About us

Management Team

Spice has assembled a highly experienced management team, including the co-founders of Citadel, among others, bringing to bear decades of accumulated knowledge in telecoms services and infrastructure, entrepreneurial skills in launching start-up companies, sales and marketing know-how in managing direct sales teams as well as reseller channels, and skills in successfully growing business into market leading enterprises

Spice's senior management team members are:

Mr. Wikus Marais

Mr. Wikus Marais is an economist and expert on business strategy and innovation. He is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of the Board at Spice Telecom Holdings and is involved daily in overall strategy, market positioning, strategic and operational alliances and financing alternatives. From 1991 to 2006, he was the main driver of the business strategies and client services that took Citadel from a small business to one of the most influential wealth management businesses in South Africa. He developed unique financial planning tools to support original financial planning strategies that could only be implemented if supported by his groundbreaking fee-based client service and sales structures. Between 1982 and 1990, Mr. Marais worked as an economist for stockbrokers George Huysamer and Partners (1989 and 1990), United Building Society (1987 and 1988) and the South African Reserve Bank (1982 to 1986). During this time, he also completed a full-time Masters in Philosophy degree with a major in economics at Cambridge University as the Old Mutual/Nedbank Scholarship Competition winner (1987). Mr. Marais also has a Masters in Commerce (1986) and an Honours Bachelor in Commerce (1984) degree in economics from Pretoria University. From 1979 to 1981, he completed his Bachelor in Commerce degree at Pretoria University.

Mr. Henry Smith

Mr. Henry Smith joined in June 2007. Mr Smith has wide management experience in the South African ICT environment and especially in the area of telematics and telecommunications. Before joining Spice Mr Smith was General Manager at Altech Netstar Fleet Management Services, a company formed under his stewardship that today provides world class telematics solutions to the SME, Corporate and Enterprise market in South Africa. Before joining the Altech Netstar Group in 2003 Mr Smith was the Regional General Manager for the UK Based Global Telematics (Thales Telematics) from November 2001. Prior to joining Global Telematics from European Datacom South Africa, where he was the Marketing and later General Manger, Mr Smith had a successful career as an officer in the South African National Defence Force up to 1996 and had a stint with the VTR group of companies as a system designer with Securicor South Africa, specialising in the designing and implementation of integrated security solutions for corporate and government institutions. Mr. Smith holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Masters of Business Administration degree from Almeda University in the US.

Mr. Janno Huyser

Mr. Janno Huyser joined in August 2007. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1998 after completing his articles with Deloitte & Touche. He brings to the company extensive financial, systems and operational experience specifically in the Telecommunications and IT industries. From January 2006 to July 2007 Mr Huyser was employed by Oracle Corporation (South Africa) as Solutions Architect in their consulting division. He was involved in crafting financial software solutions with various companies in the Communications and Media industry including Cell C and Media24. Between 2001 and 2005 Mr Huyser consulted as IT and Financial consultant for T-Systems, xPedia Consulting and Accenture. He worked for customers such as MTN and M-Web where he was involved in designing and implementing billing and sales solutions and demand management systems. He was also involved in implementing and managing the Financial, IT and ERP systems for Cell C. In the year 2000 Mr Huyser co-founded two IT technology companies in quick succession: SWAT Technologies, involved in Facial Recognition software applications and Lesika Technologies, being a value added reseller in the IT hardware market. Mr Huyser was responsible for the set-up of the entire financial and commercial systems for these companies and also the day to day running of these systems. Mr Huyser started his working career with Deloitte & Touche South Africa between 1996 and 1998 where he completed his articles as part of his professional qualification. Between 1998 and 2000 Mr Huyser spent two years in the South East Regional office of Deloitte & Touche, in the United Kingdom, as Audit Manager where he gained invaluable exposure to the systems and processes of large international companies.

Mr. Quintus Marais

Mr. Quintus Marais is a co-founder of Spice and is responsible for Information Technology and Telecom systems, Staffing, administrative and all other operational matters pertaining to the Company. He is an expert in business processes and computer systems. Before joining Spice, Mr. Marais founded Tequa Software Partners in 1999, a software consulting and custom software development company. While at Tequa, he also spearheaded the development of Tangint, a web-based "software as a service" accounting system. From 1993 to 1999, Mr. Marais was one of the founding members of Citadel Investment Services, where he was responsible for all information technology systems, including the technical support team. Mr. Marais also led the team that developed Citadel's market leading administration and portfolio modelling and management system, named Horizon. Mr. Marais holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a major in Informatics (Commercial Computer Science) from Pretoria University and an honours Bachelor of Commerce degree with a concentration in Economics from Rand Afrikaans University.

Mr. Johan Marais

Mr. Johan Marais advises Spice on all strategic and operational matters as they relate to marketing initiatives as well as capitalizing alternatives. He is responsible for supervising and establishing a properly equipped marketing team, highly focused on procuring the most advantageous business opportunities. Mr Marais is highly experienced in founding and growing start-up companies into significant players in their respective markets. In the early part of the current decade, Mr. Marais participated in growing a number of companies, including: Spellbound, which provides training to corporate employees, and StratAssist, which provides investment advice to high net worth individuals. In 1993, Mr. Marais co-founded Citadel Investment Services ("Citadel"), a financial and wealth management services company, and was responsible for marketing until he left the firm in 1999, just after Peregrine's initial investment in the company. Under his supervision, Citadel built up its investment inflows to more than R200 million per month, a level not seen since his departure. In 1984, Mr. Marais founded Johan Marais Brokers ("JMM"), a company that eventually became Citadel in 1993. JMM was an insurance brokerage and investment advisory firm, which went on to consistently win the top marketing awards, from such prestigious organizations as Old Mutual and Sanlam. From 1982 to 1984, Mr. Marais started his career selling life insurance for Sanlam at age 21. Mr. Marais holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Pretoria.