The COVER Team

Tony van Niekerk

Editor at large. To be found wherever people from the industry gather. He has a special interest in the Insurance and Investment industry, having spent nearly two decades in a variety of companies and positions, mostly in product development and distribution. COVER allows him the freedom to locate the treasures of information offered by a vibrant industry and present them to the various stakeholders in an interesting yet clear format.

Having qualified as a lawyer, he started life as a prosecutor, moved on to be a lawyer and finally joined the insurance industry as a legal advisor to the Product Development team of Momentum Life. He subsequently qualified as a Certified Financial Planner and later received an MBA from GIBS.

Companies and positions:

Momentum Life – Head, Marketing Legal
Sage Life – Assistant General Manager Business Development
Absa Life – General Manager Product Development and Distribution

In his spare time, he loves eating his wife’s wonderful food, sailing whatever craft is available, restoring old boats, reading old books and talking to animals.

Kim Forbes

With a BA degree in English and Education Diploma tucked under her arm, this bibliophile strode confidently into her teaching career, only to encounter adolescent boys (only) in her first foray into the classroom. Year One: boys – 30, teacher – 0; Year Two: boys – 30, teacher – 30 … and so she was hooked. This vocation led her to many happy years in the classroom, acquiring an Honours degree and starting a school in Alexandra – thereby combining her passion for seeing South African young people empowered through education and her love of teaching English. But this zeal for learning led her to seek her own growth, and the prospect of being able to experience something of the corporate environment and acquire knowledge of the world of finance, made the offer of her current position as Assistant Editor with COVER publications irresistable. This new career path has introduced her to diverse and interesting people, a PMD from Gibs, and, best of all, a working environment which allows for personal growth and independence. A whole new world … but she is still rereading her Agatha Christie novels!

Lindi van Niekerk

Having originally trained as a teacher, Lindi spent the next two decades of her life raising two stunning kids. She is currently tasked with keeping COVER’s office administration in good order.

Lindi also trained as a Counsellor and is slowly healing the trauma in the lives of abused women, seeing clients on a pro-bono basis two days a week. She is formalising this hobby with a Masters Degree in Psychology which she hopes to be finishing soon.

Her love of people has also led her to an active interest in feeding as many people as possible with Italian cooking – you would have to travel to Italy to find food as authentic as hers (she is a second generation South African Italian, after all).

Wesley Chipps

Wesley Chips

Born in Johannesburg, nearly a quarter of a century ago, he moved to Cape Town in 2006 to escape the concrete jungle and its wild and dangerous inhabitants – which he was beginning to resemble too much. After a few attempts at work, including short stints at CD and DVD stores, waiting tables and even office automation sales, an offer was made to study at Concept Interactive College at Rosebank, Cape Town, by his kind and generous father. Later, an offer was made by the same man to join his company to take over from the previous designer in 2007, and he has worked there since.

Since moving to Cape Town, activities like hiking, running and surfing are among the chief activities he has taken up in order to make the most of the change of scenery. The first two mentioned became much safer upon arrival in Cape Town; the last mentioned became possible.

He is a keen guitarist and has been playing for a number of years, recently adding vocal training to his list of activities in the hope of being able to sing and play guitar at the same time. Progress is slow in this regard.

His job duties include designing (including layout) COVER and The Financial Planner, designing adverts and advertorial pieces for companies upon their request, and company profiles and features.

He can be contacted on wesley@cover.co.za

Jenna Chipps

Grew up as a gorgeous girl crossed with the Duracell bunny. She was known to scale walls and camp on rooftops until she decided that it was time to turn into a princess. As a princess, she quickly took over the kingdom and ruled with an iron fist (decorated with a few feathers and jewels). She currently runs the COVER subscription division with year planners, calendars, data sheets and deadlines. She recently decided to share her knowledge with the world and is studying the art of imparting knowledge to children.

In her spare time, she runs the local church youth group and spends time with her dog on the beach and in the surf. Jenna’s dream is to make sure every child receives quality education and become a balanced adult.

Carroll Foster

Born and raised in San Antonio Texas, Carroll received a BCom degree in Business Administration & Marketing from Trinity University. She then proceeded to spend the next 25 years in the music industry both as a performer and a producer. From 2004-2010 Carroll was General Manager of Vineyard Music SA where she produced several internationally released CDs and travelled throughout Africa training musicians. She is married and has two amazing adult offspring. Her husband, Alan, has been involved in the Financial Services industry and is now her official live-in tutor in all things insurance related.

Natasha de Beer

Natasha De Beer

Natasha discovered her passion for the industry while doing a bridging course at Varsity College, in order to be able to study B-com Marketing. She soon changed to B-com Financial Management.

She started off working at an Accounting firm and from there moved to short-term insurance at PSG Konsult. She relocated to Cape Town in 2008 and joined PSG in Tygervalley for a year, where after she became website administrator at COVER. She currently enjoys a very relaxed lifestyle, working from home in the lovely area of Simonstown. Natasha enjoys ice skating, dancing and have a love affair with shoes.

She is currently doing NQF level 4 through PSG Academy and her B-com degree through UNISA. She believes that her enthusiasm and passion for the financial and insurance industry will keep her motivated and successful in this industry for quite some time to come.