Dany de Barros, Team Captain (Chief Executive Officer)
Dany took over as CEO of Prommac in 2017 from Jason, after having served as the COO of Prommac for a period of 3 years. Dany has over 15 years of construction experience, is a qualified CA (SA) and has a Leadership and Management Diploma from Gibbs.
Prior to joining the Prommac Team, he spent approximately 3 years at Murray & Roberts as the General Manager for the Resources and Industrial Division. Before joining Murray & Roberts, Dany spent more than 7 years as the Financial Director of Kentz Engineers & Constructors. Before that Dany worked in Angola where he spent 2 years looking after the commercial aspects of construction projects on behalf of clients. Dany has experience in Petrochemical, Oil & Gas, Metals, Power and Mining.
He has worked with several blue chip clients which include Anglo, Outotec, Sasol, Sherrit, Vale, PetroSA, Natref, Chevron, Engen, Indeni Refinery, Air Liquide, Astron, Bamangwato Concessions Ltd (BCL), Mozal, Hillside Smelter, Mittal Steel, Hullet Aluminium, De Beers, Kenmare Resources, BHP Billiton, Richard Bay Minerals, Scaw Metals, Hosaf Fibres, South African Breweries, Kimberley-Clark, Sappi, and Mondi. Dany is Portuguese speaking and has successfully opened new business operations in over 10 countries in Africa. Dany is also a member of the Johannesburg Chapter of YPO.
Eric Zulu, Executive Director
Eric has over fourteen (14) years of construction experience. Eric studied and graduated in Electrical Engineering from the Vaal University of Technology, he then furthered his studies and obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management with Cranefield College. Eric completed training on Advanced Project Management through Enterprise Project Solution.
He started his construction career as a Boilermaker apprentice in a company called Genrec, a division of Murray & Roberts, through the SAJ Training Centre in Germiston, Wadeville. Prior to joining the Kumunyack/Prommac Team, he worked for SNC Lavellin on Moatize Phase II Coal Expansion project in Mozambique where he served one year as a Project Snr. Planner. Before that, Eric served one year with Fluor SA as a Project Engineer at Sasol in Secunda. Prior to that, he worked seven years for Kentz SA, where he served in different department ranging from Estimation, Project Planning and Site Supervision.
During his time at Kentz, he had an opportunity to work in countries like Mozambique, Zambia and Madagascar. Eric has experience in the Petrochemical, Oil & Gas, Metal and Minerals sector. To name a few. Eric has worked with the several blue chip companies which include, Sasol, PetroSA, Vale, Indeni Refinary, Sasol Gas, Kenmare, Richard Bay Mineral (RBM), Mondi and QIT Mineral Mine (QMM).
Emmanuel Ratshikhopha, Executive Director
Emmanuel has been with Prommac since early 2019 as a Business Unit Manager and has on a number of occasions demonstrated his ability to lead and execute tough and complex projects.
His professional career started in 1999 as a Junior Engineer with a leading engineering and construction group in Johannesburg, where he was first exposed to the Engineering and Construction Industry focusing on Mining, Power Generation and Petrochemical infrastructure projects.
Emmanuel holds a National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Pretoria University of Technology, and has complete a PMD (Programme For Management Development) through Gibbs.
With Emmanuel's extensive 20 years of experience with project management of green and brown field projects in the Engineering and Construction industry, he is an invaluable asset as our Construction Projects Divisional Director.
Wayne dos Santos Niz, Executive Director
In 2018, Wayne joined Prommac as the General Manager for Support Services, where he leads the Estimating, Procurement, Logistics, and Commercial functions. With over 30 years of industry experience as a Quantity Surveyor and General Manager, Wayne brings a wealth of knowledge to his role. He also holds a Management Diploma in Project Management from the UNISA Graduate School of Business Leadership.
Prior to his role at Prommac, Wayne worked at Group Five for four years as the Inland Oil & Gas Sector lead and Proposals Manager. His extensive career was largely spent at Kentz Engineers and Constructors, where he started as a Proposals Engineer and worked his way up to become the Technical Support Services Global Commercial Manager. His work at Kentz took him to various locations around the globe, including South Africa, Canada, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Sakhalin Island in Russia.
Before joining Kentz, Wayne worked as a Cost Engineer, Quantity Surveyor, and Estimator for Babcock Africa and Sydcor Engineering, which was a subsidiary of Grinaker at the time. Throughout his career, Wayne has travelled extensively for work and holds British, Portuguese, and South African passports.
In addition to his professional achievements, Wayne is an accomplished photographer who has won both local and international awards. He holds an LPSSA (VERS) honours title from the Photographic Society of South Africa.
Benny Howard, Executive Director
Benny is a highly experienced professional in the construction industry with over 25 years of experience. He was appointed COO of Prommac in June 2021, bringing with him an impressive track record of delivering complex projects and building strong relationships with clients and stakeholders.
Prior to joining Prommac, Benny has held leadership positions at well-known blue-chip companies, including Murray and Roberts, Group five, Stefanutti Stocks, and Grinaker LTA, where he was appointed to the board of directors. He holds a National Diploma in Mechanical engineering from DUT.
Benny's experience has spanned across various industries such as Petrochemical, Oil & Gas, Metals, Power, Mining, Pulp and Paper, making him a versatile and multi-disciplinary leader.
Throughout his career, Benny has worked with several blue-chip clients such as Anglo, Sasol, Vale, PetroSA, Natref, Chevron, Engen, Sapref, Astron, Mozal, Hillside Smelter, Mittal Steel, Hulett Aluminium, De Beers, BHP Billiton, Richard Bay Minerals, Scaw Metals, Hosaf Fibres, South African Breweries, Sappi, and Mondi, Tongaat Hullet and Illovo Sugar.
Benny's comprehensive knowledge of the construction industry, coupled with his unrivaled problem-solving and innovative approach, has made him a valuable asset to organizations he's worked with. As COO of Prommac, Benny plays a key role in driving the company's growth, ensuring operational excellence, and providing strategic guidance that aligns with Prommac's vision and goals.
Suzan Zinyana, Non-Executive Director
Suzan is the co-founder of New Age Engineering Solutions and the first from the two co-founders to run the business of New Age Engineering Solutions. She started by selling welding consumables at the inception of the company which is now a division of the business of the company. This department at the time, was the cornerstone of New Age. Suzan and her driver were the first employees and really groomed the business to higher levels. She is currently the Business Development Director. In her role, she oversees and manages the company's administrative team in both the Cape Town and Secunda offices as well as the marketing department.
Suzan is passionate about Social development and all company social development initiatives are run by her. Under her scope of responsibilities, particularly enterprise development, in June 2016 she introduced a youth incubation programme. As a result of this, today New Age boosts itself that we are holding the hand of a company called Isotec, owned by a young South African. Suzan has since adopted and supports a female owned business which manufactures home detergents such as sanitisers, dishwashing liquid, all-purpose cleaning chemicals, bleaches etc. Her interests have also developed into the tourism industry and owns a number of lodging facilities in different geographic areas.
If you have had a long and stressful working season, Suzan is there to arrange for a Big 5 Game viewing, a succulent meal and a selection of great wines from the Cape.
Joseph Zinyana, Non-Executive Director
Joseph is the founder and CEO of New Age Engineering and is a Metallurgist/Welding Engineer and IPE inspector by qualification.
Joseph has over 25 years of welding experience and began his career as a metallurgical engineer where he was responsible for quality management and welding procedure qualification for Sasol in Secunda. Joseph was also responsible for the certification and approval of various welding procedures for companies like Kentz (SNC Lavalin), DB Thermal, Trotek, Eskom and many others.
Joseph’s business interests began in 2002 with the establishment of New Age Engineering whereby he provided specialised welding support services to Sasol. Joseph’s business interests extended beyond Sasol to providing specialised welding support in Germany as well as welding in the nuclear space and has worked with some large corporations including Chevron, Eskom, NECSA, Sasol, Natref, Hitachi, Areva, Ponticelli and Prommac.
Jason English, Non-Executive Director
Jason is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Al Laith in Dubai, a CG Tech Group Company, as well as serving as the Chief Ecosystem Officer for CG Tech.
Jason became Prommac Chief Executive Officer in 2012 before relinquishing the reigns to Dany in 2017, after more than a decade at a leading international engineering company, where his last position was that of Global Project Development Director, Technical Support Services, leading international development and strategic projects in a variety of countries including the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Africa, Middle East and Australia.
Prior to that Jason ran Site Project Operations in South Africa and Africa and worked on a number of large scale shutdowns and projects in the Petrochemical, Mining and Power sectors for clients which included blue chip clients such as Chevron, Sasol, BP, Shell, Engen/Petronas, Queensland Gas, British Gas, Bamangwantu Copper Limited and Fluor.
The South African-born English is a graduate of Milpark Business School and holds Mechanical Engineering, Project Management and Masters in Business (MBA) qualifications. Jason is currently a member of the Johannesburg and Dubai chapters of YPO and serves as an executive on a number of it’s boards.
Niall Carroll, Non-Executive Director
Niall has three decades of experience as a finance professional and investor, with senior corporate and board expertise in financial services, natural resources and the non-profit sectors.
He is the co-founder and chairman of CG Tech, an owner-manager led services group that seeks to drive client success through high performance teams and technologies. He was the founder CEO of Royal Bafokeng Holdings in South Africa, which became the world’s largest community owned investment company.
Niall started his career at Deutsche Bank South Africa, eventually serving as head of investment banking and joint head of the SA business. A graduate of the University of Cape Town and Trinity College London, he is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst.
Heinrich (Steps) Stapelberg, Alternative Director
Steps joined the Prommac group in 2007 as SHERQ Manager responsible for the management and governance of the SHERQ department and advising all the relevant stakeholders.
Steps has over 23 years’ experience in investigation of occupational incidents. Before joining Prommac, Steps was involved in high profile investigations related to occupational incidents within the SAPS for 10 years, working closely with the inspector of mining and minerals. Steps also has extensive experience in ISO 9001;2015, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001:2015 Management systems and is a registered member of SACPCMP CHSM 365/2017 and technical member of Saiosh.
Steps consulted with various clients in the safety field and also presented relevant training. He was involved in the development of various training modules and initiatives in the occupational safety field. Steps has experience in the Gas, Petro-chemical, power and energy and water treatment sectors. Steps was also part of the BMW motor group and handled client relationships and customer satisfaction. In the last 13 years Heinrich was involved with various shutdowns and projects within the Sasol, Natref, SAPREF and Chevron environment.
