Board Members Profiles

Mr Misheck Samson Kachere is the Chairperson of the SIRDC Board. He is a well-known industrialist and business executive. Mr Kachere holds a BSc degree majoring in Chemistry and Physics as well as a Masters in Business Leadership degree. He also undertook several management development training courses locally and abroad.

His work experience include stints at Zisco Steel and Trojan Nickel Mine where he worked as Assistant Chief Chemist and Analytical Chemist, respectively.

Mr Kachere joined Chemplex Corporation in 1983 and rose through the corporate ladder to assume the position of Group Chief Executive Officer in February 2008. Mr Kachere retired from Chemplex Corporation at the end February 2017 after 34 years of service. He has had Board Directorships at Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company, Sable Chemical Industries, Dyno-Nobel Zimbabwe, Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society.

Mr Kachere also served on the 2003-2005 SIRDC Board. His managerial skills were recognised by the Zimbabwe Institute of Management when he won the Private Sector Manager of the Year Award for 2008. Mr Kachere has written and presented more than twenty papers on the strategy, policy, production, marketing relating to agriculture and fertilizers at national and international conferences and workshops.

His membership of professional bodies include Zimbabwe Institute of Management, Royal Chemistry Society, London Institute of Industrial Managers and the Institute of Directors. Mr Kachere is a highly regarded expert in the fertilizer industry in the SADC region.

Engineer Alois F M Gowo holds B Sc and M Sc degrees in civil engineering. His area of specialty is structural engineering. He is a Fellow of the Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers. His key competency areas include general management of engineering and manufacturing companies, engineering project management as well as strategic planning and implementation.

His work experience includes stints as Structural Engineer in Massachusetts, USA. Engineer Gowo joined Zisco Steel in 1984 as a Civil Engineer, then Manager Project and Development rising to become its Group Chief Executive in 2008, a position he holds to date.

Engineer Gowo has also gone into farming.

Dr Welbourne Ndabaningi Madzima is a former Director of Veterinary Services from 2003 to 2005. He is currently an independent Livestock and Veterinary Consultant.

From 2005 to 2009 he was Project Manager on the SADC/EU Promotion of Regional Integration in the SADC Livestock Sector Project in Gaborone, Botswana. Thereafter, from 2011 to 2014 he was Technical Adviser in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development.

Dr Madzima holds a B Sc (Hons) degree in Agriculture, Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and an M Phil degree in Veterinary Epidemiology. His key competency areas developed during 25 years of employment in the Department of Veterinary Services include: Epidemiological Disease Control, Project Management and Monitoring, as well as Development of Livestock Information Management Systems in Animal Production & Health, and Livestock Marketing and Trade.

Dr Madzima also attended professional development trainings in Foot-and-Mouth Disease Diagnosis and Control, Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics in Livestock Development, Management of Information in Veterinary and Livestock Services as well as Risk Analysis in Animal Health. He also undertook study tours to Veterinary Services in Australia and Veterinary Diagnostic and Toxicology Laboratories in the USA.

Dr Madzima is registered with the Council of Veterinary Surgeons of Zimbabwe and is a member of the Zimbabwe Veterinary Association. He has also been a Board member of several organisations, including the Cold Storage Company, Livestock Development Trust, Agricultural Committee of the Research Council of Zimbabwe and the Veterinary Committee of the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe.

Professor David Jambgwa Simbi is the incumbent Vice Chancellor of Chinhoyi University of Technology since 2007.

He has previously worked for the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company as the Production and Engineering Executive Manager and the University of Zimbabwe where he attained his professorship in materials processing and engineering.

Professor Simbi holds a B Sc (Hon) degree in Applied Chemistry and a Ph D in Metallurgy (specialising in Corrosion Science and Engineering) from the Universities of Portsmouth (formerly Portsmouth Polytechnic) and Leeds, respectively.

He has extensively published research articles on extractive metallurgy and materials engineering in reputable international journals. Professor Simbi is a Fellow of the Institute of Corrosion (UK) and the Zimbabwe Academy of Sciences.

He is also a member of the Institute of Mining, Metals and Materials, Society of Mining Professors and a Chartered Engineer of the Engineering Council (UK).

Professor Simbi is or has served several organisations as a Board Member and these include: International Corrosion Council, Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers Council, Zim-China Wanjin Joint Venture Company, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences and Pan African Minerals University of Science and Technology Foundation Committees to mention but a few.

Eng. Thankful Musukutwa is a qualified Engineer. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration degree. He is a proven leader with engineering and management skills gained through working for the Office of the President and Cabinet (Permanent Secretary, Projects), Ministry of Mines and Mining Development (Permanent Secretary),

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Divisional Chief, Mining Sector Development), Bindura Nickel Mine (Senior Projects Engineer), The Wattle Company (Maintenance Engineer), Nyanga Pine, BHP Minerals Zimbabwe (Maintenance Engineer), Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Plant Engineer) over the past thirty years.

In the recent past, Mr Musukutwa was the General Manager of AceFoam, a manufacturer of foam rubber. He has been a Board member of several companies including ART Corporation, TRANSLOAD Bio Diesel, Tuli Coal and the Zimbabwe School of Mines.

Mrs Gloria Zvaravanhu is a Chartered Accountant and is the immediate past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Zimbabwe. She has over 15 years’ experience in financial management, 10 of which are at Executive Management level.

She is the General Manager for Corporate Services at NicozDiamond Insurance Limited and is an alumna of the Fortune 500 Global women mentoring program where she is being mentored by one of the top 50 business leaders in USA.

She is the initiator and Chairperson of the Women Chartered Accountants Network (WeCAN) in Zimbabwe.

Mrs Zvaravanhu holds a Bachelor of Accountancy degree from Rhodes University, South Africa and a Master in Business Leadership degree from the University of South Africa. She also holds a Diploma in short-term insurance studies. She is currently pursuing an LLM degree in International Business Law with the University of Cumbria, UK.
She sits on various company Boards in Zimbabwe and Mozambique and chairs the Chengetedzayi Depository Company and is Deputy Chairperson of the Industrial Development Corporation Zimbabwe.

Dr Leonard Madzingaidzo is the Chief Executive Officer of SIRDC since 1 July 2023. Prior to this appointment, Dr Madzingaidzo was the Executive Director – Technical, superintending over the work programmes of the 12 SIRDC research institutes. He joined SIRDC in February 2000 as a Research Scientist in the Biotechnology Research Institute and assumed the position of Acting Director of the Institute from May 2002 until September 2003. Dr Madzingaidzo was then appointed substantive Director of the newly established Food and Biomedical Technology Institute in March 2003, and briefly led two research institutes, concurrently. In January 2005, he was elevated to the position of Executive Director – Technical.

Before joining SIRDC, Dr Madzingaidzo had working stints namely, at the Dairy Marketing Board (now Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited), Standards Association of Zimbabwe and Cairns Foods Limited. Over the years, he has gained valuable experience in Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, Research and Development, Technology Transfer, Commercialisation, and
Management of Intellectual Property Assets. An accomplished leader and scholar, Dr Madzingaidzo holds a Bachelor of Technology (Hons) degree in Applied Biology and Biochemistry (1 st Class) from the University of
Zimbabwe (UZ) obtained in 1992; MSc in Biotechnology (Merit) from UZ obtained in 1994; and PhD in Biotechnology and Biochemical Technology (Suma Cum Laude) from the Vienna University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (BOKU) Austria, obtained in 1999. He is a beneficiary of Academic Scholarships from the Government of Zimbabwe; The Netherlands:

Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS) for MSc Studies at UZ and Free University of Amsterdam; and the Austrian Government through the Austrian Academic Exchange Service (OeAD) for Doctorate studies at BOKU and Vienna University of Technology. Dr Madzingaidzo is currently a board member of the Standards Association of Zimbabwe
and sits on the Advisory Board of the Korea Partnership for Innovation in Agriculture (KOPIA). He has previously served as Chairman of the Science and Technology Advisory Committee of the Korea-Africa Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI) and as Vice Chairman of the Trade Measures Board under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Dr Madzingaidzo is a former member of the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) and Women’s University in Africa (WUA), University Councils.