Ms Khungeka Njobe, newly appointed Group Executive of Research and Development Outcomes and Strategic Human Capital Development at the CSIR, has taken over from Phil Hendricks as CSIR Relationship Manager for SERA. She will share the responsibility with Prof Robin Crewe who has been the University of Pretoria Relationship Manager for SERA since 2003.

The two SERA Relationship Managers are responsible for the day-to-day operations of SERA, including the implementation of the business plan, guiding SERA activities and business opportunities, dealing with operational issues and effectively managing the Alliance investment in research projects and joint ventures.

Khungeka joined the CSIR in 2003 as Director of CSIR Environmentek, which was reconstituted in 2005 as the Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE) business unit where she held the position of Executive Director. CSIR NRE combines the domains of mining, forestry, pollution and waste, water, resource-based sustainable development and ecosystems.

Her management career includes being Director at the National Botanical Institute where she established a new Directorate on Biodiversity Policy and Planning as well as several other new programmes. Prior to that, she was Director of Biodiversity Management within the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Njobe also led negotiations on biodiversity as a member of South Africa's official delegation to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.

Among her qualifications are an MSc in Zoology (University of Pretoria), an Honours in Biology (University of California, Los Angeles) and a management qualification in Mastering Technology Enterprises from the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Khungeka serves as Chairperson of the National Environmental Advisory Forum (NEAF) established by the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in 2005, and was also recently appointed to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) International Advisory Board to the International Environment Technology Centre based in Japan. She is an active member of the South African Reference Group on Women in Science and Technology.

She also served as Co-chair of the SERA Natural Sciences Task Teams Forum, alongside Prof Anton Ströh of the University of Pretoria, where she encouraged SERA participants to produce tangible scientific outputs and translate those into applications that benefit society.