Dr Iraj Abedian Guest Speaker at NMMU Business School Strategic Conversations

10 May 2013, Port Elizabeth – Dr Iraj Abedian, founder and Chief Executive of Pan-African Capital Holdings (Pty) Ltd, will be guest speaker at the next instalment of NMMU Business School Strategic Conversations.

Dr Abedian will engage with private and public stakeholders of NMMU and the business school around “Africa’s Place in the World Economy: What business leadership should and could do to improve Africa’s economic development."

Dr Abedian was professor of economics at the University of Cape Town, before entering the business sector in 2000. He has served as a consultant on economic policy issues to public and private sector organizations in South Africa as well as internationally. His involvement in policy development in South Africa includes: The Transformation of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (1995), the RDP White Paper (1995), Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR 1996), Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF 1997/98), the Presidential Review Commission (PRC 1997/98, membership of the President’s Economic Advisory Panel 2006-2009 and Economic Advisor to Minister of Mineral Resources, SA Government (Feb. 2010 to July 2012).

He obtained his BA (Honours) and MA in Economics from University of Cape Town (UCT). He received his PhD in Economics from Simon Fraser University in Canada in 1993. He is a prolific researcher and has written numerous articles and co-authored books including “Economic Growth in South Africa” (1992), “Transformation in Action: Budgeting for Health Service Delivery” (1998), “Economics of Tobacco Control; Towards an Optimal Policy Mix” (1998) as well as “Economic Globalization and Fiscal Policy” (1998).

During September to December 1999, Dr Abedian was based at the IMF, Washington D.C., working on issues related to fiscal vulnerability assessment. In January 2000 he joined The Standard Bank Group at their head office in Johannesburg as Group Chief Economist. He was appointed Director and Group Economist in April 2000, and was a member of the Standard Bank Group EXCO. From June 2003 to August 2004, he was an economic columnist for SOWETAN; a Johannesburg-based daily newspaper.

In 2003, Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals (ABSIP) awarded him the title of Top Economist of the Year. As of March 2010, he is an Extraordinary Professor of Economics at Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), University of Pretoria, and serves the following organizations and companies including as: Chairman of the Board: Bigen Africa (Pty) Ltd (April 2009 to date), Member of the Board of Directors of Munich Re of Africa (2005 to date), Member of Board of Capital Fund Ltd (May 2011 to date) and Member of the Advisory Board of the Auditor General of the SA Government (2006 to date).