Dr Miriam Altman

A strategist, social activist, and economist, for many years at the forefront of thinking about employment and isnow exercised with how countries become ‘unstuck’ and get activated.

She is a Commissioner in the National Planning Commission. In the first term, Miriam was a contributor to SA’sfirst National Development Plan. In this second term, she leads work on the economy, digital readiness, SOEperformance and on education.

As a Director at Altman Advisory, she advises governments and companies in their economic and commercialstrategies. She has been engaged in African market development for leading Chinese and Indian companies ine-commerce, education technology, electrical hardware and communications. Miriam convenes a top leadershipgroup to develop and drive a China Business Strategy for SA. She recently led the team that developed theTourism Business Council of SA’s sector growth strategy, which its board adopted and was announced in thePresident’s Feb and June 2019 SONAs. This strategy seeks to double tourism by 2030 aiming to generate 2 millionjobs and significant industrial multipliers. The new targets seek to attract 1.9 million Chinese tourists to SA by2030. She mentors and invests in digital and social enterprises at points of inflection.

As Chief of Strategy and Regulatory Affairs for the Telkom Group from 2013-2016, she crafted and orchestratedits turnaround from a company in decline to one with sustained improvements in company financials, regulatorymatters, customer service and market repositioning.

Miriam was Executive Director at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa from 2002 to 2013. The“Employment Scenarios” was her flagship. This drew leaders from government, the private sector, labour andacademia together over a period of years to define a vision and practical strategies to address extremely highunemployment in South Africa.

Passionate about the next generation, she recently launched YANDiSA in partnership with enke-Make YourMark. YANDiSA aims to build the capacity of elected high school leaders to drive constructive institutionalchange starting with improving education outcomes in their own schools.

Miriam has a BA in economics from McGill University, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a PhD ineconomics from the University of Manchester. She is a 4IR Professor of Practice at UJ, Adjunct Professor at UCT,and is associated with the Center for Emerging Markets at CEIBS in Shanghai, and at Tsinghua and FudanUniversity. Miriam has produced more than 100 publications and her work can be found at www.miriamaltman.com