Profile

Jacques van Wyk
Chief Operating Officer

Jacques van Wyk was appointed COO of Ricoh SA in September 2014 where he is responsible for rolling out the strategy for Ricoh to become a services-led organisation and leading Ricoh's operational relationships with its clients and customers. He was formerly Executive General Manager of Ricoh SA's Direct and Indirect Channel Operations where he led Ricoh's relationships with its clients and customers in both operations and maintained strategic focus on indirect channel alignment, development and expansion. Van Wyk joined Ricoh SA in 2008 as the Executive General Manager of Indirect Operations for five years and eight months during which time he was responsible for winning Ricoh South Africa's Best Contribution to IT Distribution Channel Development 2013 and the Sales Director Award - Ricoh Best manager for 2010 and 2011. He has more than 22 years experience in the document management and imaging industry that extends back to 1993.

Robert Janssen
Director: Direct Sales Operations

Robert Janssen is Director of Direct Sales Operations at Ricoh SA responsible for sales activities, the branches of Cape Town, Durban, Vaal and Johannesburg, as well as the Enterprise Services Group. He joins the company in March 2015 from Ricoh International BV based in Amstelveen in Netherlands where he was Managed Document Services Sales Manager. Janssen joined the Ricoh Group in 2008 when it acquired IKON, where he worked as Global Account Relationship Executive and was responsible for day-to-day relationships within FG500 accounts. He became Sales Manager of Ricoh International in December 2011. Janssen has a degree in digital communication and specialises in helping customers successfully implement Ricoh service offerings by aligning people, processes and technology.

David Hallas
Director: Indirect Sales Operations

David Hallas is Director of Indirect Channel Operations at Ricoh SA where he leads the expansion strategy that takes Ricoh SA into sub-Saharan Africa. He is also responsible for 24 business partners and operations and activities in 11 countries in Southern Africa. Hallas believes that Ricoh's strong international R&D capabilities and facilities, manufacturing presses and policies, and globally competitive supply chain system, make the company a favourable contender in the emerging African economy. He joined the business in 2014 to take the helm of Indirect Operations left vacant by Jacques van Wyk. He was previously acting Managing Director of Nashua Limited and has been active in the document management and imaging industry since 1991 during which times he has occupied various product, marketing and sales positions.

Lauren Timmer-Somer
Head of Communication Technology Services and Head of Marketing and Brand Communications at Ricoh SA

Lauren Timmer-Somer’s decade of international experience and marketing background coupled with her extensive experience of the new way of working and innovation in organisations, positions Timmer-Somer for strident success in the burgeoning Southern Africa market. Lauren joined Ricoh Netherlands, in July 2014. Two years later she was appointed as Head of Communication Services and Head of Marketing and Brand Communications for Ricoh South Africa. She has more than ten years of marketing and commercial experience and has been focussing on helping companies grow to the next level when it comes to the new ICT reality. She also offers local customers extensive experience, future-proofing their operations through digitalisation. She has led many European operations through the shift from paper to paperless and from traditional IT to the mobile workplace, considering the human, economical, and technology factors. Lauren Timmer-Somer has a business degree and specializes in helping companies grow to the next level and achieve even better results with the use of new ICT technology. With her marketing background she is passionate and can be described as an “out of the box thinker” responsible for the brand development, market interaction, demand generation, analytics, marcom operations and creating new processes where necessary. Before joining Ricoh she previously built her portfolio of experience with international organisations such as IBM, Thalys, and Hiscox, among others in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Teresa Badenhorst
HR director of Ricoh SA

Teresa Badenhorst, HR director of Ricoh SA, has nearly two decades of experience at the helm of employee operations for some of South Africa’s premiere IT organisations. Badenhorst joined Ricoh SA in her current position in April 2016. She is responsible for supporting the organisation’s strategic goals through employee-led operational excellence focused on customer centricity. HR is a strategic partner to the business enabling organisational change and effectiveness. It ensures highly competent and engaged talent to achieve Ricoh’s strategic goals through a culture of excellence and innovation that places customers first and foremost. Badenhorst builds on Ricoh’s strong people-first ethos that incorporates diversity in the workforce that helps the organisation innovate advanced solutions. The HR team promotes the company’s environment conducive to retaining key personnel and takes a long-term view to sustainable human capital development. Importance is placed on learning and development as the cornerstone of Ricoh SA’s transformation programme in a knowledge-based economy. Teresa was formerly HR director of Altech Autopage where she led the team for nearly five years. Prior to that she was HR director at Nashua Mobile, having joined from Gijima AST Group following nine years of grounding experience in her role. She believes reputation is perception based on what employees say and how they act, the same for customers, and the media. Delivering on the brand promise is one of the most effective means to improve reputation. For her the differentiator in today’s though economy are: people, their competence and their behaviour.

Jessie Makhudu
Transformation executive at Ricoh SA

Jessie Makhudu is Transformation executive at Ricoh SA. She is an information officer with extensive knowledge in broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) honed over nine years of experience at three of the country’s largest organisations. Makhudu joined Ricoh SA in 2017 from Barloworld Handling where she was Transformation manager and gained experience in creating and implementing B-BBEE strategies, integration of B-BBEE strategic objectives for sustainable value, managing annual B-BBEE verifications, and managing and implementing enterprise development and socio-economic development projects. She has an honours degree and B-BBEE management development programme qualification from WITS and has nine years of experience handling transformation at three other enterprises. “My role will be to develop and implement the transformation strategy for Ricoh SA, which in essence will be informed by business objectives.” Her role at Ricoh is to develop and implement the transformation strategy for Ricoh SA that will, in essence, be informed by business objectives. Makhudu collaborates with executives at Ricoh SA to facilitate positive empowerment. She also collaborates with expert consultants, agencies, and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in her drive to help Ricoh become a superior B-BBEE contributor.

Herman Meyer
National Customer Services Manager at Ricoh SA

Herman Meyer is the National Customer Services Manager for Ricoh SA. He offers the role nearly two decades of experience gained in his climb through the ranks during which he became a cut-sheet specialist, trainer, and engineer. Some highlights of his career include leading the team to Best Overall Support and Performance in Production Print, Ricoh Europe Service Awards FY2014, and was named MD’s Employee of the Year 2015. Meyer has been at Ricoh SA for more than 12 years. He became National Customer Services Manager in 2014, promoted from Regional Technical Manager after an 18-month stint as Dealer Technical Manager responsible for Ricoh SA’s business partners across the country. Prior to that he was a cut-sheet product specialist on both mono and colour, and he joined the organisation as a production print engineer in 2005, becoming a supervisor in 2006. Meyer is today responsible for Ricoh’s direct service operations across South Africa, including the contact centre, help desk, and has key strategic responsibilities in directing the service operations at Ricoh SA. Meyer steers a services organisation leaner and keener than any previous time in its formidable South African history as it embraces a disrupted world and evolving customer requirements.