Natasha Van Der Walt

Responsibilities and Achievements:

• Established the Strategy, Business Development, and Governance Division : Designed the organogram, secured necessary Board approvals, led recruitment efforts, and oversaw performance and delivery.
• End-to-End Operations Management : Managed strategy development and implementation, stakeholder management, public relations, marketing, communications, business development, sales, key accounts management, governance, compliance, performance planning, monitoring and evaluation, risk management, legal services, and SHEQ management.
• Budget Management : Managed divisional budgets, implemented cost-saving measures, and ensured timely invoicing to optimise the utilisation of funding.
• Team Leadership : Led cross-functional teams in a matrix structure, allocating resources and delivering performance targets through targeted management strategies.
• Strategic Planning : Developed and secured Board approval for the 5-year strategy and the 3-year Annual Performance Plan, including strategic objectives, key performance indicators, and targets.
• Performance Monitoring : Monitored and reported organisational performance against KPIs quarterly and annually, ensuring alignment with organisational goals.
• Audit and Compliance : Successfully oversaw performance management for the organisation for 5 years, demonstrated through unqualified (clean) audit opinions annually.
• Coordination and Reporting : Coordinated the collation of deliverables from 25 laboratories and administrative units, and drafted, packaged, delivered, and published Strategy Plans, Annual Performance Plans, and Annual Reports.
• Stakeholder Management : Managed key stakeholder relationships, resulting in 16 new service agreements with government departments and SOEs over 5 years.
• Revenue Growth : Achieved a 4-fold increase in sales revenue from key accounts during the 5-year period and a 26 % increase in the number of clients from the private sector over the previous 2 years.
• Sales Performance Metrics and Data Analysis System : Defined sales performance metrics and implemented an effective system for quarterly analysis of sales data, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement in sales strategies.
• Client Satisfaction : Maintained an average client satisfaction rate of 99 % throughout the 5 years.
• Event Management : Led the hosting and organization of the highly successful Africa Food Safety Workshop 2022, achieving extensive media coverage with 14 broadcast pieces, reaching an audience of over 5 million. Generated an advertising value equivalent (AVE) of R955 120 and a notable ROI of 32:1 on public relations expenditure.
• Accreditation: Facilitated the accreditation of laboratories, increasing the number from 21 in 2019/20 to 25 in 2023/24, against the following standards: ISO/IEC 17025:2017 for testing and calibration laboratories, ISO 17034:2016 for reference material producers (including two laboratories producing certified reference materials), and ISO/IEC 17043:2010 for proficiency testing.
• Certification : Monitored work areas to ensure a safe environment and adherence to all safety regulations. Achieved and maintained certifications against ISO 14001:2015 and OHSAS SANS/ISO 45001.
• BBBEE Strategy : Led the development and implementation of the BBBEE strategy.

• Initiated and led the development of an industry waste management plan for the lighting industry in compliance with national regulations.
• Secured multi-million Rand in capital funding and delivered a time reference signal to the MeerKAT project, improving UTC(ZA) accuracy from 5 000 nanoseconds to within 10 nanoseconds.
• Established a SANAS-accredited solid-state lighting measurement standards laboratory, becoming the first in South Africa to calibrate these light sources in accordance with ISO 17025.
• Persuaded investment in Smart Grid measurement support, establishing partnerships and developing new services for electrical power quality.
• Achieved a threefold increase in divisional revenue through diversification of income streams.

• Led the Electromagnetic Business Area, which consisted of 4 groups (each managed by a group leader) and 6 laboratories, and was responsible for managing business operations.
• Established and prioritised industrial measurement needs related to the business area, secured the required funding to meet these needs, and led multi-disciplinary teams of engineers and scientists to deliver new and/or improved national measurement standards for time, radiometry, fiber optics, thermal imaging, electrical power, and energy.

Managed the operations of 5 multi-disciplinary laboratories (ionising radiation, radioactivity standards, temperature, humidity and optical radiometry).

• Upgraded material properties measurement to international standards, enhancing local calibration services and providing measurement traceability to African laboratories.
• Established a colour measurement standards laboratory, demonstrated international equivalence of measurement capabilities, achieved publication in an international database following successful peer review by international technical assessors, and obtained ISO 17025 accreditation.

• Worked as a laboratory assistant, performing optical measurements, to gain work experience while studying part-time.
• Completed statistical error analysis on reflectance measurement data for an international project, which showed excellent agreement with international results; this work was accepted for oral presentation at an international conference in Oxford, UK.