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SACIA is governed by a Board of Directors elected from amongst the membership, with an Executive Director appointed by the Board responsible for providing strategic leadership. |
| Kevan Jones - Executive Director Kevan Jones is the Executive Director of SACIA. He joined the Association in 2009 and has led the transformation of SACIA from a trade association to a SAQA-recognised professional body. He holds a MA degree from Regents University London school of Psychology & Psychotherapy. Kevan also holds the CAE designation for proven competence in Association Leadership from both the American and Canadian Societies of Association Executives. |
| Dr Lisa Welthagen - Chair Lisa holds a PhD in Tourism Management from North-West University and currently serves as a Senior Lecturer and Subject Head for Event Management at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). With over 26 years of experience in the tourism and events industry, she brings both academic and industry expertise to her leadership role. She has served as a Council Member of SACIA’s Event Safety Council since 2021 and played an instrumental role in developing SACIA’s online examinations and assessment tools for both the Event Safety and Event Management professional designations. She strongly believes in the importance of academic representation within the SACIA Board, particularly to help close the gap between academia and industry practice. She is an advocate for high standards of professionalism and aims to help shape the future of event management in South Africa by fostering collaboration, innovation, and aligning industry standards with academic rigour. |
| Tinus Smit - Cert BCT Professional Tinus is an audio engineer and training service provider within the South African broadcast and media production communities. A sound-man at heart, he received his core training at the SABC while starting at the television division of the South African Air Force (SAATV). Here, he received a thorough grounding in technical directing and vision mixing for multi-cam events, linear editing (yes, on tape), VT operations, lighting, camera work, location sound, live audio and audio post, thus earning a reputation as a multi-skilled operator. He has been involved in training audio engineers and consulting to the industry since 1995, primarily due to his broad experience gained from touring SA with a concert group, as well as audio work ranging from ENG and location sound, boom operation, outside broadcast, live stage recording and mixing, to studio drama productions as well as television and film post-production projects. He’s worked on feature films, series, documentaries, corporates, live gala events, game shows, reality shows, and – in short – just about every stressful situation imaginable to a broadcast engineer or producer. |
 | Sharif Baker - Cert TLE Professional, Cert Event Safety Practitioner, Cert Event Professional, Sharif has been involved in the entertainment industry for 30 years. He currently works as Group Operations Director for QA Venue Solutions in Rwanda. He is the immediate past-chair of the Event Safety Council and a past chair of both the TPSA Council and the SACIA Board. He is a robust Brand Ambassador for the Association and is our only member to achieve certification in three disciplines: event technical, event safety and event management. Sharif's focus is on promoting the adoption of professional standards in the events industry across Africa. |
 | Aldred Dreyer - Cert BCT Professional (vice-chair) Aldred is a broadcast engineering professional who started his career at Sentech as a “technician in training” in 1997. Since then, he has worked in various technical and leadership roles at SABC, Namibia Broadcasting Corporation, eMedia, the Department of Communications and Accenture. Aldred also represented these organisations (technology representatives) on the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association (SADIBA) and the Southern African Broadcasting Association (SABA). During his career, work at SADIBA led to DVB-T being adopted as the DTT standard in South Africa. Under his leadership at the SABC, MHEG was adopted as a set-top box middleware standard. He also successfully conducted a DTT trial at SABC in 2009/2010 and implemented digital migration in Namibia. Aldred is the immediate past chair of SACIA’s Broadcast Industry Group. |
| Angelique Smith – Certified Event Professional Angie is the current chair of the Council of Event Professionals Africa (CEPA) and was co-opted to the SACIA Board in 2026. She is a firm believer in the role of Associations in promoting professional standards in the events industry and, in addition to her role on the SACIA and CEPA boards, also serves on the boards of the Exhibitions & Events Association of South Africa (EXSA) and the Event Greening Forum (EGF). |
| Jack Devnarain Jack Devnarain is a celebrated South African actor, widely recognised for his iconic 15-year role as Rajesh Kumar on the SABC3 daily soap opera Isidingo and as Sunil Maharaj in Imbewu: The Seed. Notable film credits include The Ghost and the Darkness, 31 Million Reasons, and Greytown Girl. He holds a BA (Law) degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and serves as the Chairman of the South African Guild of Actors (SAGA), advocating for artists' rights and industry transformation. Jack was instrumental in the development of our Certified Actor designation, which was registered with SAQA in 2023 (SAQA ID 1117) |
| Iain Fourie – Certified Event Safety Practitioner Iain is the current chair of the Event Safety Council and was co-opted onto the SACIA Board in 2026. He’s a firm believer in Associations and the power of collective learning. He’s the managing director of Safeguard Africa, an event safety consultancy that works across the African continent. He also serves as a member of the Global Crowd Management Association's Advisory Board, and his vision is to influence and promote responsible event safety standards and practices in Africa by bridging the gaps between the local events industry and our global peers. In addition to major events, Iain is also involved in promoting safety in the film and television industry, particularly focused on people working in dangerous or sensitive environments, or when performers or crew are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. |
