Our Team – Devrani Consult

About Us

DevRani Consult (Pty) Ltd is an advisory and project management consultancy specialising in economic development.

We have implemented projects in all nine provinces of SA including enterprise and supplier development, procurement strategies, socio-economic development projects, ownership structuring including the establishment of community trusts and skills development programmes.

We are a Proudly South African, 100% Black Women Owned, and Level 1 (135%) contributor towards B-BBEE recognition.

DevRani Consult plays an active role in promoting investment into South Africa and developing strategies that encourage business alignment to the developmental agenda. This is achieved through the implementation of strategic and innovative programmes whilst ensuring compliance and sustainability.

Ugeshree Thakurpersad founded her first consulting business in July 2012. She realised her passion for socio-economic development combined with her business management acumen during 2009 when she was appointed to head the Wind Programme at Exxaro Resources. She has sound business development and project management experience and managed various community development projects across South Africa, which included economic development strategy and project implementation, skills development and employment equity initiatives, monitoring and reporting of projects, beneficiary impact assessments, pre-verification audits, procurement, enterprise & supplier development (ESD)strategies, economic development due-diligences, and ownership requirements such as Trust Management.

Ugeshree served as a Board Director of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce for three consecutive years and is currently the Chairperson of the S’ya Phanda Board and a Director of the Bradian Group.

Ricardo De Souza began his career in the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment sector in 2009. He was a director at NERA Advisory Services and was also a SANAS accredited Technical signatory at National Empowerment Rating Agency (NERA).

Through the vetting and implementation of structures alongside reputable law firms, corporate financiers, and other industry leaders, Ricardo has become a specialist with regards to the B-BBEE legislation. Ricardo’s B-BBEE expertise span numerous industries with a clientele comprising of multinationals and JSE listed entities. Ricardo’s exposure to the SANAS verification procedure, application methodologies, and interpretations of the B-BBEE legislation ensure his clients are well prepared for their annual B-BBEE verification. Ricardo has an exemplary track record of assisting a wide spectrum of clientele in reaching their required B-BBEE Contributor Status Levels. Ricky is the co-founder and Director at Thrive Corporate Advisers.

Calisto Kondowe is a socio-economic development expert. He worked for organisations such as United Nations Children’s fund as a Community Development Specialist, MillaSA as a Senior Researcher, Siyakha Consulting as a transformation Specialist, and Global Africa Network as a Business Analyst. He has worked in areas of research, community development, strategy formulation and development as well as project management. Calisto has wide experience in managing research around employment, youth development, immigrant youth and livelihood and accomplished several consulting services for various organisations on BEE, Transformation, CSI, employment and educational issues. Moreover, Calisto has done research around small business challenges in South Africa, public sector development, organisation development and development management. Calisto is currently a PhD student at UCT and interested in the role of ICTs in migration labour and socio-economic development. His career is one that is inspired by desiring to transform inter and intra-global relations, policies and programmes from the bottom up towards making them just and making the world a better place.

William Swart is an energetic individual who is a problem solver that thrives when challenged by complex and difficult tasks. His passion is renewable energy and views energy supply as a fundamental need in modern society with finding his niche in engineering renewable, and economical, solutions to effectively meet this need.

Will is a recent University graduate who was an Engineering Intern at Rhino Energy Solutions. This role has allowed him to gain insight and invaluable exposure to full spectrum solar PV system design and implementation.Will was also part of a team which designed and implemented a successful outbound marketing campaign and has worked as a technical advisor on two projects in the RMIPPP and is contracted as a Junior Engineer at Meadows Energy.

His Dissertation: “Evolving solar cell technology and its application in rural South African communities”, has helped him apply the theoretical knowledge gained to implementation. Will is currently registered for the PG (Dip) Mechanical Engineering in Renewable Energy at the University of Stellenbosch