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Vosloo steps down from Naspers

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 21 Apr 2015
Ton Vosloo has been thanked for his contribution to the Naspers board.
Ton Vosloo has been thanked for his contribution to the Naspers board.

Ton Vosloo, who has been Naspers' chairman since 1997, has stepped down from the role as he retires.

Vosloo, who was also previously a MultiChoice SA board member and a Media24 director, started his career as a journalist in 1956 at the Eastern Cape Oosterlig newspaper.

He has retired with effect from last Friday.

In addition to Vosloo's retirement, independent non-executive directors Boetie van Zyl and Yuanhe Ma retired from the board. Meanwhile, Naspers' former CEO Koos Bekker re-joined the board as non-executive chairman.

Bekker stepped down as CEO last February to take a year off and hunt for Naspers' next big investment in the ICT space, with a focus on developing technologies that are attractive to the group and adjacent to its current skills. He was set to return to the company as chairman and was succeeded by Bob van Dijk, who was Naspers' most senior e-commerce chief at the time.

Vosloo, who is in his 70s, served on the Naspers board since March 1983 and chaired Naspers for 23 years along with various group companies and board committees. He became MD of Naspers in 1984.

In the last financial year, he earned R4.8 million for his role.

Vosloo worked as a journalist between 1956 and 1983 and as editor of Beeldfrom 1977 to 1983. He is a former chairman of Sanlam, M-Net, World Wildlife Foundation South Africa and the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. He was awarded the Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University in 1970 and has three honorary doctorates.

Naspers' board thanked the three directors for their commitment to the group over many years. "Their unique contributions were highly valued and will be missed."

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