Our team

Mr Alf Farrell

Executive Director and CEO, Wits Health Consortium

Founder of the Great Leap Forward, a Division of Wits Health Consortium. University of Witwatersrand. Johannesburg.

A highly skilled financial manager with more than 22 years commercial experience in senior and executive financial management positions. As CEO, Alf has directed the Wits Health Consortium portfolio of development and research programmes, including Commercially Funded Clinical Trials, ensuring that the growth of Wits Health Consortium is combined with high standards of delivery. Under Alf’s tenure the total income of Wits Health Consortium has grown from R150 million in 2002 to over R2 billion in 2021.

Alf’s vision for the Great Leap Forward is to unlock entrepreneurial capacity by supporting academic entrepreneurs to find funding by purposefully leveraging knowledge, skill and strategic relationships through coaching, mentoring, performance psychology, group workshops and self-directed learning.

Prof Shane Norris

Research Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of the Witwatersrand

Shane is the Director of the South African Medical Research Council’s Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU), and Director of the South African Department of Science and Technology and National Research Council’s Centre of Excellence in Human Development (CoE-HUMAN). He is the President of the Africa Chapter of the International Society of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. Shane is also a professorial fellow at the Global Health Research Institute at the University of Southampton. Shane’s research focuses on lifecourse epidemiology with a specific interest in the development of intergenerational-risk for obesity and diabetes. His expertise includes nutrition and body composition across the lifecourse and longitudinal-cohort study methodologies. Shane is working with several scientists across Africa to both better understand and develop interventions that improve maternal and child health outcomes.

Dr Maureen Joffe

Head of Clinical Research Division, Wits Health Consortium

Maureen joined the Wits Health Consortium in 2000 as head of its Clinical Research division during which she developed electronic databases for tracking ethics applications and for registering clinical trials for the SADOH. As Head of the Clinical Research Division of the WHC, Maureen established and ran two dedicated clinical trials centres, which focus on noncommunicable diseases. Maureen also co-established an Oncology Epidemiology Research Group at Wits University where its group of clinicians, epidemiologists and molecular scientists have collaborated on breast, prostate, colorectal, oesophageal and lung cancer research.

More recently Maureen's research interests are focused on early detection of adult common cancers and health systems coordination and strengthening research together with patient-centred care along the cancer care continuum.

Ms Robyn Hayes Badenhorst

Head: Group Strategy, Wits Health Consortium

Head of Division: Supporting Health Initiatives.

Robyn supports to develop and drive the implementation of Wits Health Consortiums goals, key activities, and long-range plans. Robyn leads Supporting Health Initiatives, a Division of WHC, where she successfully coordinated and implemented Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Funded Covid 19 support initiatives as well as providing key support to the backlog clearance of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). In 2020 Robyn was seconded to the Covid-19. Occupational Health and Safety work stream of National Incident Management Team where she provided strategic project management and coordination support to the Occupational Health and Safety work-stream.

Mr James Ashton

Executive Coach, Multiplex Partners

James held several senior corporate roles, including being the head of operations of a Southern African bank, before co-founding an organisational development consultancy in South Africa. After seventeen years he and his wife, Cathy sold it and moved to Europe. They now work between Africa and Europe.

James is a lead partner at Multiplex and an expert in the field of individual and team change.

As an executive coach, he works with senior people across the world creating significant personal and organisational change.

Ms Lungile Hlongwane

Lungile Hlongwane began her professional career in the Ethics Office at Wits Health Consortium as a student temp. She provided administrative support and secretarial duties in the preparation of monthly Human Research Ethics Committee (Medical) meetings. She then formally joined the organisation as an administrator to the Head of the Office of the CEO – now Head of Group Strategy. In this role, she excelled in providing administrative and project co-ordination duties on numerous tender/bids as well as support to the project’s run by the Head of Group Strategy, including support to the Great Leap Forward initiatives. Lungile was promoted to Executive Personal Assistant to the CEO of WHC and Founder of the Great Leap forward. In this role, Lungile provides administrative and research support to the CEO and the GLF syndicate.

Lungile holds a degree in Bachelor of Health Sciences (Biomedical Sciences) as well as an Honours in Bioethics and Health Law. Her current research interests are in benefit sharing in genomics research, maternal and child health as well as cancer epidemiology.

Dr Nombulelo Chitha

Head: Group Knowledge Management, Wits Health Consortium

Nombulelo ("Buli") is a research driven professional whose experience include lecturing at post graduate level and knowledge management. At the Wits Health Consortium (WHC) Buli is responsible for the coordination of the knowledge resources such as WHC Annual Report, CSIR Annual Research Survey and ensuring their accessibility to the wider WHC community. She is providing oversight to the WHC syndicates activities and their achievements. Buli is providing administrative and technical support for strategic projects administered by WHC. From July 2021, she has been playing a key role in the Solidarity Fund/ Gauteng Department of Health project that seeks to ensure Gauteng hospitals have enough nurses to fight Covid-19 in the province.