About
In 2018 Mark Lamberti (74), a citizen of South Africa and Italy, transitioned from a 33-year executive career as CEO or chairman of various private and public companies to a plural portfolio of non-executive commercial and philanthropic assignments, while guiding his family office as chairman of Lamberti Holdings.
In 2021 he commenced academic research through the University of Pretoria, Gordon Institute of Business Science, pursuant to a Doctorate in Business Administration. This sharpened his focus on education as a benefactor, director, governor, counsellor, advisor, or lecturer to several colleges and universities, while enabling participation in mainstream scholarship following the conferment of his doctorate in April 2024.
From 1st March 2014 until 30th April 2018 Mark was the CEO of Imperial Holdings Limited, a conglomerate focussed mainly on the logistics (Imperial Logistics) and vehicle (Motus) value chains, mainly in sub–Saharan Africa and the Eurozone. His leadership of a turnaround initiative included the disposal of 44 companies and 55 properties realising R5.7b, the investment of R5.4b in the acquisition of 17 companies, the restructuring of five operating divisions into two, and changes to the roles or reporting lines of 23 of the 35 most senior executives in the Group. At the time of his retirement, shortly before the separate listing of the two divisions, the Group ranked among the top 40 companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), with 48 000 employees generating revenues of R128 billion and profits before tax of R5.1 billion, in 39 countries on five continents. During his tenure the market value of Imperial increased from R35 billion to R55 billion.
From 1st July 2008 until 15th January 2014 Lamberti was the CEO and a major shareholder of Transaction Capital Limited, a non-deposit taking financial services group active in specialised lending, credit services and payment services. During his tenure assets, income, and headline earnings each grew over 300%. Ten operating entities were closed or disposed of, four acquired and five merged, and the company was listed on the JSE on 7th June 2012. In the financial year ending September 2013 Transaction Capital employed 5400 people and generated revenue and headline earnings of R4.6 billion and R545 million respectively. He served as non-executive chairman until the 4th March 2014 when he resigned to devote his attention exclusively to Imperial Holdings Limited.
For the same reason on the 10th April 2014, Lamberti resigned as non-executive chairman of Massmart Holdings Limited, a position he assumed on the 1st July 2007 after serving for almost 19 years as founder, architect, largest private shareholder and CEO. Massmart’s founding asset was the loss making six-store, R350m sales per annum Makro chain of warehouse club outlets. Lamberti was appointed managing director of Makro in August 1988 and in 1992 he founded Massmart to pursue an aggressive organic and acquisitive growth strategy in high-volume, low margin, low expense, retail and wholesale consumer goods distribution. Fifteen major acquisitions and the opening of over 100 new stores, made Massmart Africa’s second largest retailer of consumer goods and the leader in general merchandise, home improvement, liquor, and wholesale food, with 25 000 employees generating sales of R35 billion through a 238-store footprint in 15 African countries. During his stewardship Massmart’s sales and EBITA growth compounded annually at 23% and 42% respectively.
In 1999 Massmart won the South African Non-listed Company Award prior to its listing on the JSE on the 4th July 2000. In 2007, Massmart was ranked by Deloitte as 140th of the 250 largest retailers in the world, of which it was the 15th fastest growing over the previous five years. Massmart was the Financial Mail Top Company of 2008. In June 2011, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, acquired a 51% controlling interest in Massmart at an enterprise value of R34 billion and invited Lamberti to retain his position as non-executive chairman.
To enhance the interface between business and the South African government, Lamberti served for 14 years as an executive committee member and director of Business Leadership South Africa, an organisation representing the interests of South Africa’s 70 largest corporations. In addition, he served as Chairman of both the Consumer Goods Council, an organisation dedicated to promoting efficiencies in the food manufacturing and retail sectors, and Business Against Crime South Africa, an organisation committed to assisting the South African government with crime reduction, by bringing business acumen, skills, and resources to bear on the criminal justice system. Until April 2018 he was a trustee and executive committee member of the National Education Collaboration Trust, a government, business, labour, and civil society initiative to enhance public education.
Lamberti’s abiding interest in education led to his past involvement with several educational institutions, notably the University of South Africa, St. Augustine’s University, Hilton College, the WITS Business School as both an Adjunct Professor of Business Administration and chairman of its Advisory Board, and a member of the Young Presidents Organisation (YPO) where he served on the International Board from 1993 to 1998. He is currently the chair of the Lamberti Tertiary Education Foundation Trust (his family foundation which has assisted over 200 underprivileged students to complete their tertiary education), a shareholder and director of the Little Ashford chain of pre-schools, a director of Future Nation Schools, a governor of the WITS Foundation, a member of the Board of Advisors of the Academy of Management Perspectives, and a member of the Chief Executives Organization, whose members are invited past leaders of YPO.
Mark holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree (University of South Africa ’84), and a Master of Business Administration degree (University of the Witwatersrand ’87) for which he completed a thesis on Retail Store Location. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration where he has attended the annual YPO/CEO Presidents Seminar every year since 1993, achieving the Presidents Programme in Leadership (PPL) qualification in 2001. In 2021 he embarked on doctoral research through the University of Pretoria, Gordon Institute of Business Science. His thesis entitled “Exploring post-retirement role identity emergence in public company CEOs” led to the degree of Doctor of Business Administration being conferred on him in April 2024.
Lamberti’s achievements have been widely acknowledged throughout his career. In 1984 he won the Institute of Marketing Management, Raymond Ackerman Marketing Director of the Year Award and in 1987 the Amrel Prize for the best MBA. student in Retail Marketing at the Wits Business School. In 2001 he was the winner of the Ernst & Young South Africa’s Best Entrepreneur Award and one of 22 finalists in the 2001 Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur competition. He was also the 2001 winner of the Institute of Marketing Management’s Marketer of the Year Award. In 2004 he was named the Italian-South African Businessman of the Year by the Italian South African Chamber of Commerce. In 2006 he was chosen by the CEOs of all South Africa’s listed companies as one of 5 finalists in the “Moneyweb CEO’s CEO of the Year”. In 2012 he received the prestigious Wits Business School Management Excellence Award for demonstrating ethical leadership, managerial excellence, and societal relevance throughout a distinguished career. In 2013 he was designated a Chartered Director, CD(SA), by the Institute of Directors based on his public record and established status as a director. In 2016 he was awarded the Lifetime Achiever for Leadership citation by Regenesys University. In 2017 he was presented with the Lifetime Leadership Excellence award by the Small Business Institute of South Africa. He is a member of the Institute of Directors, a past Honorary Vice President of the Institute of Marketing Management. From 2005 to 2022 he held a helicopter Private Pilot Licence with night rating.
Including those mentioned above, Lamberti has acquired extensive experience as a director of 12 public companies, having served as an executive director of Bradlows Limited (’80 – ’86, retail furniture chain), Jazz Stores Limited (’86 – ’88, retail supermarket chain) and Wooltru Limited (’90 – ’02, retail conglomerate), and as a non-executive director of Datatec Limited (’97 – ’02, a global network technology and services group), Primedia Limited (’93 – ’00, an integrated media and communications group), Allied Electronics Corporation Limited (’05 – ‘08, a leading South African based technology group), Telkom SA Limited (’07 – ‘08, South Africa’s leading fixed-line voice and data provider) and Mix Telematics Limited (’14 – ’17 fleet telematics software supplier). At the request of the Minister of Public Enterprises he served briefly on the board of Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, South Africa’s electricity public utility, resigning in response to political interference.
This endeavour has been inspired and supported by his late wife Annette and their children Julia (44) and David (41), and punctuated by leisure time as a pianist, growing olives on a small farm in Chianti, Tuscany, and revelling in the joy of three grandchildren.