Governance
Founder
YVONNE WAKEFIELD
From her early career in the legal industry, Yvonne became disenchanted with the exclusivity of the law and the extent to which it only really came to the assistance of the wealthy. During 2011, Yvonne founded Caveat, South Africa’s first alternative legal service provider. Caveat is now a panel of around 50 top-tier legal and tax specialists, who consult to businesses, corporates and law firms. Through Caveat, Yvonne has facilitated positive and lasting change to the traditional legal profession in South Africa by making commercial legal services more accessible to the market. Despite the success of Caveat, Yvonne has remained aware that because of its focus on commercial work, it has not assisted in making the law more accessible to some of the most vulnerable groups in our society, which led her to start TheWarrior Project in 2019.
Advisory Board
KABELO SEDUPANE
Kabelo is an attorney specialising in public interest law. She has spent most of her career within the civil society sector holding legal advisory positions for non-profit organisations such as CorruptionWatch SA, where she gained extensive experience in strategic impact litigation and legal advocacy initiatives aimed at law and policy reform.
JACKIE NAGTEGAAL
Jackie is a lawyer and a futurist. She heads up Law For All one of South Africa’s leading legal service providers (which provides The Warrior Project with a free legal helpline and Whatsapp line for Warriors). She has been working towards access to justice for many years. The rights of women are critical to her, as their empowerment sets society and the future free.
AISHA PANDOR
Aisha R. Pandor is co-founder and CEO of SweepSouth, Africa’s first online platform for booking home services. She completed her PhD in Human Genetics and an Associate in Business Management at the University of Cape Town. Following her studies, she worked as a management consultant at Accenture. Aisha co-founded SweepSouth in 2014 and the platform has helped 200,000 women findwork opportunities. SweepSouth advocates for financial and digital inclusivity for women, with partnerships that include serving free life and disability insurance to women working on the platform, and helping co-launch The Warrior Project. SweepSouth is part of Digital2Equal, a collaboration with the World Bank and EU that promotes using technology to foster gender equality. Aisha has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of 2017’s African female breakthrough innovators.
LUCIEN LEWIN
Lucien transitioned to law after a successful 10 year career as an orchestral musician for the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. Today, Lucien is a lawyer with a passion for social justice, often taking on public interest litigation and pro bono work for marginalised communities. He has served on various boards of non-profit organisations spanning from the social justice sector to the arts. Because of the intersectional nature of systemic injustice, women and non-binary persons are an especially vulnerable group within our society, and Lucien is looking forward to broadening his engagement with those who are vulnerable and bear the brunt of our unequal society through his work with TheWarrior Project. Lucien is married to Wendy and their family has experienced the joy of being created through adoption. Their children are now 21, 18 and 15.
LIZANNE JOUBERT
Lizanne Joubert graduated from the Nelson Mandela University and completed her Chartered Accountant articles at Mazars Moors Rowland in Cape Town in 2003. She spent 10 years abroad and gained experience in financial services. During this time she worked at various banks and asset managers in New York, Tokyo, London and Amsterdam. Lizanne returned to South Africa in 2014 and joined OutsourcedCFO as CFO in 2015 where she assists various entrepreneurs and start-ups to scale their businesses. She has been a board member of The Valleys and Mountains Development Foundation (TVAMDF) in Bonnievale since 2014. TVAMDF has various projects in the community, focusing on Early Childhood Development. Lizanne also visits the foundation to teach meditation and relaxation techniques to the kids and the teachers. A lot of the trauma experienced in the community is due to GBV and domestic abuse, sparking Lizanne’s interest in this topic and hope to make a difference in this field too.