Sunil Geness is Director of Global Government Affairs & CSR Africa, Global Sustainability Lead Africa. Geness has vast experience in corporate and public organisations. . In his various capacities he has represented the South African Government and SAP on numerous occasions at high level meetings at the African Union, European Union, European Commission, United Nations, the World Bank, BRICS and other multilateral agencies. Geness is a member of the United Nations Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on the United Nations E-Government Survey and serves as SAP’s representative on the World Economic Forum(WEF), Global Plastic Action Partnership for the Africa Working Group. Geness has a passion for science, technology and innovation and began his career as a physical science and electronics teacher before he moved on to develop a wide range of experience in Government, Quasi-Government and Private sector organisations. These roles have included a policy making and implementation stint at the South African National Government, various programmes in South African provinces, a government modernization role and subsequently a political advisory role at the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), before he was head-hunted by the German global software giant-SAP. Geness holds a Bachelor of Commerce (UNISA), Bachelor of Commerce Honours Cum Laude (UNISA), Master of Management (Witwatersrand), HED (Springfield College) and has been the recipient of scholarships for executive leadership programmes at leading global business schools in France( INSEAD), the United Kingdom (Birmingham) and the United States (Harvard). A keen advocate of sustainability and environmentalism, he received the World Wide Fund (WWF), One Planet Leaders, sustainability scholarship in 2009 and is currently pursuing a PHD.
