Mark Lamberti

DR MARK JAMES LAMBERTI

B Com, DBA, PPL (Harvard), CD (SA)

In 2018 Mark Lamberti (73), a citizen of South Africa and Italy, transitioned from a 33-year executive career as CEO or chairman of various private and public companies to a plural portfolio of non-executive commercial and philanthropic assignments, while guiding his family office as chairman of Lamberti Holdings.

In 2021 he commenced academic research through the University of Pretoria, Gordon Institute of Business Science, pursuant to a Doctorate in Business Administration. This sharpened his focus on education as a benefactor, director, governor, counsellor, advisor, or lecturer to several colleges and universities, while enabling participation in mainstream scholarship following the conferment of his doctorate in April 2024.

His career focus has been the turnaround, entrepreneurial development, and growth of

multinational public companies headquartered in South Africa. From 1988 to 2014 he served as founder, CEO and from 2007 as non‐executive chairman of Massmart Holdings Limited, a retail and wholesale group of 238 stores operating in 15 sub‐Saharan Africa countries. The group was publicly listed in 2000 and Walmart acquired a controlling interest in 2011. From 2008 to 2014, as CEO and later non‐executive chairman, he headed the rationalisation and public listing of Transaction Capital, a non‐deposit taking financial services group. From 2014 to 2018, he served as CEO of Imperial Holdings Limited, where he led its rationalisation and repositioning from a conglomerate employing 48 000 employees in 39 countries, to two independent public companies specialising in logistics and motor vehicle import and distribution.

In addition, Lamberti served at various times as a non‐executive director of eight unrelated public companies. As chairman or director of various business associations he has interfaced with the South African government at ministerial level, to address national challenges in business, crime, and education.

This endeavour has been inspired and supported by his late wife Annette, the mother of their children Julia (45) and David (41) and punctuated by leisure time as a pianist, growing olives on a small farm in Chianti, Tuscany, and revelling in the joy of three grandchildren