THORNHILL - Key Persons
Cedric de Beer joined Thornhill Associates in March 2018 as a consultant and coach. Cedric has a life time of experience of establishing organisations, building and leading executive teams and supporting colleagues launch their careers.
From co-founding a rural development agency in the 1970's, establishing and co-directing a policy research unit at Wits Medical School in the 1980's, and being the first CEO of a Housing Finance company for fourteen years from 1995, Cedric has brought persistence, imagination and high standards of ethical leadership to the creation of social enterprises in various sectors. From 2009 he was Director of African Operations for the Soros Economic Development Fund - a New York based social impact investment fund, overseeing investments in logistics, housing, health care and agricultural development. In this capacity he has served as Chairperson of the Boards of companies in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.
Cedric brings decades of organisational and governance experience in the public, private and non-profit sectors, and a good understanding of how to get things done in a team. This organisational experience has been complemented by coaching courses with CoachTrax in 2014, and the University of Cape Town Business School in 2016. Cedric has an Associate Coaching Certificate with the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Member of the Management Team
Daphne joined Thornhill Associates in March 2006. She was admin manager until her appointment as CEO in July 2012. Daphne is a registered counselling psychologist as well as a qualified coach, and she maintains a private practice.
Prior to joining Thornhill, Daphne was self-employed for seven years. During this time her main contracts included conducting research for Africa's leading publishing group and acting as project manager for P3 Management Consultants. She also spent four years with Hay Management Consultants SA (part of the HayGroup) as senior consulting assistant and support team leader, and Daphne co-ordinated the marketing activities for Hay SA in Africa.
She started her career in 1987 in the IT industry. Daphne was the admin consultant for SilverLine Resources (an IT Contracting, Recruitment and Consulting company) for seven years, before moving to SQL Integrators (now Sybase SA) to support the sales team.
Daphne holds an MA Counselling Psychology (cum laude) from the University of Johannesburg, and completed her internship at the Centre for Psychological Services and Career Development (PsyCaD). She has a BA Hons (Psych) from the University of Johannesburg and a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology and Communication) degree from UNISA. Daphne also holds Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) International Accreditation, as well as a Brain Based Coaching Certificate from Results Coaching Systems and NeuroLeadership Group.
She is passionate about people development and helping others become all that they can be in every area of their lives. Daphne believes that people can change and volunteers as a co-facilitator for the Alpha course in Leeuwkop Maximum Prison. She thoroughly enjoys travelling and experiencing different cultures, as well as rollercoasters, mountain biking, hiking and reading.
Daphne is married and blessed with a son and a daughter.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Development Team
Frances started as a Senior Software Developer with Thornhill Associates in 2013, and was appointed Lead Developer in 2015. Prior to this she worked as a developer at the IT section of the Spec-Savers Group as well as several software development firms in Gauteng and the UK.
From almost 30 years in the IT industry she has gained experience on a wide variety of systems and platforms, and looks to draw on this to select the best route forward for the Thornhill Systems.
She holds degrees in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics and Conservation Biology - after software development her passions are research and the environment.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Member of the Management Team
Jonathan's passion lies in developing people, especially in management and leadership roles. He is a counselling psychologist and his teaching, research and consulting interests include self-assessment and peer feedback in leadership and management development.
He is chairman and chief consultant of Thornhill Associates. One of his contributions has been to develop the standard Thornhill 360° questionnaires, drawing on his expertise in psychological assessment and experience in management education.
After qualifying as a counselling psychologist, and working with community and church-based organisations for several years, he spent ten years with the National Institute for Personnel Research in Johannesburg, finally as Head of Assessment and Counselling. His next fifteen years were spent as a faculty member at the Graduate School of Business Administration of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits Business School), where he founded the Management Development Unit and later became director of academic programmes.
In 2004 he joined the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) of the University of Pretoria as senior lecturer, and in 2011 was appointed Director, a position he held until December 2013.
He left GIBS to devote more time to Thornhill and to the African Management Initiative (AMI - www.africanmanagers.org), which he co-founded and currently chairs. AMI is a social enterprise focused on developing scalable approaches to supporting African managers in excellent performance.
Jonathan is the past chairman of the Association of African Business Schools and of Tomorrow Trust and BizSchool.
He has two sons, two granddaughters and two grandsons.
Job Titles:
- Electronics Engineer
- Member of the Development Team
Lee is a qualified Electronics Engineer with over 30 years of mixed and varied experience in the IT Industry, having held various positions from Support Engineer to CEO of his own IT Company.
He has experience developing software on wide and diverse platforms and operating systems, has worked in many different environments and team sizes, and is an experienced Senior Full Stack PHP Web Developer.
Lee joined Thornhill in August 2022 as a Software Developer, keen to add value to the company.
In his spare time, Lee is a musician, playing guitar and singing, and enjoys being out in nature.
Lynne is a highly experienced HR professional who has devoted her extensive career to the HR field. With wide generalist experience in the industries of Finance, Mining, Manufacturing, Insurance, and Banking, she has valuable insights and knowledge to share. Lynne established her consulting business in 1999, and has offered HR solutions to clients, who range from medium to blue chip companies, both in Southern Africa and the UK.
She obtained her MA in Personal, Interpersonal and Professional Leadership in 2005, and expanded her offering to provide coaching and leadership development to clients. Curating her offerings to the needs of her clients, Lynne found that she was able to add meaningful value assisting in bringing about desirable change for the individual, as well as enhancing team dynamics and improving communication and understanding between teams. Vision, Mission and Values alignment as well as Organisational Climate and Culture interventions are frequently supplemented with changes to the Organisational Design.
In 2008 Lynne obtained her Ph.D in Leadership, Performance and Change enhancing her skills in Organisational Development and Effectiveness. She supplemented her academic qualifications with an Appreciative Coaching certificate from BIOSS SA in 2013.
Aligned to the University of the Northwest, Lynne brings a combined academic and practical approach to her work; able to translate theory into practice in a meaningful and easily accessible manner.
Marilyn joined Thornhill in August 2018 as an Administrator bringing experience in administration and customer service, as well as a BA degree in Communication Science and a BA Honours degree in Media Studies.
She is extremely passionate about organising and promoting excellent customer service.
Marilyn enjoys travelling and also loves being outdoors.
Martin Cook's passion is to use creative problem solving and technology to improve people's lives.
He has a PhD in applied nuclear physics, pioneering a technique to locate diamonds in kimberlite streams using a combination of particle accelerator physics and nuclear medicine. His Masters degree is in string theory, a branch of physics attempting to understand the universe at a fundamental level. He is currently pursuing the commercialisation of his PhD.
Martin worked part time for Thornhill between 2004 and 2014. During that time, he also held positions as a system administrator of a research cluster computer at Wits University, a database developer at a group of HIV/TB clinics and a programme manager at the University of Johannesburg, setting up a new Masters level course in nuclear energy.
After submitting his PhD thesis at the beginning of 2014, he headed up the Thornhill development team until mid 2015. Since then, he has stepped out of day-to-day Thornhill operations, but remains active as a director on the board, and provides occasional input into the development team.
Martin's biggest joy in life are his daughter (who is, without doubt, the most gorgeous girl on the planet) and his son (who is, without doubt, gearing up to take over the world).
Michole joined Thornhill in July 2023 as an Administrator.
Having completed her BA Honours in Psychology, Michole loved delving into the intricate workings of the human mind, exploring various aspects such as behaviours, childhood development, and overall understanding of people. She finds all things Psychology-related very fascinating and strives to learn as much about it as she can. Michole loves to learn new things and is always looking for opportunities to grow further.
Driven by her genuine love for people and children, she finds great joy in discovering and understanding their unique life journeys.
Michole possesses a strong desire to positively impact the lives of others and loves volunteering and serving in her local community.
She adores her family and spending time with those she loves. Outside of her professional pursuits, Michole finds enjoyment in adventuring with her boyfriend, reading, watching movies and series, and playing with her two fur-nephews, Avo and Snoopy.