By Otsile Kadiege

Isuzu Motors SA recently announced its commitment to developing talent and working with its employees to progress their careers. According to the automaker, each of these employees have demonstrated their allegiance to the company and to the growth of the country.  They include Rob Whittaker – Department Executive Engineering, Lebo Rakgekola – Department Executive Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) and Sports Utility Vehicles South African Customs Union (SACU) Markets, Alastair Hodgson – Department Executive Business Enablement SACU markets, Mpho Nkhumeleni – Department Executive Sales Commercial Vehicles and Ziphindiwe Ngcobo – Department Executive Marketing.

Rob Whittaker – Department Executive Engineering

Rob is promoted to the role of Department Executive Engineering from Manager LCV Systems Engineering. Rob started his career with Volkswagen of South Africa and joined ISUZU Motors of South Africa (then Delta Motor Corporation) as a Reliability Engineer in January 2000. He has held various roles in Engineering including overseas assignments in Brazil and North America. He brings 23 years of experience to the position where he will play a major role in supporting the Isuzu business to progress even further. Rob holds an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cape Town.

Lebo Rakgekola – Department Executive for Sales LCV & SUV SACU

Lebo has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the motor industry in South Africa specialising in Sales and Marketing including business development management at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. She has risen through the ranks at Isuzu Motors South Africa which she joined in 2019. She is promoted to a leadership role involved in the strategic direction of the sales channels, cementing strong Dealership and Fleet customer relationships. She holds a Master of Business Leadership degree from University of South Africa and is currently pursuing her Master of Philosophy degree with GIBS.

Alastair Hodgson – Department Executive Business Enablement SACU

A newly created position of Senior Manager Business Enablement will see Alastair being responsible for sales volumes planning across all platforms. He will be a key enabler within the Revenue Generation teams at Isuzu Motors South Africa. He holds a B Comm with majors in Economics, Business Economics and Quantitative Management.

Mpho Nkhumeleni – Department Executive for Sales CV

A seasoned executive who graduated with BSc Mechanical Engineering, Graduate Diploma in Industrial Engineering, MSc Engineering and MBA all from University of the Witwatersrand, Mpho brings with 26 years of experience in sales and marketing, commercial, operations management, and logistics and distribution. For his Masters in Engineering degree research, he a wrote paper on “A Comparative Study of Supply Chain Performance Management in Manufacturing and Service Firms”, which was presented at the First Annual Symposium on Supply Chain Management (2003) in Toronto, Canada and published on E-Business Essentials. The paper highlighted intrinsic and extrinsic differences in performance measurement and evaluation of manufacturing and service firms.

Ziphindiwe Ngcobo – Department Executive for Marketing

In the 21st century, the marketing wing of any business is said to need purpose, innovation, and balance to achieve results that amount to sales. The ever-changing environment requires leadership that is driven by agility and ambition, these qualities are an equal match to the recently promoted Marketing Department Executive, Ziphindiwe Ngcobo.

Her Bcom in Marketing Management Science complements the skills and knowledge she has acquired in market research, strategy development, and brand development. Ziphindiwe is sure to steer the marketing division to deliver results for the business in the known and unknown environments, as we navigate the “new tools” of marketing.

Mongezi Hermans, Senior Vice President Human Capital and Corporate Affairs Division, Isuzu Motors South Africa says, “We congratulate these colleagues who have been appointed into various leadership roles. These announcements are testament to Isuzu’s focus on talent management which is driven by a two-pillar strategy where we focus on upskilling our internal diverse talent, and target suitable external candidates to accelerate transformation in the automotive industry”.