Alex Kuzma has a BSc in Metallurgical Engineering and heads up the Engineering Services Department at Woolworths (Pty) Ltd, a South African based retailer with Head Offices in Cape Town. Woolworths embarked on their “Good Business Journey” over 10 years ago in order to strategically position themselves at the forefront of sustainability and transformation in the global marketplace. Refrigeration design and performance play a key role in delivering on the challenging targets related to energy efficiency and carbon emissions. Investment in natural refrigerants and energy savings technologies are a huge part of the Good Business Journey strategy.

A driven, passionate self-starter who has climbed to the top of his profession through extreme ownership, hard work and an enquiring mind. Spent the majority of his 20+ years of experience in the Meat Industry specifically at Lynca Meats, a large integrated pork manufacturing facility South of Johannesburg. Andre gets a kick out of producing great food as efficiently as possible. Andre is also driven to finding innovative ways to produce great food at a competitive price. Andre is GM of Lynca Meats and is responsible for Operations at multiple Plant sites.

Ben joined the Carel group in 2016 working as technical support for the Eastern Region in South Africa. In 2019 had moved up to Carel Midrand as Customer Solution Team Manager for Carel South Africa. Multiple times having received formal training from Carel Italy and webinars Ben is committed to keeping up to date with Carels latest technologies and in doing so ensuring our customers take advantage of all of Carel’s offerings and technologies. Living in Johannesburg, where industries want to strive to reduce operating costs and increased user experience Ben has strengthened the use of Carel in our local market for CO2 applications. Other areas of focus are the Ejector product and IOT platforms to offer more to our Retail market.

Grant Laidlaw is the current Owner of the Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Academy (ACRA). Grant represents industry as the appointed subject matter expert for the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (Dept Higher Education) and for the National Artisan Moderating Body (NAMB) Grant was instrumental in the development of the latest SAQA registered national HERVAC curriculum He sits on SAIRAC National Council as the immediate past president and national treasurer. Grant is a recipient of the prestigious SAIRAC gold medal award for outstanding contribution towards research and development in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry, both nationally and internationally. Grant is actively involved with UNIDO, GIZ and the South African Government Department of the Environment, Forestry and Fisheries in advancing the HERVAC industry.

With a post-graduate degree in journalism from Rhodes University in South Africa and 10 years of experience relating to the HVAC&R industry, Ilana joined ATMOsphere (formerly shecco) in 2019. Co-founder of ATMOsphere, she also heads up the Market Intelligence team, focusing on market research, policy analysis, media, and specialized campaigns – all with the aim to accelerate the global transition to clean cooling and natural refrigerant solutions.

John Ackermann holds a mechanical engineering degree and has been involved in the refrigeration industry for nearly 50 years now. He runs his own refrigeration components business and founded The Cold Link newspaper in 1987, traveling the world to report on topical issues and present at conferences. He maintains a vigorous involvement with industry associations around the world and plays an active role in the implementation of the Montreal Protocol in South Africa, working closely with the GIZ, UNIDO and other industry role players.

Leon worked for 15 years as a mechanical design engineer in fields such as materials handling equipment design, and bulk material handling-, as well as in the plastics industry, specializing in the heating and cooling processes, and the development thereof. He has been at Transfrig for the past 10 years, specializing in transport refrigeration equipment development, software development, and evaluation/testing of new- and alternative technologies for use in transport refrigeration.

Founder of ATMOsphere a global, independent market accelerator with a mission to clean-up cooling. Marc Chasserot has 20 years of experience in the HVAC&R sector. His focus throughout those years has been with Natural Refrigerant based technologies used in Refrigeration, Heat Pumps and Air Conditioning applications. He has founded several industry platforms, namely; www.R744.com, www.hydrocarbons21.com, ammonia21.com, and Accelerate Magazine. Published numerous reports for industry and policy-makers, chaired over 70 ATMOsphere conferences worldwide. Marc has lived and worked in Asia, Europe and America. He holds several degrees in Economics, Marketing and Politics.

Margaret is responsible for leading the development and implementation of national policies, strategies, legislation, norms and standards on chemicals and waste management. Among her responsibilities is implementing the Montreal Protocol on ozone depleting substances , Rotterdam and Stockholm Convention, etc.

Marius is a Mechanical Engineering professional working on custom made solutions and turn key projects within the SA Refrigeration sector for the last 10+ years. He specialises in system types including CO2 and Ammonia applications with some projects completed on behalf of GIZ in the local SA retail sectors. He completed an Executive Master in Business Administration at GSB in Cape Town. He is currently employed by Energy Partners Refrigeration as manufacturing manager in Cape Town and also feels privileged to currently serve local industry part time as SAIRAC president.

Nadine studied business administration focussed on marketing and controlling. She is part of the TEKO Team for almost 10 years and among duties like corporate communication and design, event management and improvement of company processes. She’s also responsible for market research which gives her an excellent knowledge of the refrigeration market development. She is working closely together with the TEKO product management and therefore has a great insight into the development of all TEKO solutions with natural refrigerants.

Nigel Amschwand is an Engineering Consultant with GEA Africa (Pty) Ltd. Having more than 50 years’ experience with many aspects of refrigeration ranging from supermarkets to ultra-low temperature systems to food processing. A Fellow of the Institute of Refrigeration and a Member of ASHRAE.

NW has a bachelor’s degree in Electric and Electronic engineering from the North West University of Potchefstroom. He has completed his R6 course on Commercial and Industrial Refrigeration at the Open Trade Training Centre (OTTC) in Springs. He has completed his MBA and will be receiving his degree in May 2020. During NW’s six years working for Metraclark, he has been tasked with specialized designs involving agricultural refrigeration projects, abattoir refrigeration projects, energy efficient refrigerated retail stores and also natural refrigeration applications, focusing on R744 applications. His role in the Metraclark Engineering department is to assist in the design of CO₂ Refrigeration applications, specialized designs and technical assistance on standard Freon and R744 systems.

He is Responsible for the internal fit out of new and revamp stores across all formats from Hypers to small format stores. Disciplines include layouts, shelving, shopfitting, signage, food service equipment and refrigeration. A particular passion is striving for energy efficient solutions, reducing our carbon footprint and promoting the use of natural refrigerants in the retail industry.

Sally holds a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Cape Town. She is currently employed in the Directorate Air Quality Management of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Western Cape Government. Here, she and her team is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the Western Cape’s Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP), while working closely with Municipalities to ensure that they implement their Municipal AQMPs. As part of this process, one of her main focusses has been on Goal 4 of the Western Cape AQMP, which is: “Support and implement air quality and climate change response programs, including promoting and facilitating the reduction of greenhouse gases”. Accordingly, much of her involvement has been on the successful roll-out of the Western Cape Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning (RAC) Project, in partnership with the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection.

Thomas is a sustainable energy finance specialist with experience in South America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa. Thomas holds a MSc. in Mechanical Engineering and an executive certificate in Sustainable Finance, and has experience designing, developing and implementing public and private finance mechanisms for sustainable energy projects. Currently Thomas is leading the global Cooling as a Service Initiative aiming to develop and scale up the use of servitisation business models for the refrigeration and air-conditioning sector, transferring physical energy assets into services.

Wayne started his career working 9 years as Project Manager for SPAR Group, controlling and developing new and remodel stores. He then worked for 5 years as Project Manager for McDonald’s South Africa for new and remodel store developments. He has now been the Group Development Manager for SPAR Group for 5 years, establishing the specifications and guidelines for SPAR stores. In his career he has been a research and author for the following SPAR manuals: Refrigeration, Energy Efficiency, Cold Chain Management, Building Specifications and Finishing Standards.

Wynand has always been passionate about and supported the uptake of CO2 within the refrigeration industry. Over his 15-year career, which has spanned engineering and consulting roles, he has been heavily involved in the design and implementation of CO2 technologies. He is the founder of Future Green Now, an independent consulting firm which operates internationally. It is dedicated to the natural refrigeration industry and is involved in natural refrigeration projects within the U.S., Australia and Africa. Wynand earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in engineering from North-West University/Noordwes-Universiteit.