leading auction and e-commerce network, in 2008. In this role, he is responsible for strategy, corporate development, and operations of all brands and online portals within the ricardo Group in Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Norway, and Denmark. Prior to this Heiner held senior leadership positions at eBay.de. He also gained management experience at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as well as at Bertelsmann AG. At BCG, he was project leader at the Frankfurt office overseeing a wide range of internet and e-commerce projects in different European countries. Following that, Heiner Kroke was appointed Vice President business development at Bertelsmann, in charge among other projects of their e-commerce and book clubs (Direct Group). Heiner Kroke studied economics in engineering at the University Karlsruhe. He is married and has a daughter.  Tiwa YorkMD Sanook e-Commerce Tiwa York joined Sanook as Managing Director E-Commerce in September 2011. He is responsible for building great e-commerce businesses for the Thai market including classifieds and online shopping. Prior to joining Sanook, he was Platforms Director at Omnicom Media Group (Thailand) responsible for developing the agencies digital services division. Tiwa spent seven years at DMS Group where he had various roles including Managing Director Admax Network (Thailand), DMS VP Marketing & Business Development and Managing Director New Media. He lives in Bangkok with his wife and daughter.  RJ DavidCEO Sulit RJ David started Sulit.com.ph with his wife Arianne in September 2006 as a free classified ads website targeting the Philippines. He launched the website from his bedroom and it has grown to become the most visited local website in the country. Prior to starting Sulit.com.ph, he worked as a self-taught Web Developer and as a Software Test Engineer. RJ holds a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of the Philippines.  MA, Huateng (Pony Ma)Core Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Tencent Holdings Limited Pony Ma, one of the Core Founders, Executive Director, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Tencent. Pony oversees the strategic development, overall direction and business management of the Group. Before he founded Tencent in 1998, Pony was in charge of research and development for Internet paging system development at China Motion Telecom Development Limited, a telecommunications services and products provider in China. Pony received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Shenzhen University in 1993 and he has more than 18 years of experience in telecommunication and Internet industries.  |