Pedlar, a new Pacofs boss

 Newly appointed pacofs Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Peter Pedlar. Picture: Pacofs

Bloemfontein: Performing Arts Centre of the Free State (PACOFS) has announced Peter Pedlar as their new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Pedlar who is one of the first South Africans to become a member of the International Corporate Governance Network(ICGN), which is regarded as one of the most prestigious global Corporate Governance organizations, has been trusted to lead a top agency of the department of arts and culture with his experience of more than two decades.

Pacofs spokesperson Maseeta Makgabane, said the man who was appointed earlier this month, is bringing to the institution more than two decades wealth of experience in working at senior levels as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Chief Operating Officer (COO) and acting / deputy chief Executive officer.

She said Pedlar has a long history of working in the arts and culture industry.

“He was previously the Deputy Director-General in the joint Department of Arts, Culture, Science & Technology, responsible for Finance and Corporate Services.

He led the project to split this joint department into separate standalone Departments of Arts and Culture (DAC)and Science & Technology (DST) in 2003, he then returned briefly as CFO of DAC in 2010,” Makgabane said.

She added that the new boss has extensive experience in developing, implementing and managing an organisation’s long term strategies, financial and operational goals and objectives.

“He builds and retains high performance teams by hiring, developing and motivating staff to position an organisation for growth and enhance its reputation as a learning organization.

He also demonstrates exceptional and professional communication skills at all levels and has great vision in creating and developing systems, controls and procedures,” Makgabane said.

She praised him while in his capacity as a Deputy Director-General in DST, he successfully secured funding in 2005 for South African’s bid to host the annual ICGN meeting in South Africa, which was subsequently held in Cape Town in 2007.

“His corporate governance activism received international recognition from the OECD who invited him to Paris to assist them in writing the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of SOEs which was first published in 2005.

He is a man seasoned in the art of management and knows what it takes to deliver in the private, parastatal and public spheres, having worked in diverse sectors such as arts & culture, manufacturing, IT, financial services and research,” said Makgabane adding that there is no doubt that he will always strive to take PACOFS to loftier heights while ensuring that the institution functions optimally.

Who is Pedler?

He is a highly qualified Accountant and boasts with university degrees: Hons B (B& A) University of Stellenbosch (USB), B.Com, University of the Western Cape and is in the process of completing his Masters in Management of ICT (Policy and Regulation) with Wits Business School.

He also possesses various certificates, to mention but a few, Senior Executive Programme received from Harvard/ Wits Business Schools, Banking Supervision from the World Bank/Federal Reserve (1990) and Treasury Management from Euromoney Institute of Finance (1994), Prior to coming into his present office as the CEO this visionary and commercially astute leader was the CFO at Artscape, a position he held since 2016 until 2018 and used to pride himself on clean audits.

Becker Semela