SPEAKER
DR AJAY JIVAN
HOD RESEARCH AND ASSURANCE AT THE SOUTH AFRICAN BOARD OF PEOPLE PRACTICE
Dr Ajay Jivan leads the thought leadership, research, alliances, and quality assurance at the South African Board for People Practices (SABPP) as the Head of Research and Assurance. He co-facilitated and co-authored the revised National HRM Standards with Dr Penny Abbott. The revised Standards was launched as the National People Practices and Governance Standards. He is an experienced senior Manager in human capital management with board, policy, and strategy-level experience. He served on the Ministerial Task Team on Professionalisation of the Public Service. He previously held diverse roles in the public, education, and non-profit sectors. He attained his doctoral degree at the Wits Business School and has published in peer-review journals and an academic textbook on people analytics.
FACILITATOR
DR ASHIKA MAHARAJ
ACADEMIC LEADER: DISCIPLINE OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Dr Ashika Maharaj serves as the Academic Leader of the discipline. She is a qualified educator, assessor and moderator. She is a registered Master Professional Learning and Development with the SABPP. Her research interests involve International HRM, Talent Management, Skills development and Employment Engagement. She has presented papers at both national and international conferences as well as written a number of South African Post-secondary Education (SAPSE) accredited journal articles as a sole author and in collaborations with staff and students. Dr Maharaj has been extensively involved in curriculum redesign and new programme development in the discipline. She has successfully facilitated a number of community engagement initiatives including the Career Expo, Research ShowCase and the public lecture entitled Shift: Why HR needs Disruptive Innovation.