Astute, the financial services exchange, has announced the appointment of Hennie de Villiers as chairman with effect from 1 July 2006. He replaced Lee Izikowitz who retired after serving as Astutes chairman for the past six years.
Hennie de Villiers is operations executive at Sanlam Personal Finance where he is responsible for administration and client service of individual life policies and portfolios, as well for as the delivery of IT solutions and services to Sanlam Personal Finance and Sanlam Employee Benefits.
Prior to taking over the chair, de Villiers served as an alternate director and as chairman of Astutes remuneration committee. In other changes, Alan Woolfson from Liberty Life joins the Astute board as a director, while Andre Cilliers from Sanlam and Beatrice Botes from Liberty Life join as alternate directors.
Biddie Biddulph, managing director of Astute, commented: "It's a pleasure to welcome our new chairman and directors to the board of Astute. We are indeed fortunate to have people of their calibre and experience as the company enters a new phase in the development of South Africas financial services industry.
"We owe a debt of gratitude to Lee Izikowitz for his enormous contribution during Astutes formation and development".
About Hennie de Villiers
After obtaining a B.Comm (Hons) from the University of Stellenbosch in 1988, Hennie de Villiers joined at Sanlam in January 1989 and has been at the company ever since.
He has fulfilled many roles at Sanlam in the actuarial, product development, IT and client service areas.
Hennie is a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries. He is married to Adle, and they have two daughters, Nicola (7) and Anneri (3).
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