Judges Profile
Tshililo Farisani
I hold a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)’s Graduate School of Business and Leadership specialising in Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). I successfully edited an academic book that has just been released in 1 December 2023 and have successfully written and completed more than 12 academic manuscripts in the past 12 months. From those completed manuscripts, eight articles and one book chapter have already been accepted for publication for 2022 and 2023 in different journals while the additional four are accepted to be presented in 2023 and 2024 Scopus and DOAJ indexed conferences in Japan (May), United Kingdom (July), Portugal (October) and Hawaii (January). I am the 1st session speaker at the 4th Urban Agri World 2023 Summit and a Session 3 Chairman on day two. I have successfully assisted two UKZN Masters graduates to publish their dissertations in 2023. I act as a reviewer for different journals, books and international conferences. I am a 2019/2020 Bergen Summer Research School PhD fellow (based in Norway), a global group of specialists and researchers on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I am a 2023 KwaZulu Natal regional winner of the Accenture Gender Mainstreaming Award in the Inclusive Leader Category and the 2023 National Small Enterprise winner in the Inclusive Leader Category. I have over 20 years (2003-2023) of experience as an entrepreneur and project manager running different business ventures. I am a certified UKZN-KZN government Social Entrepreneur (as of 2013) and an active member of the South African Association of Public Administration and Management (SAAPAM). I worked as a National Research Foundation (NRF) sponsored researcher (Research Assistant to the Chair) at the South African Research Chair Initiative (SARCHI) in Sustainable rural (local) livelihoods based in the School of Management, Information Technology and Governance (SMITG) at UKZN between 2018-2021. I worked as a University of South Africa Post Graduate Diploma Research Module Developer between 2023 August and 2024 Jan and I am currently working as an Educator at Boston College Head Office in Stellenbosch.