PRESIDENT: RON DUFF
Ron completed his tertiary education at the Durban University of Technology, followed up with a qualification from the Institute of Marketing Management. In addition, Ron obtained several other qualifications in art, marketing, and real estate.
He is a fellow of a number of professional associations including the Institute of Directors and the Institute of Marketing Management.
He spent 32 years in in the advertising and marketing with leading companies such as FCB Lindsay Smithers and Saatchi and Saatchi. This was followed by 22 years in the financial services which included establishing his own business. In the last 7 years he has been in the property industry with Rawson Properties.
His interests include snow skiing (as an honorary member and past president of the Ski Club of South Africa) and Vice President of Snow Sports of South Africa and mountaineering. He also completed 17 Cape Argus Cycle Tours.
He won the Distinguished Toast Master Award in 1992 and their International Award for Marketing, eventually becoming District Governor responsible for 9 Southern African countries.
Other interests include art, photography, cinematography, reading and hiking.
SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT: MIKE JAMES
Mike James is a retired Professor of Anaesthesia who is still actively involved in national medicine regulation. Outside of medicine, he has a keen interest other aspects of science, in history (especially English History) and English literature with a special interest in Shakespeare. He frequently presents talks to various groups on scientific and literature-related topics. He is also a sports fanatic who played league cricket until age 65 and is currently a pretty poor golfer!
JUNIOR VICE-PRESIDENT: DAVID LITTLE
An interest in music developed very early in David’s life, when he found that he liked the sound of what was coming out of his parents’ record player, and which much later he understood to be orchestral music. From his memories of the sounds, it was most likely the sound of woodwind instruments. It was only years later when aged 9 he started on the recorder in junior school.
Encouraged by his parents David switched to the clarinet at the age of 11. At age 15 he won a countrywide young soloists’ competition, the prize for which was to perform the Mozart clarinet concerto with the (then) Municipal Orchestra in Harare, Zimbabwe. He went on to study clarinet performance at the Royal College of Music in London.
He is a seasoned performer, having appeared over many years as a concert soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician in the UK and South Africa. Passionate about music, David has been involved in several ventures over the years both in the UK and South Africa, aimed at creating performing opportunities for part-time and full-time musicians.
By profession, David is an actuary, having decided after leaving the Royal College of Music, that although music and the clarinet would remain an ongoing passion, they could still be enjoyed while pursuing an easier profession!
Together with seven other actuaries, he was a founding director of Fifth Quadrant Actuaries and Consultants in 1998, which at the time was a significant force for change in the retirement fund industry in South Africa. He was the appointed actuary and approved valuator to a number of South African retirement funds for many years.
David is now a retired actuary and a part-time musician and is now able to devote more time to helping in the encouragement and development of the performing arts in Cape Town.
SECRETARY: HUGH AMOORE
Hugh Amoore is the current Secretary of the Club. In 2023 he will have served in this role for five years, a short incumbency when compared to his predecessors: the Owl Club has been served by a succession of Secretaries – referred to in Owldom as the Secretary Birds – Frank Ross from 1903 to 1914; Alfred Holtzer, 1914 – 1958, Arnold Matthews, 1959 – 1983, J Murray Wilson, James Henry, Michael Fisher 1998-2005, John Blackman, 2005- 2009, and Oliver Trevor, 2009-2018. Additionally, his works pales in comparison: Ross & Holtzer were treasurers as well, and up to Michael Fisher’s time the Notice was compiled by the secretary.
Hugh was elected to Owldom in 1990 (having given a talk earlier that year). He is retired (having spent some 42 years in the administration of UCT) and has remained active in national university matters, as a trustee of charitable trusts, and – when time allows – pursuing philately as a hobby/passion.”
TREASURER: RICHARD MORRIS
Richard joined the Owl Club in the year 2000 under the heads of science and literature. After obtaining a BSc in applied mathematics and computer science from Wits, Richard trained and qualified as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand in London. He returned to Cape Town in 1980 and continued with successor firm PricewaterhouseCoopers until retirement in 2013. This financial background meant he was soon pressed into service as the Owl Club honorary auditor in 2007 and subsequently treasurer or Fiscal Shrike from 2015. Apart from his long association with the accounting and auditing profession Richard has hiked extensively in the Western Cape mountains and Table Mountain is an abiding passion.
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT: GEOFFREY ASHMEAD
1948 – commenced life in Cape Town, followed by an education at WPPS, Bishops and UCT, interspersed with pleasant times spent at the seaside and in the Karoo.
Having travelled abroad, he is married with three children. Has held several important positions in the Public realm, and with his extensive business career now beginning to contract, he finds himself enjoyably engaged in traditional Owlish pursuits.
Considered something of a ‘Renaissance Man’ by virtue of his varied interests and pursuits, he hopes to increasingly share his time in reading, thinking, and walking on a broader plain, and to enjoy the camaraderie of his peers to the full.
NIGEL GWYNNE-EVANS
Nigel is an extensively travelled, born, and bred Capetonian, with wide-ranging interests including the visual arts, classical music and current affairs. He is an economist, having spent the bulk of his career working for or with the state, largely focusing on economic development relating to industrialisation, trade and investment matters. Specific interests include the Pre-Raphaelites, South African history and has a deep knowledge of South African wines, having studied at Stellenbosch university. He leads an active life, mountain biking and playing tennis regularly and hiking when he can. He is also known to disappear into the bush with his Landrover either in the Western Cape or further afield in Southern Africa. Nigel is married to an academic at UCT and has three daughters who are out and about and largely independent.
PETER HYSLOP
Peter Hyslop grew up in Johannesburg where he was educated at St. John’s College, the Johannesburg Art Foundation and later, at UCT. Having started teaching while studying at UCT, Peter was appointed to teach at Bishops in 1984. Peter ’s work and experience as an art teacher has been closely connected with his practice as a visual artist.
PAUL MURRAY
Paul Murray is a retired history educator. He has a DPhil in the historical sciences from the University of Pretoria and a PhD in South African political history from Unisa. He writes on topics such as food, travel, politics and art. A specific area of interest is South African history and politics. A favourite pastime is viewing 12th and 13th century international Gothic art pieces.
PETER SUTHERLAND
Owl Peter Sutherland was inducted as an Owl in 2011.
On completion of his BSc Chemical Engineering at Wits in 1969 he worked first at a base metals smelter in Namibia and then at an oil refinery in Durban. Whilst doing so he also broadened his horizons by completing Bachelors degrees in Economics (with Economics and Industrial Psychology as majors) and Arts (with English and History as majors).
After spending 2 years in Mobil International’s New York Headquarters, he was transferred to Mobil Oil Southern Africa’s Cape Town office as Operations Director. In 1995 his career took a dramatic turn when he was appointed Managing Director of a company specializing in the extraction of enzymes used in medical diagnostics.
He served as a Trustee of the Engen Pension Fund for 17 years and was appointed Former Member Representative for a number of Pension Funds when the Pension Funds Act was amended in 2002 for the purpose of ensuring the surpluses accumulated in the past were equitably distributed to stakeholders.
From 1999 – 2020 Peter was also teacher-in-charge of the Bishops Interact Club and was named a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International. Peter retired from Bishops in 2020, and now works as a private art tutor, delivers lectures for the University of the Third Age and is active as a parishioner at St. Thomas Rondebosch.
MARTIN G. HESS
Martin was born and educated in Germany.
He enjoyed four decades of multicultural managerial experience, mainly in the materials and chemicals industries, culminating in 7 years as Member of the Executive Board of Umicore, a Bel 20 listed company. Thereafter he was consultant to Private Equity and Senior Advisor to a SA Family Office.
He lived and worked many years in South Africa, Nigeria, Hongkong, PRC, Belgium and Germany. He resides in Cape Town since 2010 and is retired since April 2019.
Martin enjoys opera, ballet and theatre.