Our Board Members

Thabo is the COO for the Africa region at Experian and has a career spanning five years spent in the Packaging Industry and the last two decades in the Credit Industry. Having graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Cape Town, with an Accounting and Economics Major, Thabo served in various financial roles, before transitioning into the business commercial operations. Working with people, Thabo is committed to leading through delivery and believes in answering the question “what’s the art of the possible?” Thabo is married with two daughters. Travel is one of the things he looks forward to as that was a key escape from the realities of work and volunteering commitments and one of the boxes to tick as a travel destination is to go to see Liverpool playing at Anfield, in a season they are crowned as English Premier League Champions.

Maylene is a medical doctor by profession. She is an Associate Professor in the Health Policy and Systems division of the UCT Health Science Faculty. She previously worked as the deputy director/director of the Children’s Institute at UCT for several years. This Child Policy Research Institute very successfully helped to place a number of child policy and programme issues on the national policy making agenda. Maylene’s experience in policy-making processes and child health service development adds value to the Paedspal board, as South Africa has a palliative care policy which needs advocacy and leadership at a national and provincial level, in a way that meets the needs of the chronically ill child.

Scott is a qualified Chartered Accountant and spent 4 years in the investment banking sector in London. He relocated to Cape Town in 2001 to become involved in the self storage property business. Scott has experience managing entrepreneurial type businesses and in managing various properties including new developments and renovations. He is an active mountain biker, paddler, occasional jogger and wanna-be paraglider, 4X4 enthusiast and cattle farmer! Scott is married and has 2 children.

Dr Michelle Meiring is a Palliative Care Paediatrician who has worked in this field for 20 years. She is the founder and CEO of Paedspal and works 20 hours a week for the organisation. Michelle’s other job is to convene the Post-Graduate Diploma in Paediatric Palliative Care at the University of Cape Town. She is an accomplished speaker and has presented at several local and international conferences.

She was also one of four editors of the latest edition of the Oxford Textbook on Palliative Care for Children. A long-standing child health and palliative care advocate since her “Paeds HIV-days”, Michelle chairs the national network for Children’s Palliative care known as PatchSA and has been involved at provincial and national levels in policy making in palliative care in South Africa.

Adelah Ederies (BComm) has over 10 years’ experience working in the corporate sector as a HR professional. She joined Paedspal in February 2016 as a HR and Financial Consultant and her main task then was to set up Paedspal’s HR, administrative and financial management systems.

Today, Adelah is our COO and oversees, manages and controls Paedspal’s ongoing business operations. She also ensures that there are effective admin procedures and reporting controls in place as well as sound financial and HR management. Adelah is the Paedspal Board Secretary. Always compassionate and thoughtful, Adelah has a difficult job, but manages to steer us beautifully with kindness.

Mariaan began her career in the financial sector, currently works in the food and beverages industry, and holds a BCom Degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, a National Diploma in Marketing, a Diploma in Packaging Technology, and Certifications in Project Management, Graphic Design, and Six Sigma. She is pursuing a BCom Honours, with vision of qualifying as a grief counselor,  focusing on bereaved parents in a work context.

During 2021, her son was admitted to Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital as he had reached his end-of-life stage due to a heart condition. Most of his six-month life was spent in hospitals, compounded by the rules and regulations of the Covid pandemic. The Paedspal team walked the last stretch of this journey with them. In November 2021, she was honored to speak at the Paedspal Memorial Day and later was appointed as a Community Representative, serving as the voice of parents.

She is a professional makeup artist, has a passion for research, fashion, design, photography, and is currently studying Interior Design. Most of her spare time is dedicated to a NPO established in memory of their dear son, Cayd. Through this NPO, as parents, they continue to honor Cayd’s memory and support others through various outreach initiatives.

Stefan’s career spans both academic, industrial, and entrepreneurial positions. He was awarded a Ph.D. in engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in 1990.

After nearly two decades in various academic positions, followed by several executive positions in the oil and refining industry, he relocated to South Africa. He then trained with well-known coach, Martha Beck, in 2009 and has been working as an executive and personal coach since then.

Stefan joined Paedspal to share his experience in organisational development and strategy. In his spare time he particularly enjoys hiking and travelling with his wife.

Barbara is an integral coach certified with the International Coaching Federation who works in various roles enabling leadership capacity development. She is a qualified Palliative Care Nurse who completed the Post Graduate Diploma in Palliative Care in 2017. She has previously worked as the Director of the Palliative Care Institute within the Hospice Palliative Care Association (HPCA). Her role was to oversee the development and implementation of quality assured palliative care training programmes for public health practitioners.

She contributed to the accreditation of palliative care training programmes within the South African Nursing Council and the Health and Welfare SETA. This was preceded by a Masters in Public Health in Health Systems and Policy at Wits University. Barbara relocated in 2020 to join the UCT Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance and is currently conducting research in the division of Interdisciplinary and Palliative Care Medicine at UCT. She is passionate about innovative and creative methods for knowledge exchange, contributing to the building of happy, healthy and thriving communities.