1979

Joined Bradlows, a national retail furniture chain, as the manager of their Ladysmith branch. Over the next seven years, a series of promotions resulted in him being appointed Operations Director. Together with the Financial Director he shared the leadership of Bradlows with the Executive Chairman.

 

1969

Lamberti was recruited by the Tradegro Group to join their convenience grocery chain subsidiary, Jazz Stores as a director and the Managing Director of its Fairways / Frasers supermarket chains. In these roles he was part of the team that led the IPO of Jazz Stores Limited on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1987.

 

August 1988

Headhunted by Wooltru Limited and appointed managing director of the six-store, Makro chain of warehouse club outlets. This was the founding asset of Massmart, created in 1992 to pursue an aggressive growth strategy in retail and wholesale distribution of consumer goods. In the following 15 years of his stewardship, this strategy resulted in 15 major acquisitions and the opening of over 100 new stores, producing compounded annual sales and EBITA growth of 23% and 42% respectively. By 2007, as Africa’s third largest retailer of consumer goods, and the leader in general merchandise, home improvement, liquor and wholesale food, Massmart Limited employed 25 000 people operating 238 stores in 13 countries on a sub-Saharan footprint of 1.35 million square meters.

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1999

Massmart won the South African Non-listed Company Award prior to its listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on the 4th July 2000. In 2006, Massmart Limited 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 Limited 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 R34b and invited Lamberti to retain his position as independent non-executive Chairman.

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July 2008

Invited by the controlling shareholders to become CEO and a major shareholder of Transaction Capital, a non-deposit taking financial services group active in specialised lending, credit services and payment services. During his tenure a turnaround and rationalisation strategy resulted in assets, income, and headline earnings each growing over 300% and the company being listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on 7th June 2012. In the financial year ending September 2013 Transaction Capital Limited employed 5400 people and generated revenue and headline earnings of R4.6 billion and R545 million respectively, resulting in a market value of R4.1b.

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March 2014

Recruited as CEO of Imperial Holdings Limited, a conglomerate focussed mainly on the logistics and vehicle 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 resignation, shortly before the separate listing of the two divisions Imperial Logistics Limited and Motus Limited, the Group ranked among the top 40 companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange 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.

 

January 2018

Invited by Pravin Gordhan, the Minister of Public Enterprises to join the board of Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, the state-owned public utility that generates, transmits and distributes electricity in South Africa and the region.

 

In addition to those mentioned above, Lamberti has served on the boards of nine public companies.

 

May 2018

Following his resignation as CEO of Imperial Limited and the conclusion of his executive career, Lamberti’s energies have been dedicated to non-executive roles in education as a benefactor, director, governor, counsellor, advisor, or lecturer to several colleges and universities.

 

2021

He commenced doctoral research through the 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 by the University of Pretoria in April 2024.

 

Present
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 Chief Executives Organization, whose members are invited past leaders of YPO; a member of the Institute of Directors; past Honorary Vice President of the Institute of Marketing Management and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Academy of Management Perspectives.