Chris Blair, chief executive officer and co-founder of 21st Century (Pty) Ltd, has consulted to over 1500 organisations - both in Southern Africa and internationally. 21st Century is a leading management consultancy in Remuneration, Organisation Design, Change Management, Talent Management and People Analytics. Chris holds a BSC Chem. Eng. (University of Witwatersrand, SA), an MBA in Leadership & Sustainability (University of Cumbria, UK) and is currently studying his PhD through the University of Lancaster, UK.

Chris’ PhD has focused on the move from shareholderism to stakeholderism and the move of organisations to re-evaluating company purpose. In this original shift, the focus from financial to include non-financial measures of Environment, Society and Governance (ESG) has come to the fore and Chris is an expert in this field. He is a specialist in linking ESG measures to Executive pay both in sustainable (LTI measures) and defensive (STI measures).

Chris’ areas of specialisation include leadership and management, business risk management, strategy and policy development, ESG strategies, investment strategy, financial management, feasibility and cost benefit studies, executive remuneration and stakeholder value, performance management and human resources, and organisation development and design. He is considered to be one of South Africa's leading experts in long term incentive scheme design for both listed and unlisted companies. Chris has published numerous articles on remuneration in various journals and publications and he has appeared in the press for expert views on the subject.