Juandré Kruger is a former Springbok rugby player (Springbok No. 832) who earned 17 Test caps for South Africa and enjoyed a distinguished 17-year professional career at some of the world’s leading rugby clubs with over 350 first class appearances.

He represented the Blue Bulls in over 90 matches and played internationally for top European teams including Racing 92 French Champions, Northampton Saints, Scarlets and Toulon.

Following his rugby career, he transitioned into the business world. He has collaborated with leading sporting brands during his career to help develop world-class products. He now serves as the CEO of Eye Laser Clinic and The Gift of Sight Trust, combining high-performance leadership with a passion for advancing healthcare and restoring vision to those in need.

Inge Croy is the Senior Team Physiotherapist for the Stormers, where she leads all aspects of player health, injury prevention, and rehabilitation within a high-performance, elite-level rugby environment. Working across domestic and international campaigns including the URC and Champions Cup, she plays a central role in keeping players match-ready and performing at peak physical condition.

With extensive experience in sports physiotherapy and rehabilitation, Inge previously served as Team Physiotherapist for Western Province Rugby Union, supporting U21, SuperSport Challenge, and Currie Cup campaigns, as well as long-term player rehabilitation. She also co-owns Naylor and Croy Physiotherapy in Cape Town.

Alongside her clinical work, Inge has contributed to the development of the profession through mentoring junior physiotherapists and interns, and previously served as a Clinical Educator at the University of Cape Town, supervising physiotherapy students in neuromusculoskeletal practice.

Dries van Schalkwyk brings a career shaped by professional rugby, coaching, and youth development. He currently serves as Managing Trustee of the Amathube Sports Development Trust, where he leads initiatives that use sport as a vehicle to address inequality, create opportunity, and support youth development in underserved communities. His work focuses on building partnerships, driving funding strategies, and mentoring talented young players.

Dries previously coached and mentored school-level athletes at Grey High School and spent time as both a player and assistant coach with the Southern Kings, transitioning his on-field leadership into development and performance environments.

Before moving into coaching and development, he enjoyed a professional playing career in South Africa and Europe. He played for the Lions, winning the Currie Cup in 2011, and later spent six years in Italy, where he represented Zebre Rugby Club and the Italian national team, including participation in the Six Nations.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Marketing and Business Management from the University of the Free State.

Marnus Coetsee is the Founder and Prototype Engineer behind Pro’Tech Rugby, a Cape Town–based sports technology company focused on materially reducing concussion risk in rugby.

Combining a background in engineering with firsthand experience as a rugby player, Marnus set out to tackle a problem he believes has been underestimated for too long: the extreme forces involved in on-field collisions and their long-term impact on player health. Rather than iterating on existing foam-based designs, Pro’Tech Rugby was built from the ground up — reimagining what a scrum cap could be using advanced materials and energy dissipation technologies.

Since founding the company in 2024, Marnus has led the development of working prototypes that outperform incumbent products in laboratory testing, while progressing toward validation, certification, and global patent protection. His work sits at the intersection of engineering rigour, player-centred design, and entrepreneurial execution.

Driven by a belief that rugby can remain both competitive and sustainable, Marnus is focused on building technology that players will actually wear - without compromise - and on contributing to a broader shift toward meaningful innovation in contact sport safety.

Iain Banner is a global sports business entrepreneur with four decades of experience across sponsorship, event creation, and international sports development.

He began his career co-founding Sports International, a sports marketing business that secured representation for IMG in South Africa. He later co-founded the Gary Player Design Company, helping expand its golf course design business across Europe, Asia, and South Africa.

From 1994 to 2005, Iain served as Director of Sponsorship at Richemont, working directly with Chairman Johann Rupert and leading global sponsorship strategy across the group’s brands. His portfolio included major international properties in Formula 1, rugby, soccer, golf, and music, with a strong focus on event creation and brand ownership.

He co-founded the Laureus World Sports Awards and the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, launching the inaugural awards in Monaco in 2000. Since then, Sport for Good has raised over R5bn to support initiatives that use sport as a tool to help improve the lives of children worldwide. To date over 1.7m children have benefited from the work of the foundation He also co-founded the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, Scotland.

Since returning to Cape Town in 2005, Iain has built and chaired multiple ventures, including securing the rights to stage Formula E in Cape Town

In 2023 he founded Go Green Africa under which he stages Africa’s Green Economy Summit and Carbon market Africa Summit, together with his implementation partner VUKA.