CONTRIBUTORS BIOGRAPHIES PAGE 13 dez whitehead
Dez Whitehead is the Operations Director for the South African Landscapers Institute ( SALI ) Gauteng Region . Based in Johannesburg , he has been involved in the landscaping industry since 2003 .
The industry has been part of Dez ’ s life since birth . He was raised on a lawn farm on Gauteng ’ s East Rand , and with most of his family being involved in the industry in one way or another , it was inevitable that this would become a passion of his . Naturally Dez chose to pursue a career in the exciting and dynamic world of landscaping .
After spending a year in the United Kingdom on a working holiday visa as a contract worker doing landscape maintenance on municipal housing estates in London , he returned home to work as a driver in his family ’ s landscaping business . His career kicked off when he moved on to work for one of the major corporate landscaping companies as a contract worker in their overseas operations . Upon his return to South Africa in 2005 , he took up a permanent position in the company ’ s head office in Johannesburg as a cost estimator . As his career evolved , he became the company ’ s administration manager , and then took up a position in SALI in March 2016 .
Dez has also served on the SALI Gauteng Executive Committee for many years .
With a keen interest on topics that form and shape the future of our green industry , he enjoys nothing so much as engaging with SALI members and other role players .
stephanie rosenmAyer
Stephanie Rosenmayer is the Executive Special Segment Lifestyle Estates at Telkom SA SOC , responsible for developing and marketing services to lifestyle estates across South Africa .
Stephanie began her career as a town and regional planner , responsible for the development of more than 150 000 residential units that included numerous lifestyle estates . She later joined the IT fraternity and was responsible for managing the IT and data centre services portfolio at Telkom . While in that position she was a member of an international consultancy team that developed and launched one of the first global e-commerce platforms , and was invited to participate in the development of e-commerce standards in South Africa . She has also served as a part-time lecturer at the University of Pretoria , lecturing on entrepreneurship as part of the Master ’ s degree in Technology .
Stephanie obtained her engineering degree in Town and Regional Planning in 1991 from the University of Pretoria and her Master ’ s degree in Business Administration ( cum laude , valedictorian ) from Bond University , Australia in 2001 .
Stephanie has a strong interest in transdisciplinary challenges that span business development , entrepreneurship , strategy and programme implementation . Her experience over three decades in property development , IT and telecommunication services qualifies her uniquely to offer an expert view on the future of telecommunications in lifestyle estates .