Our People
Our Board of Directors
Samuel Esson Jonah- KBE OSGNon Executive Chairman of HFA Holdings Inc.
Sam Jonah KBE OSG was educated in Ghana and thereafter at the Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall and the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London.
He was appointed president of AngloGold Ashanti Limited in 2004, following the merger of AngloGold Limited and Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited. Prior to this he was CEO of Ashanti, which became the first African company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In December 2004, CNN/Time Magazine named him as one of 25 “Business Influentials” who set the global standards for management, ethics marketing and innovation.
Sir Sam is Chairman of HFA Holdings inc.
John Townley-Johnson
Deputy Chairman, HFA Holdings Inc.
John was born in Harare (then Salisbury), Zimbabwe in 1957. He attended Cranborne Boys High where he gained his matric exemption. After completing national service he studied law at the University of Rhodesia, where he met Mike Bolton. He graduated in 1979 with a bachelor of Law (Hons) and took up a job in Cape Town as a legal advisor for Safmarine, where he worked for 3 years. He had always had an interest in finance and took up an appointment in asset finance with the Standard Bank group in Cape Town, before being promoted to head office in Johannesburg in 1986.
He and Mike Bolton, went into business together when they started a business together in 1987 when they started a company (Durolink) that specialised in arranging debt funding for large corporations.
John left Durolink in 1991 to move back to Cape Town where he started a corporate finance consultancy, which focussed on developing financial solutions for the private sector and on developing innovative products for various banking groups. In 1999 John and his partner Alan Fergus sold the business to Decillion Limited and spent the next 5 years developing Decillion into a leading provider of innovative financial solutions. John left Decillion in March 2004 to join Chartwell.
John was appointed Chief Executive Officer of African Housing Solutions and Deputy Chairman of HFA Holdings Inc. in August 2007 and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a shareholder of Houses For Africa.
Alan Fergus
Non Executive Director
Alan Fergus is a director and shareholder of Houses For Africa.
Alan has a wealth of experience in advisory services with particular strengths in advising on funding, mergers, acquisitions and restructurings and in cross-border transactions.
Alan was born in Cape Town in 1960 and received his education from the University of Cape Town. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.) Tax and is a Chartered Accountant (SA), having completed his accounting articles at Arthur Andersen in Cape Town. He specialised in advising financial institutions and large corporate clients.
Alan became a partner at Arthur Andersen in 1995. Alan left Arthur Andersen as a partner in 1997 and joined Coronation Finance. In 1999 he joined Decillion Limited in their specialised finance business.
He is a director of HFA Holdings Inc.
Alan and his wife, Robyn, live in Cape Town.
Edward “Ted” Galante
Non Executive Director
Edward Galante was born in San Francisco, California in 1957.
He attended The Town School for Boys in San Francisco, College Alpin International de Beau Soleil in Villars sur Ollon, Switzerland, The Robert Louis Stevenson School in Pebble Beach California, Willamete University in Salem Oregon and The College of Notre Dame.
Edward Galante is the Chief Executive Officer of Houses For Africa (Zimbabwe) (Private) Limited, and a director of HFA Holdings Inc. both of which he founded.
Since it commenced development operations HFA has completed over 5 000 units of high and medium density housing. In addition, it has developed over 2 000 residential medium density stands. It also is active in the development of commercial real estate in Zimbabwe.
Mr Galante holds a B.A. in History and Philosophy from the College of Notre Dame. He is a member of The Book Club of California and The Bohemian Club of California. He is the Chapter Champion and founding Chairman of the Young Presidents’ Organization Chapter in Harare.
Mr Galante lives in Harare, Zimbabwe with his wife and two children.
John Barton Bridges
Non Executive Director
John has more than 25 years of professional experience in mining, infrastructure, finance and private equity.
He was previously Vice President at AIG Investments, one of the world’s largest asset managers, where he focused on Alternative Investments particularly emerging market private equity. Prior to this, he spent 10 years with International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group and the largest multilateral source of equity and loan financing for private sector projects in emerging markets.
Before joining the IFC he spent 12 years as an engineer with SRSK and other firms, working in the mining sector in africa, Canada and the USA. John holds a B.Sc in civil Engineering from the University of Cape Town, an M.Sc. from the University of London, Imperial College of Science and Technology (DIC) and an MBA from INSEAD, France.
Michael Williams
Executive Director
Michael Williams holds BSC (QS), B Bdg Arts Degrees from the University of Port Elizabeth.
Micheal currently manages a USD400m Middle East based private equity real estate fund with Abu Dhabi based Sinogulf Real Estate Investments. Prior to Sinogulf, he managed Actis', USD 150m Africa Real Estate Investments. Prior to Sinogulf, he managed Actis', USD 150m Africa Real Estate Fund's leading their pioneering investments into Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania. Before joining Actis he held a senior position with The Standard Bank of South Africa leading the delivery of broad based pan African property finance and property asset management services.