Ezanne Swanepoel

Senior Consultant, Facilitator and Trainer

(BSc (Agriculture), BSc (Psychology), BSc Hons (Agriculture), BSc Hons (Psychology); MSc (Agriculture), MBA (WBS/HEC, Paris))

Ezanne joined Intersol in 2021 as a Senior Consultant. Her consulting practice focusses primarily on five broad areas that can be best summarized as Strategy & Organizational Development; Diversity & Change Management; Stakeholder Engagement & Relationship Management; Leadership, Upskilling & Workplace Learning; and Enterprise Development (Entrepreneurship). She holds degrees in the fields of Business (specialisation in Finance and Enterprise Development), Natural Sciences (Agriculture and Biotechnology) and Social Sciences (Industrial Psychology, People Development and Organisational Design), is fluent in 5 languages, and competent in a further 3 languages.

She has served clients on five continents, including Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America across more than 30 countries. She strategically advised and consulted in various industries, including the Financial Services and Banking Sector; Agriculture and Biotechnology sector (including Cannabis Industry); Governments, Public Sector; and Human Relations, Connectivity and Development across various sectors. She has 19 years of management experience in senior positions and has served on several boards of directorship. Ezanne has been privileged to serve leadership during some of Africas’ most recognised historic events, including major Transformation, Diversity and Inclusion activities, including the upliftment of women in business and enterprise development, during the formation of the “New South Africa” from 1995 to 2005; supported and assisted the Nelson Mandela Foundation with the reconciliation activities during Nelson Mandela’s 90^th Birthday Celebration; prepared emerging managers for international expansion processes in the aim to reduce unemployment in Africa, and preparation for the impact of technology and robotics in the placement industry, in ADCORP Group of Companies (33 companies); developed and prepared the African talent pool of SAB Miller, during the acquisition by ABInBev (3rd largest company n the world), while going through the biggest global acquisition process globally to date at that time – $108billion; designed, developed and implemented the skill development strategy for staff in preparation to roll out a new division of First National Bank called FNB EasyPlan, to bank the previously unbanked, opening up a consumer base that constitutes 80% of the total South African population, and has assisted with strategy, change management, transformation, leadership, and relationship management initiatives to many international companies including but not limited to GSK, Pfizer, Discovery, De Beers, Toyota, Citadel, Microsoft, Monsanto, Barlow World, Deusche Bank, HSBC, Investec, Rand Merchant Bank, Liberty Holdings Group, Old Mutual Group, L’Oreal, Vodacom, Coca-Cola and Avon. More recently she has served Canadian organisations including Desjardins, Cleanfarms, Health Canada, Apollo Green, Rimikon, Perigon Beverage Group and ANB, to name a few.

In the agricultural industry specifically, some of her achievements include: being the Researcher and Strategic Advisor to Denny Mushroom on their entire repackaging and route to market approach; being selected for international business project – Intensive biotechnology training in Iowa, USA, to start-up the first private biotechnology laboratory in Africa. She bred 5 maize products, 3 sunflower products and 2 sorghum products for commercial use at Advanta Africa and was part of a Canola and Baby-corn Breeding Team. She obtained an Award for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Agriculture’ at Advanta Africa; and a social project she headed for the Red Cross Society, afforded her the Award ‘Debutant of the Year” with the Red Cross Society for assistance in Disaster relief and provision of food, shelter, health and mental health services to help families and entire communities get back on their feet. Lastly, she built biotechnology solutions for wheat aphid resistance in wheat and wrote numerous academic papers in this field of study.

Her passion for developing people (in particular top leadership and executives) and for building a significant globally connected business network is demonstrated by the best networker award she received in Los Angeles in 2013. As International speaker and facilitator she has shared the stage with people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donna Karan, Wayne Allen Root, and Michael Irvin to name but a few. Enthusiastic about the promotion of people, and business development, her emphasis is on building collaborative connectivity across industries and geographic regions in an ethical and mutually beneficial way, and empowering others to do the same, while considering its impact on business and the triple bottom line (people, planet and profit).