Chairman & Directors

Chairman & Directors

Robin Mardemootoo

Chairman

Robin Mardemootoo is the Managing Partner of Dentons Mauritius where he heads the Banking, Corporate Finance and Commercial practices. He is also the Dentons Regional Lead for the Banking and Finance Practice group for Africa region. 

Robin specializes in securities regulations and laws related to banking, insolvency, corporate finance and cross-border investments. He also has a special interest for international complex litigation and arbitration. He is ranked amongst the top lawyers in Mauritius and is recognized as such by the leading Legal Award Directories such as IFLR1000, Chambers & Partners and Legal500.

Bronwyn Knight

Non-Executive Director

BCom (Acc) (Univ. of Natal, PMB), CA(SA)

Bronwyn is the current CEO of Grit Real Estate Income Group (Grit), the largest pan African focused real estate group listed on the main markets of the London Stock Exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and in Mauritius.

She is a founder member and served as non-executive director on the board of Grit where she played a significant role in the listing and conversion of the Group to its current pan-African focus, underpinned by dollar based leases.

Knight has significant corporate finance and deal making experience. She played an instrumental role in the JSE listing of Delta Property Fund Limited in 2012 where she held the positions of Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer prior to taking up the leadership role at Grit. During her tenure at Delta Property Fund Limited, Knight spearheaded the diversification of the REIT’s funding sources into the debt capital markets, leading to the establishment of a ZAR2 billion Domestic Medium Term Note Programme (DMTN programme). She led the team responsible for obtaining a national scale issuer rating from Global Credit Ratings as part of the DMTN programme. In addition, Bronwyn co-headed the team responsible for growing assets under management from ZAR 2.2 billion at listing to ZAR 11.8 billion in May 2016, at which time she assumed executive responsibility at Grit.

Stuart Hardman

Non-Executive Director

A trusted Real Estate Investment Professional with over 15 years of Investment & Asset Management experience within Africa. Detailed and proven expertise developed within global advisory firm (Knight Frank), real estate private equity (director) and sovereign asset management fund (www.pic.gov.za) with R 2 Trn AuM (unlisted real estate division).

A proven track record in outperformance of benchmarks through undertaking strategic asset allocation as well as asset selection via direct and indirect investments; completing cradle-to-grave origination, underwriting / due diligence, board approvals, deal execution and post investment functions.

Experienced within the larger investment management and asset management functions of strategy formulation and fund management (portfolio Construction / thematic & strategic asset allocation), fund governance, investment analysis and research (sector, geographic, macro, performance, benchmarking and most recently factors for real estate), valuation (inhouse & outsourced), reporting (ESG & performance), transactions (cross-border, direct, indirect, JVs & debt), asset management (asset & portfolio level).

A lateral thinker with a proven eye for detail capable of executing investment management, business management and research functions within the private real estate investment arena.

Moira van der Westhuizen

Non-Executive Director

Moira holds a BCom Hons degree and is a qualified Chartered Accountant, with more than two decades experience in finance, business and auditing.

Moira joined Grit Group in May 2016 and has played a significant role in growing the business to where it is today. She has held a number of management positions at Grit as her role evolved, with her recently taking on the position of Head of Responsible Business, where she leads and manages Risk, Compliance, Legal, Internal Audit and ESG/Sustainability.
 She is a strong advocate for women and animal rights and the founder of the Mauritian NGO, All Life Matters Animal Sanctuary, which operates an animal sanctuary and a veterinary clinic.

Gareth Schnehage

Non-Executive Director

Gareth is a chartered accountant CA(SA) with experience in listed and SME multinationals with specific focus on operations in Africa, including Oil and Gas, Mining and the Aviation sector. He is a highly driven and motivated leader, who has conducted business in several African jurisdictions generating significant return for stakeholders.
He was also an executive and business consultant to Grit Group in both Mauritius and London. He is the former CEO and CFO of Starlite Aviation Group – a diverse, solution driven aviation company, offering a wide range of helicopter and fixed-wing services. The group was recently acquired by a French group which included Oaktree Capital Management, the French Treasury and several banks. 

Greg Pearson

Chief Executive Officer

MCMI, Elec Eng

Greg is a founder member of Grit Real Estate Income Group and has been instrumental in sustaining its rapid growth since inception in 2014. As Founder of Grit, Greg recognised the significant demand from multinational companies looking for quality real estate solutions in Africa and the limited supply of experienced developers to fulfil their requirements. This led to the creation of Gateway Delta Development Holdings Ltd as a development company of which Greg is a co-founder.

Prior to Grit, Greg was an executive at AECOM responsible for expanding its African footprint. His hands-on experience has allowed him to develop an expansive strategic business network with local and global developers as well as influential industry players on the continent and beyond. Greg’s expertise includes development management, cost planning, procurement, time management and traditional project management of major engineering and building projects. He has successfully completed a series of developments across the office, retail, leisure, education and healthcare sectors and has experience in over 40 African countries. ​

With his extensive track record and successful delivery of developments on the continent, Greg will be able to further these development opportunities in his new role. His relationships with key global players looking for Real Estate solutions on the continent will place the development business as the go to in the real estate market on the African continent. ​