Founder, Director

Namibian-born Dieter Brandt graduated from University of Cape Town with distinction in 2002. He is a leading pan-African spatial and creative consultant and an experienced architect. Dieter specializes in creating places that are provocative and meaningful in a changing environment. His design provocation was key, as he served as the lead designer for Freedom Park and the new Mathematical and Sciences building for the University of Witwatersrand. He was also the lead design consultant for Mmabatho Precinct, a proposal for an original, public and shared space precinct as part of the repositioning and rebranding of the capital of the north-west province in South Africa. Dieter’s design work also includes the designing of the South African pavilion at the 10th international Venice biennale in 2006. The exhibit work was further showcased at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London in 2007. Dieter is a director of MVS whose focus is towards developing a Global African cultural and economic accelerator, for the creative industries with a core interest in African film production. As founder, in 2017 Dieter registered (AEDI) Advanced Environmental Design Initiatives UG in Germany. He hopes to use ‘storytelling’ to transcend and harness meaning for African & European public’s.

Dieter Brandt

Email:  dieter@aedi.africa

Mobile + 49 176 6566 9292     WhatsApp  + 27 72 5911 752

Co-Founder, Director

Research associate in the Department of Environment and Geography, University of York and, University of Cape Town  Namibian-born Jessica is a futurologist and complex systems analyst with a background in ecology and human geography. She holds a postdoc at Colorado State University and ETH Zurich, DPhil (University of Oxford), MSc Environmental Change and Management (University of Oxford), and BSocSci(Hons) (University of Cape Town). Over the last twelve years, she has been involved in various NSF, NERC, NRF, DFID, CGAIR, IDRC, World Bank and USAID funded projects, consulting and advising a wide range of stakeholders on climate, land use and development issues. Among these, include the UN International Strategy on Disaster Risk Reduction; Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre; Conservation International; World Wildlife Fund for Nature; CGIAR Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security; Centre for International Forestry Research; Kew Royal Botanical Gardens; Cambridge; Oxford; London School of Economics; Brown University; University of Cape Town; and the governments of South Africa, Kenya, Nepal and Ghana. She is currently working on an ESRC-funded collaborative capacity building project, using probabilistic social-ecological modelling and scenario analysis to measure potential impacts of Chinese foreign direct investment in transportation corridors in East Africa with the University of York. As an African Women in Climate Change Science fellow, she is also leading an IDRC-funded project predicting the synergies and trade-offs of ecological infrastructure in peri-urban areas in Tanzania and Namibia with the University of Cape Town.  Country experience includes Kenya; Ghana; South Africa; Namibia; Peru; Argentina; Switzerland; UK; US; India; Nepal; Vietnam; Tanzania; Namibia; and Rwanda.

Dr Jessica P. R. Thorn

Email:  jessica@aedi.africa

Mobile:    +44 776 8883391 (UK) +264 81 682 7970 (NAM) +254 746 723 537 (KE) +255 752 623 394 (TZ)

Financial Director

Chiedza Ntuli is a pan-African financial and auditing expert. She has built a reputable financial management record across industries; services and manufacturing, retail and the public-social sectors. She has completed an Accounting Science degree and is currently an MBA candidate at the Gordon Institute of Business Science. She is passionate about emerging and distinct businesses, to ensure they maximise their growth in African and global markets. She is the founder and Managing Director of Tanchi Consulting, an accounting firm, which works with entrepreneurs at all stages of their life cycles, from go-to-market, end to end productization and all round financial sustainability.

Chiedza Ntuli

Email:  chiedza@aedi.africa

Tel: +27 10 312 5280 VOIP | Mobile: +27 76 345 3392