Stephen Saad assumes the role of chairman, previously held by John Swain who now becomes an independent director alongside Terry Rosenberg.
Saad was born in Durban, schooled at Clifton Prep and attended Durban High School. He completed a B.Comm. degree at Howard College campus of the then University of Natal and obtained an Associate Degree with The SA Institute of Charted Accountants. After completing a stint of competitive rugby in Ireland, he returned to South Africa and started Aspen in 1997.
The company is currently recognised as a world leader in generic medication including anti-retrovirals and is the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Africa. Aspen also builds clinics, hosts voluntary HIV testing and is committed to up-skilling the local workforce. With operations in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia, his plans for the future are focused on expanding Aspen's global footprint in the emerging market. Aspen has now been ranked as the best-performing JSE blue chip stock over the past six months. He also started Varsity College before selling it to LeisureNet, just four years later. He won the Sunday Times Business Leader of the Year in 2012.
His other passion is cycling, where he recently took part in the Aspen Trans Karoo 240km mountain bike challenge to raise funds for paediatric healthcare. Married with four daughters, he loves spending his spare time with his family at their private game reserve in the Sabi Sands.
From 1980 to 1988, Rosenberg was an international partner with Anderson Consulting with worldwide responsibility for the firm's mining practice and managing partner. From 1989 to 1992, he was chairman of Prefcor Holdings Limited, a public company with over 1 000 retail stores. During the period from 1992 to 1998, he was CEO and deputy chairman of McCarthy Retail, a large South African conglomerate as well as a non-executive director for five public companies, including Anglo American Industrial Corp and AECI. Since 1998, Terry has been the chairman of Oakbrook Investments (Pty) Ltd, an investment house with interests in oil refining, mining, logistics and property. He also sat on the board of Uranium One, a publicly listed Uranium mining company based in Canada, and Chaired SA Bio Products.
Rosenberg started Operation Jumpstart in the 1980s - the first public private partnership in South Africa where they developed a strategy and raised the finance to build the ICC. They also created the Natal Lotto which generated over R300 million for charities in KZN. He is a past chairman of Tennis South Africa, Business Against Crime and currently chairs Gozololo Centre for Children and the SuperSport Shootout. He also represented Transvaal in tennis and South Africa in the Vet's World Cup 2002 in Palm Springs. Rosenberg holds a B.Comm. degree and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of the Witwatersrand and is married with three children.
