Ray Hartley is the Research Director of the Brenthurst Foundation. Ray has a postgraduate honours degree from Rhodes University where he studied African politics and journalism.

Ray was an anti-apartheid activist in the United Democratic Front while serving on the executive of the National Union of South African Students.

He later worked for the Human Awareness Programme, an NGO which provided training and advice to activists. He then worked as an administrator in the Codesa constitutional negotiations that ended apartheid. After a stint as the boxing correspondent of the then Weekly Mail, he joined Business Day and then the Sunday Times. He covered the Nelson Mandela presidency, travelling the world with him and witnessing the birth of the new, democratic South Africa.

He has edited several prominent South African newspapers and online publications, including the Sunday Times, The Times, Rand Daily Mail and BusinessLIVE.

Ray is the author of Ragged Glory: The rainbow nation in black and white, which tells the story of the first two turbulent decades of democracy in South Africa. He wrote The Big Fix: How South Africa stole the 2010 World Cup and more recently _Ramaphosa: The Man Who Would be King. Ray also authored chapters in Better Choices and In The Name of the People

Prof Soko teaches International Business and Strategy at Wits Business School, and is a former Director of UCT Graduate School of Business.

He holds a BSoc Sci degree from the University of Cape Town, an MA in International Studies from the University of Stellenbosch, as well as an MA and a Doctorate in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. His doctoral thesis examined the political economy of trade policy reform in post-apartheid South Africa.

He was previously employed by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa as a researcher on parliamentary affairs, monitoring and preparing reports on the work of parliamentary committees in South Africa's first democratic national legislature.

He also worked as researcher to the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Foreign Affairs, and Public Enterprises in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). This was followed by his appointment as Head of Policy and Legislation in the NCOP, where he oversaw and coordinated the work of committee researchers.

Professor Soko is a member of the editorial boards of Global Governance, Journal of Common Market Studies and AfricaGrowth Agenda. He is a research associate of the South African Institute of International Affairs as well as the Institute of Global Dialogue. He has served as a member of the Evian Group’s Council of Global Thought Leaders and the Department of Trade and Industry’s Trade Reference Group.

He is a member of the advisory board of Namibia Business School, and has previously chaired the board of Inyathelo (The South African Institute of Advancement). He also formerly chaired a working group on education and employment under the auspices of the Africa Germany Partnership, an initiative of the former President of the Federal Republic of Germany Horst Köhler. And he was a member of the Warwick Commission on The Future of the Multilateral Trading System.

Professor Soko’s research interests include: international business and strategy; trade and investment; economic diplomacy; emerging markets; regional integration with specific reference to Southern Africa; entrepreneurship; and business-government relations in South Africa.

Facilitator

Lorraine Sithole (MBA) is the founder and festival director of the Gauteng International Book Festival. She was longlisted for the 2017 Sol Plaatje European Union Award, and has contributed to BLACK TAX: BURDEN OR UBUNTU edited by Niq Mhlongo, and WHEN SECRETS BECOME STORIES, WOMEN SPEAK OUT edited by Sue Nyathi.

Sithole is the current Chairperson of the International Board on Books For Young People (South Africa), and through her love of reading for PLEASURE - started a book club, BookWorms Book Club, established in 2011 which has generated over four hundred thousand rands in sustainable community-based programmes, over 12 years.

Sithole is driven by a passion for literacy and literature; she has curated and successfully implemented book-based events, and activated programmes in communities in Alexandra, Soweto, Mamelodi and Vosloorus.

Her motto, "I do what I love, and love what I do - it never feels like work" stems from a philosophy of "ONCE A READER, ALWAYS A READER".