Directors

Murray Hewlett is a South African entrepreneur and founding CEO of Affinity Enterprises. Murray became a sales director at age 28. Since 2006, he has been the Managing Director of Affinity Data. Affinity Data are experts in the business solutions sector, including:

• End-to-end lead generation campaigns
• Database management
• Business or Consumer marketing

Murray launched Affinity Enterprises in 2012. His vision is to make South Africans healthier and enhance the quality of their lives. Affinity Enterprises exists in response to an ever-growing need for affordable health services. Murray’s companies provide cost-effective, high-performance insurance solutions in Southern Africa.

The Affinity suite of insurance products offers healthcare and financial services that supply solutions to an underserved market.
Murray has led Affinity’s dramatic growth for over 10 years. The organisation currently offers financial services to hundreds of thousands of South Africans.

He serves on the Executive Committees and Board of Directors of many for-profit and non-profit organisations.
Murray holds abundant experience exceeding 25 years in the following financial services sectors:

• Life Insurance
• Short Term Insurance
• Employee Benefits
• Retail Pension Funds
• Treasury Services
• Asset Management
• Cash Flow Management

He obtained his MBA from Charles Sturt University in Australia in 2008. He is currently a Doctoral candidate at the University of Liverpool and earned a B.Sc. degree from Wits University in 1996.

Mr Thipa holds financial and legal service experience exceeding 15 years, notably in:

• High Court Attorney.
• High Court Right of Appearance.
• Founder of Thipa Incorporated Attorneys – specialising in:
  • Pension.
  • Employee benefits law.
  • Financial services law.
• NBC Director for Legal, Employee Benefits, Compliance and Trustee Services.
• Webber Wentzel Associate.
• NBC Consultant.
• Alexander Forbes Employee Benefits Consultant.

He is currently approved by the Registrar of Pension Funds to act as:

• Liquidator of Retirement Funds.
• Principal Officer.
• Chairman of the S15K Specialist Surplus Tribunals.
• Chairman of the CIDB Investigating Committee.
• Member of the National Treasury panel of experts, Pension Law.
• Member of the International Pension and Employee Benefits Lawyers Association.

Mr Symington is an esteemed South African compliance executive. He provides management solutions in the financial services sector.

He holds an extensive range of experience in these consultancy services for the past 16 years:

•  Compliance.
•  Risk management.
• Governance.

Mr Symington provides a wealth of expertise exceeding 13 years in banking and group financial compliance.
His qualifications include:

•  BCompt Honours degree, University of South Africa.
•  BCom Degree, University of Natal.
•  Advanced Executive Programme, University of South Africa.
•  Diploma in Advanced Banking, University of Johannesburg.
•  Certificate in Money laundering Control.

Alwyn de Koker is a South African tax law specialist. He has over 50 years of experience as an executive financial expert.

He is Professor Emeritus of Tax Law in the School of Accountancy at the University of the Witwatersrand and also holds the following leadership roles:

• Director of the Master’s Programme in Tax Law.
• Co-Founder of the Foundation for Fiscal Studies.
• Adjunct Professor in the LLM International Tax Programme at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, USA.
• Board member of the Academic Advisors to the School of Law.
• Honorary Professor in the School of Law at St Thomas University, Miami, USA.

Professor De Koker is also a co-author of the following publications:

• Silke Tax Yearbook.
• Value-Added Tax in South Africa.
• VAT and Financial Services: Comparative and Economic Perspectives.
• Money Laundering, Asset Forfeiture and Recovery and Compliance – A Global Guide.