Sakeleier Forum

Fergus Ferguson is one of South Africa's most decorated business coaches — an internationally award-winning executive, leading business architect, and civic leader whose career spans more than four decades across finance, corporate strategy, entrepreneurship, and leadership development. He is also a Senior Business Rescue Practitioner registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), bringing critical intervention capability to businesses navigating complex turning points.

A management accountant by training, he completed his B.Com (Hons) at North-West University before rising through the corporate ranks to lead strategic and corporate marketing at Denel Informatics. He went on to earn his MBL from the University of South Africa in 1996, before founding his own management consulting practice in 2000 — collaborating with KPMG and SAB&T on projects across agriculture, manufacturing, retail, and training.

As an ActionCOACH accredited Business and Executive Coach, Fergus was named Most Improved Business Coach globally in Berlin in 2013 — the first South African ever to receive the award. In 2015, he was crowned Coach of the Year at the Business Excellence Forum South Africa. He added Business Partner of the Year in 2019.

Known in business circles as a leading business architect and registered Senior Business Rescue Practitioner with CIPC, he operates at the intersection of strategic vision and practical intervention — helping businesses grow, transform, and, when necessary, recover. Fergus also serves as founding Chairman of the Pretoria Sakekamer, with a bold mandate to establish Pretoria as a world-class business hub by 2050.

Marina Ferguson is an internationally accredited Business and Life Coach, a pioneering labour relations practitioner, and a scholar of personal and professional leadership — with a career spanning more than four decades across banking, manufacturing, government, and management consulting.

Marina began her career at Absa (then Trust Bank), rising to Head of Training for the bank's regional training centre. She went on to lead national workforce strategy as Human Resources Manager at Premier Milling, before founding M. Ferguson Consulting in October 1994 — one of Pretoria's first independent labour relations consultancies. She has worked alongside PricewaterhouseCoopers and consulted across agriculture, manufacturing, retail, agro-forestry, IT, and the public sector.

She founded two trade unions when workers needed a voice, and is a qualified CCMA Mediator and Arbitrator as well as an accredited ADRASA Arbitrator. Marina is an ActionCOACH accredited Business Coach, a Results Coaching Life Coach, and an accredited Brené Brown Dare to Lead facilitator. She is currently completing her MPhil in Personal, Interpersonal and Professional Leadership at the University of Johannesburg, with a specialist focus on Emotional Intelligence in both work and personal relationships.

Marina serves on the Management Committee of the Pretoria Sakekamer, holding responsibility for Youth Development — including the YESS Programme (Young Entrepreneurs Start Smart). She is also a founder of the MOR Foundation, a Non-Profit Organisation dedicated to youth development, ensuring that the work of building great leaders begins long before the boardroom.