Appointed: November 1987 GT Ferreira has been involved in the financial services sector since graduating from the University of Stellenbosch. He started his career at the Bank of Johannesburg in 1972 and was a co-founder of Rand Consolidated Investments ("RCI") in 1977. RCI acquired control of Rand Merchant Bank ("RMB") in 1985 and he was managing director of RMB from 1985 to 1988 after which he was elected as executive chairman. When RMBH was founded in 1987 he was appointed chairman, a position which he still holds. Following the formation of FirstRand he was appointed non-executive chairman from 1998 to 2008. He is a member of the Council of the University of Stellenbosch.

Appointed: November 1999 Peter Cooper graduated from the University of Cape Town. After qualifying as a chartered accountant he worked in the financial services sector, first as a tax consultant and later specialising in structured finance with UAL Merchant Bank. He joined RMB's Special Projects division in 1992 and transferred to RMBH in 1997.

Appointed: May 2011 Niall Carroll is a chartered accountant and completed his articles with Deloitte Haskins & Sells, followed by 12 years at Deutsche Bank. He was appointed CEO of Royal Bafokeng Finance in 2004 and of Royal Bafokeng Holdings in 2006.

Appointed: May 2011 Leon Crouse studied at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1977. He joined the former Rembrandt group in 1986 and transferred to Switzerland to hold the position of financial controller of Compagnie Financiére Richemont AG. He was part of the team that unbundled the luxury goods business from the Rembrandt group to form separately listed Richemont. In 1993, as a Rembrandt appointee, he returned to South Africa to become a founder member of the Vodacom group executive team finally serving as its Chief financial officer. Rembrandt, at the time, held 15% interest in Vodacom. He joined Remgro in April 2008 as designate Director: Group Finance and was appointed to the board on 18 June 2008.

Appointed: November 1987 Laurie Dippenaar graduated from Pretoria University, qualified as a chartered accountant with Aiken & Carter (now KPMG) and spent three years with the Industrial Development Corporation before becoming a co-founder of RCI in 1977. He became an executive director of RMB in 1985. He was appointed managing director of RMB in 1988 which position he held until 1992 when RMBH acquired a controlling interest in Momentum. He served as executive chairman of that company from 1992 until the formation of FirstRand in 1998. He was appointed as the first chief executive of FirstRand and held this position until the end of 2005 when he assumed a non-executive role. He was elected to the position of chairman of FirstRand in November 2008 and chairman of MMI Holdings December 2010.

Appointed: October 1987 Jan Dreyer is a graduate of Stellenbosch University and the University of the Witwatersrand. He joined Edward Nathan Friedland Mansell & Lewis where he was admitted as an attorney in 1975. Thereafter he joined Hofmeyr Van der Merwe & Botha, where he worked as a commercial lawyer. He was admitted as a partner in 1978 and was chairman of the firm from 1993 until 1999. In 2000 Jan left the legal profession to join Rembrandt group as an executive director. Upon the split of that company into Remgro and Venfin, he became a non-executive director of each of the two companies. He was re-appointed an executive director of Remgro during November 2008. He joined the board of RMB in 1984 and on the formation of RMBH, joined its board.

Appointed: November 1987 Pat Goss graduated from the University of Stellenbosch. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Ernst and Young and then joined the Industrial Development Corporation. He has served as a director on various group companies for the past 30 years. A former chairman of the Natal Parks Board, his family interests include Umgazi River Bungalows and other conservation related activities.

Appointed: July 1992 Paul Harris graduated from the University of Stellenbosch and joined the Industrial Development Corporation. He was a co-founder of RCI in 1977 and he became an executive director of the RMB in 1985. He spent four years in Australia where he founded Australian Gilt Securities (later to become RMB Australia) and returned to South Africa in 1991 as deputy managing director of RMB. In 1992, he took over as chief executive officer. Subsequent to the formation of FirstRand, he was appointed chief executive officer of FirstRand Bank Holdings in 1999, a position he held until December 2005 when he was appointed chief executive officer of FirstRand. He retired from his executive position at the end of December 2009.

Appointed: February 2008 Ms Sebotsa is a principal partner in Identity Partners, an investment firm which holds equity investments, carries out advisory work and facilitates finance for SMEs by the Identity Development Fund.
Sonja Sebotsa's areas of study were in Law, Business and Economics. She had been an executive director of WDB Investment Holdings where she led the structuring of WDB's participation in the FirstRand BEE transaction. As a result, she served as WBD's representative on the FirstRand board. She was previously a vice president in the investment banking division of Deutsche Bank, in Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate Finance.

Appointed: November 1993 Khehla Shubane graduated at the University of the Witwatersrand. Prior to this he was a student at the University of the North where his studies were terminated following his arrest for political activities, conviction and sentence which he served on Robben Island. Upon his release he was employed at Liberty Life for a short time. He served on various political organisations until joining the Centre for Policy Studies in 1988. He is an author and has co-authored several political publications, and is a member of the board of the Centre for Policy Studies.

Appointed: April 2009 Thys Visser is a chartered accountant who qualified with Arthur Young & Company in Cape Town before joining Rembrandt group where he held a number of positions, including financial director in 1991 and managing director in 1992. He is currently chief executive officer of Remgro Limited.