College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2020 66 in digital policy platforms policy briefs. An expert panel on the regulation of digital platforms for academic development was hosted in the first quarter of the year and it was well attended by an important policy maker in that space. Dr Stephen Cinelli (an expert in the 4IR space of financial markets) and Dr Miriam Altman (an expert in the 4IR space of new economic development strategies) joined the School as a Professors of Practice. sTaff aChievemenTs • Dr Thando Vilakazi was appointed as a member of the Competition Tribunal of South Africa. • Dr Miriam Altman serves in the National Development steering committee and she is also the convenor of the important COVID-19 Economist Group. This group brings together a network of top policymakers and financial economists to design strategies to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. • Prof Talita Greyling developed a Happiness Index for South Africa (the first of its kind on the African continent) and the results are widely published/discussed on media platforms (TV, radio, printed media, and social media). • Prof Marius Venter has been appointed as a member of the Pan-African Scientific Research Council. He still serves as the Deputy Chairperson of the Small Enterprise Development Agency and on the advisory committee of the Ministerial Committee in respect of Entrepreneurial Universities. He is the Director for PASCAL Africa. Prof Venter played an important part in CENLED being awarded a R5 million contract from the British Council to lead a presidential project on the establishment of a doctoral training academy in partnership with the University of Glasgow. Prof Venter was awarded the certification of ‘Professional Municipal Manager’ by the Institute of Local Government Management. Dr Thando Vilakazi Prof Talita Greyling Dr Miriam Altman Prof Marius Venter
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