Local Leadership Team

Mathieu was appointed as chief executive officer of WSP in Africa in 2010. He joined the company in 2007 as head of department for the refrigeration division, before being appointed office director for Building Services. 

Savannah Maziya holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the United States of America and an MBA from the United Kingdom.

She is currently the Group CEO of the Bunengi Group based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Bunengi Group is a project development, management and investment company that operates all over the African continent in the infrastructure, natural resources and financial services sectors. This company is the only one of its kind that is women owned and run in Africa.

Savannah has worked in various other industries such as broadcasting, mining and financial services. She has run various businesses that she started and later sold. She has served on various boards such as Rand Water (the largest water utility in Africa), Immigration, National Gambling and Casino Boards, The Construction Industry Development Board, The New School in New York, and the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications. She has also served on various listed international mining groups boards, such as Gold one and Uranium one. After South Africa was declared a democratic country in 1994, Savannah also played the role of special advisor to various government ministers.

A qualified quantity surveyor, she is the founder and Managing Director of Nonku Ntshona & Associates Quantity Surveyors (Pty) Ltd. Her entrepreneurial spirit and in-depth industry experience is evident in her leadership of a largely female team to significant success in a male dominated industry. Nonku’s business is recognized for its expertise in delivering world class infrastructure on mandates across Africa. Her level of project experience includes infrastructure developments in the mining industry, roll out projects in the automotive sector, office developments, retail developments, housing developments, commercial mixed use developments and watching brief projects. Nonku also serves on numerous professional bodies and is affiliated to several organizations with a forum to advance women in business. Nonku is passionate about empowering women which resulted in her launching the South African chapter of the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEPSA), an outreach, education, and engagement initiative.

Emma Wyatt is the UK Director of Marketing and Communications in the UK with responsibility for internal and external brand and reputation.  Prior to this, she worked at the Australian property developer, Lend Lease, as Head of Marketing and Communication for their EMEA operation, overseeing consultation and PR on major projects such as the Elephant and Castle development, Greenwich Peninsular and the Olympic Village, as well as managing the Investor Relations programme for the EMEA CEO.  

Before Lend Lease, Emma worked on major global, heavy civil bids for the American Engineering company, Bechtel.  She was part of the Crossrail and UK Olympics bid teams during her time there.  Emma holds a BSc in Economics, an LPC in UK Law and has a green belt Six Sigma qualification.

In her spare time, Emma is on the Board of Trustees for a legal charity as well as an educational charity, where she also chairs the Finance Committee.

Dinesh is a professional engineer with over 11 years’ experience in the power sector. He has worked primarily in the field of transmission, distribution and renewable energy engineering and has extensive experience in substations, high voltage lines and cables, substation automation and switchgear, including high level and detailed design, construction and commissioning. He also has experience in manufacturing and supply of electrical equipment in substation automation, medium voltage and low voltage switchgear and distribution.

Laura Swanepoel has over 28 years’ experience in the Property Industry, with formal qualifications in architecture and project management.  She has worked primarily as project manager and business operations manager, with also a track record as programme/consortium leader, leading multidisciplinary teams of professionals on major building projects. Laura further has strategic facilities management experience, having work in the facilities management industry for 5 years. Laura joined WSP in 2014 as Office Director for Building Services in the Property Inland and was later promoted to Office Director for the Building Services and Structures divisions within Property Inland.

Wayne is a professional engineer with over 30 years’ experience focussing on property development, highways design and management, toll strategy and operations, small contractor development, and project management.

Francois is a Director with WSP in Africa responsible for new business development, growth and client engagement. He leads the execution of larger multi-disciplinary projects for various clients, incl. private property developers, industrial production facilities, financial fund managers, large scale infrastructure developments.

Relevant experience includes greenfields’ project development, brownfields’ project management, operations and maintenance, and public infrastructure management. He worked for the Gauteng Provincial Government as Deputy Director-General for Public Health Infrastructure. In this role, he was responsible for management of large infrastructure budgets and diverse teams of project managers, engineers and maintenance personnel. He has a firm understanding of public sector management of finances, procurement, systems and processes.

Nicola has an extensive track record of developing and implementing an integrated strategy for the delivery of excellent people plans which includes leading the people strategy to secure strong organisational performance and encourages strategic focus on devolved and empowered leadership to ensure the business is best placed to attract, retain and develop talented individuals. 

Dhiren's previous positions include being Financial Director at DPI Plastics and Wade Walker, before joining WSP. He has a BCom (Hons) in Accounting from University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Sean Doel is one of South Africa’s leading environmental risk management specialists. With nineteen years of experience in both government and private sector work, he has worked at national policy level as well as on a wide range of environment and sustainability projects as both a specialist and project director.

Paul has more than 12 years experience in management, and was appointed Director: Power at WSP in 2015. Paul has a B.Eng, Mechanical Engineering, University of Johannesburg, and MBA, Business Management, GIBS. 

Peter is a mechanical engineer with more than 25 years of experience in the design of large multi-disciplinary commercial and Industrial projects. He has international experience in masterplan development of engineering services to industrial and commercial developments throughout Africa and the Middle East, and specialises in co-ordination across all services; including architectural, civil, structural and building services.

Dr. Milne is a professional engineer with over 29 years' experience in civil engineering. In his role as Managing Director for the Transport and Infrastructure division, he oversees critical aspects of projects for WSP in Africa to ensure quality and safety.