Dr Trevor Woodburn

Pr.Eng, B.Sc (Eng) (Natal), M.Sc (Eng) (Wits)

MBA (Cape Town), Ph.D. (Comm) (Wits)

Dr. Trevor L Woodburn, is the Non-Executive Chairman, former Chief Executive and founding member of Woodburn Mann (Pty) Limited which was established in 1982. He has accumulated extensive experience in executive search for Non-Executive Chairmen, Chief Executives, Managing Directors and Senior Directors/Managers, across a wide range of disciplines and organisations in Southern Africa, including HDSA appointments across this spectrum for both private and public organisations. He has had over twenty-eight years of experience assessing senior executives, in particular for top executive succession planning, in all sectors of the economy as well as the profiling and appraisal of Boards of Directors.

In addition to the above, Trevor Woodburn has international experience in management consulting assignments, strategic business planning, holistic corporate audits and the restructuring of multi national organisations gained on four continents. Individual assessments and the counselling of senior executives also form an integral part of his expertise.

Prior to forming Woodburn Mann (Pty) Limited, Trevor Woodburn spent twenty years in various senior executive positions in the telecommunications, electrical engineering and electronic industries in South Africa culminating in the position of Chief Executive of the South African subsidiary of a major electrical engineering multi-national corporation.

Peter MacIldowie

CA (SA), MBA (Cape Town)

Peter M. MacIldowie has been involved in management consulting since 1984 and in executive search since 1987. He has been responsible for appointments of non-executive directors, chief executives, managing directors, financial directors, marketing directors and senior specialised commercial and non-commercial positions in companies ranging from leading multi-national financial institutions to a variety of other listed and non-listed companies in consumer goods, retail, industrial and mining operations. He has been associated with Woodburn Mann since 1987.

Previously, Peter M. MacIldowie was an executive director of a computer services group and prior to that spent ten years as a senior financial executive with a leading leisure industry operation in Southern Africa. His earlier career was as a partner with one of the major auditing and accounting groups in Southern Africa, and spent some time working with their overseas associates.

Cathy Dowsley

BA (Social Work) IPM (Dip)

Cathy Dowsley joined Woodburn Mann as a Research Consultant in January 1993 rapidly progressing to Senior Research Consultant, Associate Consultant, Consultant and Senior Client Partner in January 2000.

For more than twenty years she has led both executive and non-executive searches in the mining and industrial sectors throughout Africa. She has assisted in the appointment of many Chief Executives, Senior Executives, Chairpersons and Non-Executive Directors.

For the past six years, she has undertaken several Board  Assessments for major listed organisations.

Cathy Dowsley began her working career in 1981 as a Social Worker with a child and family welfare organisation. She was with this organisation for three years. In 1984, she changed the direction of her career from social work to human resources and joined a major mining house as a Personnel Officer. At the end of 1985 she embarked on further studies achieving the top student award in October 1992 for the Institute of Personnel Management Diploma.

Carol Armstrong

BA (Wits), HSPM (Wits)

Carol Armstrong joined Woodburn Mann in June 1993 as a Research Consultant and was later appointed a Senior Research Consultant. In January 1998 she was promoted to Associate Consultant and Consultant in January 2000. She has worked on assignments across a broad spectrum of industries and functions including Marketing, Sales, Manufacturing, Human Resources, Finance and General Management. Her specialist knowledge includes the fast moving consumer goods, retail markets, construction and engineering sectors.

She resigned from Woodburn Mann in April 2008 and relocated to Beijing, Peoples Republic of China where she lived for three and a half years before returning to South Africa. In February 2012 she rejoined Woodburn Mann as a Senior Client Partner.

In the last few years she has focused on Board Appraisals, of both listed South African entities as well as multi-national organisations.

Clara Woodburn

Clara is an Executive Coach who operates at the Exco level across several industries.  She consistently becomes a sounding board for executives who often struggle to elevate their leadership to the next level when their boss, the CEO and peers sit on Exco alongside them as well.  Clara’s clients have spanned Industrial, Mining, Engineering, Financial Services, Retail and Education both in South Africa and other Emerging Markets in different time zones.

Trained in various 360 assessment tools (The Leadership Circle, Lominger), Clara’s most effective approach is to conduct a thorough 360 before commencing a medium-term commitment of coaching.  These 360 tools assess key leadership competencies, while uncovering leadership behavioural habits and assumptions that could limit leadership effectiveness.  Clara carefully co-creates with her clients a development plan out of the 360 insights and systematically works through these agreements using the plan as a GPS.  The executive coaching can be contained and impactful over a committed 6-month period but often also extends beyond following the progression of an executive’s continued career success.

Clara is a qualified Integral Coach from UCT Business School.  The integral approach is holistic, maximizing potential both as a leader but also as an individual, addressing the body, mind and soul so change is fully embodied and integrated.  With this background, Clara is comfortable coaching off piste and exploring the humanness of her clients, while always keeping what they committed to changing as the compass and looping firmly back as they close the relationship. 

Born and educated in the UK, Clara has subsequently lived and worked in Egypt, UK, US before now living with her husband and children in South Africa.  Clara’s career began in executive search which spanned three different continents over a decade.  In New York, she transitioned to VP, Human Resources within a top tier US investment bank.  When she moved to South Africa, she changed tack and pioneered building a wellness business which she led for another decade and successfully sold 5 years ago. Interacting with senior executives in search, followed by addressing burn-out and wellness with up and coming executives, has segued her skills fluently to coaching which she experiences as the confluence of her life experiences.

Steve Woodward

BA, Psychology (Wits), MBA (Brunel University London)

Steve Woodward is an experienced global business leader who has held senior executive positions including CEO and CHRO roles in large corporations in the USA, Europe and Africa. He has led business units, M&A projects and organizational transformation projects in these regions.

Steve was most recently the Chief People Officer (EVP: People and Culture) for Imperial Logistics – a global Logistics and Market Access business, operating in Europe and Africa. Steve was recruited in 2019 to lead the delivery of a single global Human Resources entity and to lead the change and transformation of Imperial Logistics after the unbundling of Motus from the Imperial Group. Steve retired from the group in February 2022 following the acquisition of Imperial by Dubai Ports World.

Previously, he was a partner in, and the Chief Operating Officer of, SAFEmap International – a leading organizational safety consultancy specializing in Risk Management and Culture and Leadership Development with offices in Canada, USA, Latin America, Australia, Europe and Africa whose clients include General Motors, Boeing, Southern California Edison, Southern Company, PotashCorp and BHP Billiton.

Steve worked for SABMiller for 20 years in Human Resources, Corporate Strategy and Senior General Management. He was CEO of Pilsner Urquell Breweries in the Czech Republic (SABMiller’s flagship European operation) CEO of SABMiller’s Slovakian, Romanian and European Export businesses and Managing Director of two smaller subsidiary brewing companies in South Africa. He also spent two years working on global human resources projects for the CEO of SABMiller in London and his last roles in SABMiller were as SVP Human Resources of Miller Brewing Company and Chief Human Resources Officer of MillerCoors based in Chicago, Illinois from 2007-2011

He has guided global change programs to drive economies of scale through global shared service projects and through best practice transfer and the implementation of global learning and talent management systems. Steve led the operational due diligence for SABMiller’s multibillion $ acquisition of the Bavaria business in Latin America and was a member of the executive team which led the multibillion $ Miller Brewing and Coors Brewing merger and integration between 2008 and 2010.

Prior to SAB, Steve worked in the Mining Industry in Namibia, South Africa and Botswana for Anglo American and De Beers for 10 years in the fields of Labor Relations and Human Resources being appointed to the position of SVP: HR for Anglo in Botswana.

He was previously a member of the Faculty of the Lake Forest Graduate School, Illinois where he has lectured online MBA students in International Business. He is a past member of the LFGS Business Advisory Council. He is a certificated executive coach and mentor and is a member of Menttium and the Global Learning Network.

He is a member of the Advisory Board of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company based in Chico California