Leadership
Leadership
The board appoints the chief executive officer, who is an executive member of the board. The board holds the chief executive officer and the executive team accountable for the establishment and accomplishment of the organisational mission and strategic objectives, while actively supporting the development of Cotlands to accomplish the mission.
Cotlands’ executive management team comprises:
Nozizwe Dladla-Qwabe
Acting Chief Operations Officer
Dr Monica Stach
Founder Cotlands Social Enterprise - Toys2Rent
Kumbirayi Chikari
National Financial Manager
Experience
Nozizwe holds a Master’s degree in Social Sciences. She leads a team that works to achieve excellence. Her dedication is in implementing good-quality toy libraries and early learning playgroups. She is passionate about monitoring and evaluating these Programmes and has completed her Advanced Certificate in Monitoring and Evaluation.
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Experience
Monica holds a doctorate from the University of Pretoria. Her thesis explored the role of toy libraries in providing play-based early learning opportunities for young children. She leads a team of dedicated and passionate early childhood experts who conceptualised Cotlands play-based e-learning course, toy library, and early learning playgroup models and training courses.
Experience
Kumbirayi Chikari holds Bcompt Honours degree in Accounting Sciences and he has enrolled for his Master’s degree. Kumbirayi has 22 years experience in Finance and nine years with NGOs. He is exceptionally experienced in maintaining organisational financial health, including income diversification, and reserve building, preserving organisational assets, improving accounting and reporting.
Mealang Van Heerden
Acting Chief Operations Officer
Irene Chetty
National Business Development Manager
Elanie Olivier
National Human Resource and Payroll Manager
Experience
Mealang has more than 10 years of preschool classroom experience, where her desire to see children thrive encouraged her to mentor other practitioners. Mealang’s career includes coordination of early learning playgroups, capacitating the health care workers to implement the educational programmes, and developing online training materials.
Experience
Irene holds a Master’s degree in Law. She has over 20 years of experience in the development sector. She leads the business development team that strives to generate the revenue needed to sustain and extend Cotlands’ programmes. Her passion lies in serving humanity.
Experience
In addition to a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Elanie holds an Honours and Master’s degree in Industrial Psychology. During her 15-year career, she developed her skills as a HR generalist. She believes in and lives the Cotlands values. She serves Cotlands and its people with passion and dedication by striving to provide exceptional HR services to support the organisation and its valued employees.
Kerry Huggett
Board Secretary
Experience
Kerry holds a diploma in Hospitality Management. She joined the team in 2017 as Board Secretary and later joined the training team, alongside her Board secretarial duties. She completed the instructional design training, which comprised of 34 credits to analyse and design learning programmes. She loves being part of a passionate team of Cotlanders and Board members who always have children’s interests at the heart of what they do.