The World Rowing Federation (FISA) and Filippi Lido S.R.L. are pleased to announce that Micheen Thornycroft from Zimbabwe is the winner of the 2017 Filippi Spirit Award.Thornycroft is a two-time Olympic rower for Zimbabwe and is currently studying at Rhodes University in South Africa. She plans to graduate in 2019 with a masters degree in human kinetics and ergonomics, focusing on elite athlete performance centres specific to Africa.

As a female consultant, being underestimated can work in your favour, says Laura Poultney, relationship sales support manager at BSG. Careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) are the driving force behind innovation and the technological transformation the 'Information Age' promises. In South Africa, only 13% of graduates in those fields are women, despite South Africa being ranked 19th out of 144 countries in the 2017 Global Gender Gap Report.

Thabo Seshoka is the recently appointed Assistant Art Curator for Absa. He is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Absa Gallery, while concurrently curating one of the largest Corporate Art Collections globally. His present achievements include being appointed acting chief curator and head of a museum and enrolling for a PhD, both at the ripe old age of 23.

CAPE TOWN - On February 1, 1978, Roy Cokayne stepped into the offices of the Pretoria News, with an honours in journalism from Rhodes University in the bag. Four decades later, he’s Business Report’s most seasoned reporter, specialising in property, motoring and construction.

Mail & Guardian freelance journalist Sarah Wild won the gold award at the 2017 international AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards. In a moving series on forensic science and the quest to identify hundreds of unidentified dead who pass each year through the mortuaries of a single province in South Africa, Sarah Wild told the stories of both the professionals trying to improve the identification process and the families seeking to know what happened to their loved ones.

EE Publishers is pleased to advise that Pierre Potgieter has been appointed as the editor of PositionIT magazine with effect from 13 November 2017. He has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from Rhodes University, and has been with EE Publishers since 2013 in the position of assistant editor of PositionIT.

Wesgro, Cape Town and the Western Cape's official Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, is pleased to announce the appointment of Palesa Morudu and John van Rooyen to the Agency's board. In terms of the Western Cape Investment and Trade Promotion Agency Law, 1996, Wesgro is governed by a board - with directors representing both the public and private sector of the province.

A grand prize of R120,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Silicon Valley in the US has been awarded to Rhodes University graduate Bandile Dlabantu whose Mobile Fly Farm was announced as the winning innovation in the 2017 Global Cleantech Innovation Programme in South Africa (GCIP-SA).