Lionel J M H Bourgeois
Lionel started his career as a Trainee Customer Services Agent in the airline industry. Due to his positive attitude, his natural ability to deal with customers and his proficiency in four languages, he was sent to Paris to follow stringent customer relations training programmes to further develop his skills. He took on a middle management position in the Marketing and Public Relations Department soon after he completed a Marketing Management Diploma.
Earmarked as an asset in the sales field, Lionel was head hunted by two other foreign airline carriers to establish strong customer relation ties in their sales division.
Again head hunted by a prominent company based in Johannesburg, Lionel took up the post as General Manager for the sister company in Cape Town. Eager to take on this new challenge of marketing a relatively unknown product to the South African market, he employed and managed a strong, supportive and efficient team, which together, surpassed all expectations.
Some ten years later, with his wide practical knowledge of running businesses and his valuable experience in the customer relations, marketing and sales fields, he now follows his passion – developing all staff who are in contact with customers, irrespective of their position within their organization. His training methodology is hands on, easy to understand and is aimed at motivating people to understand the essence of people relations – that of respect. He feels very strongly that it is the ‘chemistry’ between two people or two companies that creates good business relationships.
VETTA Communication (Pty) Ltd was born to offer such training and also to inspire people to make a positive contribution to our growing nation.
Lionel has travelled the world in order to observe, learn and appreciate different cultures and people behaviours, and lives in Cape Town with his wife and daughter. He is a member of the Toastmasters Club and enjoys journal writing and Aikido in his spare time.
Barney Jordaan
Barney Jordaan holds a BA LLB (cum laude) and LLD from Stellenbosch University and was admitted as an attorney of the Supreme Court of South Africa in 1982. He was professor of law at Stellenbosch University until 1997, when he left the university to practice full-time as a labour law and industrial relations specialist. He is currently extraordinary professor at the Graduate School of Business of Stellenbosch University and visiting professor at the Graduate School of Business of UCT, where he teaches on the MBA, management development and industrial relations programmes.
Barney is a senior arbitrator and mediator, having been involved in labour dispute resolution since 1987. He was part of a panel of trainers that trained the first commissioners of the primary statutory dispute resolution agency for labour disputes, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and he served as part-time senior commissioner with that body for the first three years after its establishment. He has also undertaken work for the International Labour Organisation, among others, acting as the representative of the Director General of the ILO in its mission to Swaziland in 1996.
He has written extensively in the areas of labour law, labour relations and dispute resolution and is responsible for organizing and participating in a prestigious annual labour law seminar with other professionals in the field. He is a founder director of Jordaan Stander (Pty) Ltd, a leading firm of labour law and labour relations practitioners in South Africa. The name of that firm was changed in April 2006 to Maserumule Employment Consultancy following a 35% BEE share purchase by Maserumule Inc Attorneys of Johannesburg
Barney is founder trustee of the Centre for Rural Legal Studies. He is a past chairman of the Stellenbosch Advice Office Trust and currently still chairs the board of trustees of Bell House, Stellenbosch, an NGO whose aim it is to assist community-based organisations in the Stellenbosch area. He also does pro bono work for the Men on the Side of the Road Project.
