Team

Mark Horner

Director

Mark has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics and is a former Shuttleworth Fellow. He is one of the company’s directors but also works as a physics expert, IT support, administrator and more. Mark initiated the Free High School Science Texts project way back in 2002. This formed the foundation upon which Siyavula is built today. Mark hopes to one day be allowed to write code for Siyavula too!

Neels van der Westhuizen

Director/Marketing & Sales

Neels manages Siyavula’s growing business front. He thinks about how Siyavula can deliver private school-quality education to all learners at a price they can afford. Neels likes hearing from learners about what they want and enjoys talking to other companies and organisations who are interested in making use of Siyavula’s open resources.

Carl Scheffler

Director/Software Developer

Carl heads up the technical content team. He spends his productive time on software development and statistical data analysis, to build up our awesome practice service. Carl did his Ph.D. in probabilistic inference at Cambridge University. His play time goes towards a number of things, but mostly improving his German language and surfing skills.

Megan Beckett

Life/Natural Sciences Coordinator

Megan is Siyavula’s Life Sciences and Natural Science Content Coordinator. She has an M.Sc. in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Megan authors and edits new content and also coordinates a large team of volunteers to collaboratively author books online. She gets to engage with her creative side when dealing with graphic designers and illustrators for the new projects.

Vinayak Bhardwaj

Technical Content Editor – Life Sciences

Vinayak works as a technical content editor for life sciences. He has a long-standing interest in biology, with an B.Sc. Hons. in Medical Biochemistry and an M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering. Vinayak is also an activist with the Right2Know campaign, a part-time documentary film-maker and a medical researcher. He enjoys running and hiking.

Kate Davies

Technical Content Editor – Physical Sciences

Kate is the technical content editor for the chemistry chapters of the physical science textbooks. She did her Ph.D. in X-ray Crystallography and is enjoying getting back to more general chemistry. In her free time she enjoys dog training, hiking and playing computer games.

Nicola du Toit

UX Designer/Webmaster

Nicola is Siyavula’s user experience designer and webmaster. She is currently studying an M.Phil in Information Technology at U.C.T., specialising in human-computer interaction. It is rumoured that she also has a Bachelor’s degree in Music. She dislikes ugly fonts, bad grammar and user-unfriendly design, and indulges in photography, dog-walking and paddling dragon boats in her spare time.

Nicola Glenday

Marketing

Nicola is called Nicky (or Fred) so as not to be confused with the other Nicola in the office. She studied Fine Art at U.C.T. and joined Siyavula primarily to fight about the use of colours with the rest of the team.

Carine Grobbelaar

Marketing

Carine works on Siyavula’s Marketing and Sales strategy. After completing her undergrad in Marketing at Stellenbosch University, Carine moved to Cape Town for her Honours in Brand Leadership at Vega School. Carine’s passion for communication and need for participation means she can usually be found chatting to teachers, travelling around the world or running up a mountain.

Eric Gulbis

Technical Content Editor – Maths

Eric mainly focuses on the maths side of content development for Siyavula’s Intelligent Practice system, which means encoding maths questions in computer programs. His hobbies and interests include three of the following: hiking on Table Mountain, surfing at Muizenberg, reading crime fiction, and listening to Steve Hofmeyr showtunes. Can you guess which is the odd one out?

Melanie Hay

Technical Content Editor – Natural Sciences

Melanie is completing her M.Sc. (Med.) on the genetics of sports injuries. She is passionate about science, education and writing. She likes to try everything once, loves the outdoors and is most comfortable in her running shoes.

Alison Jenkin

Content Coordinator – Maths

Alison works on curriculum alignment and also as a technical content editor for maths. She has a B.Sc Maths and PGCE from Wits and is a movie fanatic.

Luke Kannemeyer

Technical Content Editor – Natural Sciences

Luke is a Mandela Rhodes Scholar and is nearing the completion of his M.Sc. (Med.) in Human Genetics. He grew up in the ‘hood’ but would make a terrible gangster. Having once been an aspiring ballet dancer may have something to do with that. He is passionate about solving problems through technology and is very proud of his diamond league status in 2v2 Starcraft 2.

Natalia Kavalenia

Textbook Sales & Distribution Coordinator

Natalia manages the sales and distribution of Siyavula’s awesome textbooks. After completing a B.A. in Psychology & Anthropology at Rhodes University she sought an exciting new challenge, which brought her to Siyavula in Cape Town. In no particular order Natalia is a 4×4 offroad and travel enthusiast, who loves scouring antique shops, good food and wine and other cool stuff (like photography).

Thembile Mbiko

Office Manager

Thembile is Siyavula’s office manager. He does everything that no one else knows how to do and keeps the wheels of the company turning over smoothly. He graduated with a B.Com. (Financial Management) and is currently studying Auditing on a part-time basis through UNISA.

Bridget Nash

Community Coordinator

Bridget is Siyavula’s Community Coordinator and has a B.A. (Hons.) degree in Psychology. She manages Siyavula’s ever-expanding community of volunteers, coordinates and organises all events, from authoring workshops to skills functions, and is the glue that keeps the Siyavula community connected. A wannabe geek, she is learning to touch type, and spends her free time herding cats.

Kosma von Maltitz

Technical Content Editor - Physical Sciences

Kosma works as a technical content editor, mainly for physical sciences. She is the office nomad and is most often found sitting on the couches coding, occasionally on the floor but rarely at her desk. She has an M.Sc. in Astrophysics and enjoys baking, gardening and observing the night sky.

Delita Otto

Technical Content Editor - Natural Sciences

Delita studied all kinds of molecular biology (including an Honours in Biochem and a Masters in Physiological Sciences) and threw in a teaching diploma for fun. She was never one of the cool kids and is not quite a nerd but enjoyed learning LaTeX to write a thesis, and python to code games. Now she uses these skills as a technical content editor at Siyavula, working on the natural sciences textbooks. She loves that they’ll be available online, and free.

Marthelize Tredoux

Technical Content Editor - Natural Sciences

Marthelize has an M.Sc. in Biotechnology, half a law degree and about 7/10ths of a certificate in Digital Marketing. Plant biotechnology is her speciality, if you exclude drinking wine. She joined Siyavula to help create the natural sciences textbooks for Grades 7-9. In her spare time she drinks a lot of wine and justifies this by writing about it for various blogs and websites. She loves animals and is continuously being adopted by stray cats and dogs. Marthelize also likes to pretend she is Nigella.

Heather Williams

Technical Content Editor – Physical Science

With a B.Sc. Honours in Chemistry, Heather is a technical content editor and one of Siyavula’s resident chemistry experts. She works primarily on physical sciences, with a particular focus on question creation. Heather does not suffer fools gladly and enjoys software that works, first time. She also enjoys dabbling in the darker arts of python and LaTeX.

Ewald Zietsman

Technical Coordinator/Software Developer

Ewald is Siyavula’s Technical Coordinator. He hates speaking on the telephone. When he’s not avoiding calls or playing electric guitar, he is a programmer, typesetter and Siyavula’s general technical expert. He has an M.Sc. in Astrophysics and races dragon boats.