Sandra Van Der Merwe is Extraordinary Professor at GIBS, Johannesburg; Visiting Professor at Imperial College, London and Professor at the European School of Management & Technology, Berlin & Cologne, Germany. She consults globally on customer transformation and growth, working with boards and senior managers to transform their enterprises to define and dominate new strategic arenas.
Sandra was at Imperial College Business School at the University of London from 1996 to 2005 as Professor of Management and since then has been a Visiting Professor on several executive programmes. For a decade prior to that she was Professor of Marketing and International Services at IMD Lausanne, Switzerland.
During the 70s and 80s she was Professor of Marketing at the Graduate School of Business, University of the Witwatersrand, a Senior Lecturer at the Graduate School of Business, University of Stellenbosch and a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Business Science, University of Cape Town.
Sandra has taught on a variety of MBA and senior executive programmes at many business schools including Ashridge Management College (UK), University of California (Berkeley, USA), Bradford Business School (UK), Cranfield School of Management (UK), Columbia University (New York), European School of Management and Technology (Germany), INSEAD Business School (France), EADA (Spain), International Management Institute (Geneva), International Marketing Institute (Australia), London Business School (UK), Manchester Business School (UK), Templeton College of Oxford University (UK), Vrije University (Netherlands), Wilfred Laurier (Canada), University of Istanbul (Turkey) and GIBS (South Africa).
She holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Cape Town, an MBA from the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town and a Doctorate in Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business, University of Stellenbosch.
During her long and successful career Sandra has published widely and her work has been translated into Japanese, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Czech, Danish and Russian. She is the recipient of numerous awards. Her consulting work focuses on the implementation of customer centricity and transformational strategies to create new wealth and prosperity.
Sandra is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce and is listed in ‘Who’s Who’ and ‘International Who’s Who of Intellectuals’. Throughout her career she has taken a keen interest in women and business, mentoring and monitoring the progress and success of women both as business owners and as executives. She is currently on the board of the International Women’s Forum (SA), a Trustee for the Wendy Appelbaum Foundation and on the BBoard of Trustees for the Handspring Trust for Puppetry Art.
