Jan van der Walt

Chief Executive Officer: Corporate Renewal Solutions

Click on the photograph for enlarged version.

Listen to Jan's BNPC Turnaround Seminar Interview with GABZFM Radio broadcast on 11 August 2010.

See Jan van der Walt's membership certificate of the Turnaround Management Association - Southern Africa (TMA-SA).

Contact details

Email address:

Cell: +27 82 853 1414

Land line: +27 11 477 4414

Fax line: +27 86 510 6184

Jan van der Walt's areas of effectiveness

Jan is a turnaround management, business rescue, business transformation and general management consulting specialist.

He will apply to be admitted as a senior business rescue practitioner in terms of Regulation 127: Restrictions on practice of the Companies Regulations, 2011.

A senior business rescue practitioner means a person who is qualified to be appointed as a business rescue practitioner in terms of section 138 (1) of the Companies Act, 2008 and who, immediately before being appointed as practitioner for a particular company, has actively engaged in business turnaround practice before the effective date of the Act, and as a business rescue practitioner in terms of the Act, for a combined period of at least 10 years.

In turnarounds and business rescue, his key competency is turnaround viability assessment; and project managing emergency management, crisis stabilisation, restructuring in strategic, financial, organisational and operational terms, and recovery.

In business transformation, Jan's key competency is designing business transformation projects and implementing these as project manager and change management agent.

Instead of or in addition to project managing turnarounds, Jan specialises in acting as interim manager of turnaround situations in the capacity of managing director or chief executive officer, or as deputy to these positions.

In management consulting Jan's key competencies lie in strategy, leadership, financial and organisational issues, supply chain management, and sales and marketing. These all form important components of turnarounds and business transformation projects.

Jan also focuses on strategy consulting as an area of specialisation, especially strategy workshops.

Jan van der Walt's background and experience

Jan van der Walt is the CEO of Corporate Renewal Solutions, a black empowered management consulting firm specialising in the turnaround of financially distressed companies, and business transformation of under-performing companies in South Africa.

In his turnaround practitioner career he served as both senior accountable executive and in advisory positions in numerous turnaround situations in a variety of industries ranging from state-owned enterprises, to private sector clients as large as R5bn turnover for 26 years. He has considerable experience of working with banks in workouts, and devising and implementing leadership, strategy, financial, organisational and operational solutions.

His interest in turnaround management started during his early consulting days when he conducted assignments at distressed companies.

After subsequently cutting his teeth for many years as interim turnaround manager in various companies, he returned to the consulting world by joining an international consulting firm to manage business transformation projects.

This experience as a principal consultant allowed him to combine turnaround line management expertise with multidisciplinary project management and transformational change management, resulting in the establishment of a turnaround management consulting firm in 1999.

The turnaround consultancy went independent in 2002 as Corporate Renewal Partners. In 2006 black shareholders joined to form Corporate Renewal Solutions.

He regularly writes articles, presents at conferences, participates in panel discussions do guest lecturing at business school; and manages a number of web sites on the topics of corporate renewal, business transformation, turnaround and business rescue.

He is a member of the Business Rescue Task Force of the King III Commission on Governance; founder member, director and past CEO of the Turnaround Management Association - Southern Africa (TMA-SA); and a member of the Institute of Directors (IoD). At TMA-SA he is currently the Director: Certification tasked with developing a Certified Turnaround Professional qualification in South Africa.

See Jan van der Walt's membership certificate of the Turnaround Management Association - Southern Africa (TMA-SA).

Jan has since 2004 been actively involved in crafting submissions to government, and industry association/government workshops and panel discussions on new business rescue legislation and regulations in South Africa.

Jan van der Walt's qualifications

Presently busy completing a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) at the Gordon Institute of Management Science of the University of Pretoria, where his research interest is predicting business rescue resolution. Passed the first year of Directed Learning with the top exam marks in class.
MBA (Stanford Business School), where he studied with a Fulbright Scholarship and specialised in strategy.
Honours B.Sc. in Operations Research (University of South Africa).
B.Sc. Industrial Engineering degree (cum laude) (University of Pretoria).

Jan van der Walt's industry activities

Recent papers and presentations

Date	Topic
10 July 2011	Quoted in Sunday Times: Creditors Aim to Cash in on New Business Rescue Provisions. Turnarounds: Does Business Rescue Have the Right Remedy.
27 May 2011	Launch of Neil Harvey's book Turnaround Management and Corporate Renewal. Chapters contributed by Jan van der Walt: "The Turnaround Management Association - Southern Africa (TMA-SA)" "Turnaround Situations". "Operational Aspects of a Turnaround". "A Turnaround Practitioner's View on New Business Rescue Legislation".
26 May 2011	Managing a Turnaround and Corporate Renewal Venue: Wits Business School, 2 St. David's Place, Parktown, Johannesburg, 2183 Brochure: Managing A Turnaround And Corporate Renewal 2011 "A Turnaround Practitioner's View on New Business Rescue Legislation"
15 September 2010	Opinion on Khaya Ngqula's role in SAA's turnaround results. Ploeg die SAL nog met Ngqula se kalwers? - Sake24
16 - 17 August 2010	Listen to the BNPC Turnaround Seminar Interview with GABZFM Radio broadcast on 11 August 2010. Newspaper clips: The business rescue conversation - the facilitator. The business rescue conversation - the economist. Venue: Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) headquarters, Gaborone, Botswana.
7 July 2010	Turnaround Management Association - Southern Africa Lecture Series Johannesburg. "A Point of View on Business Rescue 2"
12 May 2010	Turnaround Management Association - Southern Africa Lecture Series Johannesburg. "A Point of View on Business Rescue 1"
6 May 2010	Managing a Turnaround and Corporate Renewal, Wits Business School. Johannesburg. "Business Rescue: A Turnaround Practitioner’s Perspective"
7 Dec 09	King III Final Report: The requirements and implications for public, private and non-profit organisations (222k). Cape Town. "Final recommendations for Business Rescue procedures"
5 Nov 09	Women in Management and Leadership Conference (243k). "New business rescue legislation as per Chapter 6 of the new Companies Act"
14 Oct 09	Audit, Risk and Governance Summit '09 (501k). "New business rescue legislation as per Chapter 6 of the new Companies Act"
29 Sep 09	King III Final Report: The requirements and implications for public, private and non-profit organisations (91k). Johannesburg. "Final recommendations for Business Rescue procedures"
16 Sep	Leadership excellence and corporate governance conference (1120k)
18 to 20 Aug 09	Business rescue: Demystified and Operationalised (422k).
30 Jul 09	Corporate Governance Forum 2009: (269k). "Analysing the importance of business rescue legislation and its implications for your company"
09-03-07	A corporate conversation on business rescue (167k) or A corporate conversation on business rescue (105k).
08-08-07	Business rescue legislation comments which constitutes TMA-SA's submission to dti on the business rescue provisions of Chapter 6 of the Companies Act (B61 - 2008)
08-07-30	Business rescue legislation - a turnaround practitioner’s perspective on changes in B61-2008 compared to the 2007 draft - Business rescue panel discussion, Turnaround Management Association - Southern Africa.
08-07-29	Business rescue legislation - implications for companies and directors - Corporate Governance conference.
08-05-12	Turnaround situations (Wits Business School turnaround management conference)
07-05-15	Turnaround situations (Wits Business School turnaround management conference) (591k)
07-05-03	Business rescue process - Business rescue panel discussion, Turnaround Management Association - Southern Africa (140k).
07-03-30	Business rescue legislation comments which constitutes TMA-SA's submission to dti on the business rescue provisions of Chapter 6 of the Companies Act 2007 (772k).
06-11-04	Improving turnaround and business rescue in South Africa - how government can contribute, and how TMA-SA can assist - presentation to National Treasury and Department of Trade and Industry (588k).
06-11-04	Overview of the Turnaround Management Association - Southern Africa (545k).
06-09-06	Implications of new business rescue legislation for private equity in South Africa (Private Equity Africa 2006 conference) (556k).
06-05-15	Contrasting informal turnaround with turnaround during insolvency 2006 (Wits Business School turnaround management conference) (770k).
06-05-15	Developments in the South African turnaround industry 2006 (Wits Business School turnaround management conference) (326k).

Press

Opinion on Khaya Ngqula's role in SAA's turnaround results (Sake24 15 September 2010):

Ploeg die SAL nog met Ngqula se kalwers?

King III Committee on Corporate Governance

Jan is a member of the Business Rescue Subcommittee of the King III Commission on Governance. He made a substantial contribution towards the following publications:

King III Report on Governance for South Africa (iPaper format).
King III Code of Governance for South Africa (iPaper format).
King III Practice Notes: Guidance on business rescue (172k).

Educational and networking

Jan is an active participant in turnaround industry conferences, publishing turnaround articles and guest lecturing in turnaround management at business schools.

Industry associations

In 2004 he initiated what was eventually named the Task Group for Organising the Turnaround and Business Rescue Industries, which included 100 representatives from various stakeholder groups in industry in its Work Group and Advisory Group.

The Task Group spawned:

ABASA - Association of Business Administrators of South Africa - a past proposed business rescue regulatory body in terms of new business rescue legislation, where he served on the Interim Executive as Treasurer. ABASA has since merged in to the Turnaround Governance Board of South Africa, the proposed regulator of business rescue practitioners, and the proposed certification governance body for turnaround professionals.

Turnaround Management Association - Southern Africa (TMA-SA), the establishment of which Jan initiated and concluded as a founder member after having been a member of the Chicago Chapter of the TMA before.
- He was voted onto the initial board of TMA-SA as director in 2005.
- 2005: Director and Chief Executive Officer.
- 2006: Director and Chief Operating Officer.
- 2007 - 08: Director and Chief Operating Officer; Informatics Director.
- 2009: Director and Chief Operating Officer.
- 2009: CEO of the Turnaround Governance Board of South Africa.
  - 2009: Chair of its Standards Subcommittee.
  - 2009: Member of its Academic Subcommittee.
- 2010: Director: Certification.
- He also serves on the International Committee of TMA.

View the Jan van der Walt TMA-SA member profile.

Business rescue legislation and regulations

As the representative of TMA-SA, Jan has been actively involved in submissions to government and government workshops on new business rescue legislation and business rescue regulations as contained in Chapter 6 of the Companies Act No. 71 of 2008, Companies Amendment Act No. 3 of 2011, and Companies Regulations, 2011.

For his assessment of how the new legislation will affect turnaround and the rescue of financially distressed companies, please go to business rescue.