Meet Us | Truffle

From left to right (seated): Braam van Heerden, Madeleine Kotze, Iain Power

From left to right (standing): SJ du Preez, Louis van der Merwe, Saul Miller, Hannes van der Westhuyzen,

Jonathan du Toit, Charles Booth, Theuns Lategan

THE TRUFFLE HOGS

LOUIS VAN DER MERWE

Louis joined Rand Merchant Bank in 1988 after obtaining a B.Com (Investment Management) degree from Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg). He started trading in the fledgling equity derivatives markets in 1989 and found his niche in arbitrage and structuring activities in the equity market.

He headed up the Equities Division of Rand Merchant Bank till 2002, being responsible for the proprietary trading, structuring, stock broking, commodities (both agricultural and hard), scrip lending and futures clearing activities. During this time Louis served on the Management Board of RMB, as well as Executive Committee of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and SAFEX.

Louis left RMB in 2002 to take up the position of CEO of RMB Asset Management, one of the largest asset managers in South Africa managing assets in excess of R 200 bn. Louis left RMB AM in 2008 to start up Truffle with friend and ex colleague Hannes van der Westhuyzen.

HANNES VAN DER WESTHUYZEN

Hannes is one of the two founding members of the Truffle Group of companies and has spent the last 20 odd years in the trading environment of the financial markets. Having completed a degree in accounting he qualified as a chartered accountant in the mid 80s and joined Rand Merchant Bank in 1989 on the money market desk, where he was instrumental in starting the FRA market in South Africa.

After a couple of years he joined a stock broking company on the JSE, Huysamer Stals, where he became a director and specialised in trading hybrid instruments between equity and the interest rate markets. In 1996 he was approached and joined a start up company Mettle (formally known as Boland Financial Services) that specialised in structured finance, as the treasury specialist. The position at the time had a close working relationship with Boland Bank and in 1997 he was asked to take over as treasurer of Boland Bank.

Through takeovers and mergers he became the Treasurer of NBS Boland Bank and later BoE Bank. In 2003 BoE Bank was taken over by Nedbank. In 2005 he was appointed as Head of Global Markets and a EXCO member in Nedbank Capital and was responsible for all the foreign exchange and interest rate trading activities of Nedbank at the head office in Johannesburg, with branches in London, Cape Town and Durban. In 2008 he resigned to start Truffle with Louis van der Merwe.

CHARLES BOOTH

Charles graduated as a chemical engineer from the University of Cape Town in 1973. Having worked in the oil industry for five years and after completing an MBA in 1979, also from UCT, Charles began his career in financial services with Allan Gray Investment Council as an equity analyst. After three years Charles entered stock broking and for the next 12 years was Head of Research and a Director of Simpson McKie Inc. (now HSBC) and JD Anderson (now UBS).

In 1993 Charles joined RMB Asset Management at the time of the RMBAM/Momentum merger. Charles built the research team and the investment process progressing to the position of CIO in 2002 at the time that Louis joined the company as CEO. Charles became a director of RMB Asset management in 1997.

Charles retired from RMB Asset Management in 2008 after 15 years of service. After a short sabbatical Charles joined Truffle in January 2009 to develop the traditional asset management capability and to help on the alternative investments side.

BRAAM VAN HEERDEN

Braam van Heerden joined Truffle on 1 November 2009. He is a CA(SA) and has 15 years of financial markets experience. After completing his articles at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) he joined Columbus Stainless for a year as Assistant Treasury Manager where he was responsible for trading currencies and commodities (mainly nickel). Braam then joined Rand Merchant Bank as CFO for the Equities Trading Division in 1996 and was asked to head up the newly created Equities Structuring Division by Louis van Der Merwe in 1998. In July 2006 he was promoted to Joint- Head of Equities with specific responsibility for the Stockbroking, Derivatives, Structuring, Securities Lending and Alternative Investments divisions. He was closely involved in negotiating and managing the RMB Morgan Stanley JV and served on its Board since inception. He also spearheaded RMB’s international and local hedge fund seeding program and was responsible for creating the first Capital Guaranteed Structured Product for South African Hedge funds.

Braam left RMB at the end of 2009 and took a three month sabbatical before taking a six months contract with Liberty/Stanlib to create a Beta Investment business in the form of an ETF platform before joining Truffle in November 2009.

IAIN POWER

Iain completed a B.com (Hons – Investments) at the Rand Afrikaans University (now UJ) in 1992 and started his career in investment at RMB Asset Management in 1993. Iain held various investment roles at RMBAM since June 1993, including being a member of the Board of Directors as well as the Management Board while being a Senior Investment Professional in the equity team.

After 16 years with RMB Asset Management, Iain decided to get out of the corporate environment into a smaller owner-managed asset management business where he can be part of building a larger concern. Iain joined Truffle in May 2010.

JONATHAN DU TOIT

Jonathan is a CA(SA) and recently passed the CFA Level 3 exam (awaiting CFA charter holder approval). He completed his studies at the Rand Afrikaans University (now UJ) and spent time with Deloitte & Touche from 2003 to 2006 while also passing the final board exam. He gained further experience in the North American office of Deloitte & Touche before he joined Allan Gray/Orbis at the end of 2006. His role at Allan Gray/Orbis required a significant amount of travel to Hong Kong and Asia as he had responsibility for analysing global financial stocks.

Jonathan was excited by the opportunity to get out of the corporate environment into a small boutique investment firm based in South Africa where he can be a part owner as well as being a part of growing the business. Jonathan joined Truffle in August 2010.

SJ DU PREEZ

SJ joined Truffle on 1 March 2009 from Old Mutual Investment Group SA (OMIGSA) where he was Head: Institutional Sales. Prior to joining OMIGSA, SJ spent six years with RMB Asset Management (RMBAM) as part of the institutional business development team as well as being Head: Africa at RMBAM before he joined Old Mutual. It is during his period at RMBAM where SJ worked closely with Louis as CEO and Charles as CIO of the business.

SJ also previously worked in the asset consulting industry as well as the stock broking industry where he started his working career. SJ studied at Rand Afrikaans University (now UJ) and holds a B.Com (Financial Management)

MADELEINE KOTZE

Madeleine Kotze joined Truffle on the 1st of July 2010. After completing a degree in marketing at the University of Johannesburg (SA), Madeleine joined FirstRand Bank in 1997 as an internal Auditor. During this time she obtained her CA(SA) and H.Dip (Taxation) qualifications and she seconded to Delloitte to complete her articles in the Financial Instittutions Services Team. In 2007 she joined RMB Asset Management as the Chief Financial Officer and after two years she returned briefly to FirstRand Internal Audit before Joining Truffle.