Our Team

Our Team
Our highly qualified, multi-disciplinary team of strategists, researchers, scientists, engineers, marketers, producers, editors, project managers and creatives have global and local experience in developing and implementing strategic programmes in order to influence behaviour change.
Our team of researchers apply best practice qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to ensure that the true voices of communities are heard. What sets our research apart is that we create community platforms for intelligence gathering and for information distribution. These platforms often live on longer than the campaigns and result in a positive engagement legacy. Our creative teams produce award-winning campaigns across traditional and social media. Our team of project managers understand the practicalities of implementing these programmes and services on the ground.

Hector Eliott
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Hector Eliott
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Hands-on | Creative | Knowledgeable | Strategic | Dedicated | Buck Stops with Him
Hector takes direct responsibility for the quality of everything that Bearfish Strategic Services delivers to our clients. Epitomizing both bear and fish, he is rational yet creative, solid yet sensitive. He keeps a firm eye on all projects as they proceed, and the buck always stops with him.
Born and bred in South Africa, he matriculated at Rondebosch Boys High School in Cape Town and graduated from Rhodes University with a First Class Honours degree in English, having also majored in History and Journalism.
He was a conscientious objector in support of the End Conscription Campaign in South Africa yet joined the ranks of the British Army during the genocidal conflict in the former Yugoslavia. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and obtained a commission in the elite Parachute Regiment, before being badly injured. After leaving the army he lived in Australia and New Zealand, before moving to the USA, working in fields as diverse as construction, marketing, software development and security, and consulting to global businesses such as Honda and Bank of America.
After 12 years abroad, he came home to find a niche where he could contribute to his country. He has since had some 12 years’ experience in local government, at both strategic levels and in transport safety and security. He also completed a Masters in Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch during this time, specialising in Transport Studies.
Hector founded Bearfish Strategic Services in 2017 and has gathered together a results-driven team that is diverse in every way, with an extensive range of qualifications and skillsets, which he leads both firmly and with compassion.

Dr Joanne Corrigall
HEAD OF RESEARCH AND BEHAVIOUR CHANGE STRATEGY
Dr Joanne Corrigall
HEAD OF RESEARCH
Public Health, Behaviour Change and Communications Specialist
MBCHB (WITS) MMED (UCT) FCPHM (SA) DMH (SA)
Dr Corrigall is an innovative and experienced strategist, scientist, communicator, and leader, with a wealth of experience in conceptualizing, designing, managing and evaluating a diverse range of health and communication projects. With fifteen years’ experience leading local and international projects, she is able to investigate complex issues and translate findings into effective policy interventions and communication campaigns for multi-level behaviour change.
With a background in both Psychiatry and Public Health, she has applied her rich knowledge of behaviour change with success in a wide range of contexts, from advocacy work on liquor legislation to road safety, violence prevention, occupational health, mental health promotion, HIV, child and maternal health and political campaigns. Understanding that changing behaviour is not just about impactful communication, but also about creating environments conducive to behaviour change, most of her work has been transdisciplinary and intersectoral.
She is an experienced researcher having conducted numerous primary and secondary research studies, working with both quantitative and qualitative data. She has designed and led large household surveys, multi-country policy implementation evaluations, randomized controlled trials as well as literature reviews on a wide range of topics. She is currently an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Cape Town’s Primary Health Care directorate and has lectured master’s degree students both locally and abroad.
Her communication and advocacy toolbox includes filmmaking, photography, copy writing, digital marketing and music production. She has used multimedia communication and public engagement to mobilise audiences from policy makers to communities and was campaign manager for a large alcohol abuse campaign, which successfully mobilised stakeholders around key alcohol policy issues in South Africa.
She has worked in more than ten countries and clients have included local and international government ministries, universities, non-governmental organizations, including the World Health Organization and International Development Research Centre, as well as corporate clients such as Dundee Precious Metals, the Behaviour Change Agency, Cipla and Ole Media.

Dr Pascal Nteziyaremye
SENIOR MANAGER: STRATEGIC CO-ORDINATION AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT PROJECTS
Dr Pascal Nteziyaremye
STRATEGIC COORDINATOR, ROAD SAFETY STRATEGY
Road Safety Specialist | Expert yet Humble | Thorough
Dr Nteziyaremye is responsible for the strategic coordination of road safety strategies at Bearfish Strategic Services. His experience includes seven years of road safety research – particularly on pedestrian safety – and consulting services in Rwanda, South Africa, and Namibia in various transportation-related fields. He has a passion for road safety and sustainable mobility.
Born and raised in Rwanda, he completed his BSc (Eng) degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Rwanda, before obtaining a Master of Science – MSc (Eng) – and a PhD degree in Civil Engineering/Transportation Engineering, from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. During his postgraduate studies, Pascal developed a vast skill set in transportation disciplines and acquired extra skills in Transportation Planning, Road Safety Evaluation, and Travel Behaviour Influence through workshops and training courses in Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium. Through self-learning, he developed various skills, including GIS spatial analysis and geospatial modelling, statistical analysis (using IBM-SPSS, Stata and R), and crash modelling. Applying the iRAP Star Rating methodology – for road safety inspections, road safety assessment, and safer road designs – has been a recent addition to his skill set.
He worked as a junior transport engineer for several consulting firms in Rwanda, conducting traffic counts and pavement conditions surveys. In South Africa, he was a research facilitator on behalf of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), investigating the feasibility of changing the driving side in Rwanda. He also contributed to the development of a Road Safety Implementation Programme for the Western Cape. He was a teaching assistant at the University of Stellenbosch, presenting lectures on road safety and non-motorised transport planning as part of the Transport Science course to undergraduate students. He worked with GoMetro (Pty) Ltd on a business model for bus services in Kigali, Rwanda. For this project, he planned and executed onboard bus surveys (55 bus routes, 400 buses, 19 540 vehicle trips, 405 273 bus passengers) for the entire Kigali bus network, conducted transport data analysis, and contributed to a feasibility study for a Real-Time Passenger Information System for the City of Kigali. More recently, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Stellenbosch, extending his research projects for publication.

Dr Louis Roodt
PROJECT ENGINEER
Dr Louis Roodt
PROJECT ENGINEER
Road, Safety, Traffic and Transport engineering design specialist, educator, researcher. BEng Civil (UP), MEng Transport (UP), PhD Civil (US). Pr Eng (ECSA), FSAICE
Dr Louis Roodt Pr Eng has 45 years’ experience in civil engineering encompassing road, safety, traffic and transport engineering in the consulting, research and municipal fields, and as educator at the universities of Pretoria and Stellenbosch. He is an expert witness in road safety forensic engineering.
Louis matriculated from Helpmekaar Boys High School in Johannesburg. After completing his civil engineering degree at University Pretoria, he worked for consultants before working as road engineer in the Kruger National Park for three years. He joined the Pretoria Municipality as traffic engineer, then worked for consulting engineers, the CSIR as researcher and back to Pretoria Municipality as transport planner. He lectured at university Pretoria, then for consulting engineers before returning to academia at University Stellenbosch where he lectured and completed his PhD in Maintenance Engineering Standards to fulfil the Legal Duty of Road Authorities towards Safe Roads. His work has taken him to many Sub-Saharan countries including Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique Namibia and Zambia, as well as Rwanda and Myanmar.
He is a Fellow of the South African Intuition for Civil Engineering and active in the Transport Division. He presents the Road Safety Audit course for the South African Road Federation.

Dene McLeod
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Dene McLeod
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Creative | Passionate | Dedicated
A love of film led Dene to study at the University of Cape Town, where he completed a BA Honours degree in Film Theory and Practice, winning the Robyn Cohen Award for Best Student in his final year.
Dene brings over 14 years’ experience to the role of Production Manager. He has worked as a Senior Video Editor on reality TV series, made-for-TV movies, and various animated shows and series. Dene has also worked as a producer and has overseen the production of hundreds of hours of content, both for broadcast and for social media.
A passion for producing high quality content, on budget and on time, is what drives Dene.

Britt Trainer
ADMINISTRATION MANAGER
Britt Trainer
ADMINISTRATION MANAGER
Efficient | Effective | Human Resources | Financial Administration
Born and educated in the USA, Britt obtained a BA Degree from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado before working in hospital administration in New York.
After emigrating to South Africa, she joined Xhosa Fundis as Administration Manager. Xhosa Fundis provides isiXhosa language training and produces isiXhosa textbooks. In this position, Britt became knowledgeable and experienced in all aspects of South Africa’s complex administrative environment.
She joined Bearfish Strategic Services as the Head of Administration, and she deals with finance, human resources and day to day administration of the business.

Ambra Clemens
HR SPECIALIST
Ambra Clemens
HR SPECIALIST
Growing up in Johannesburg, Ambra studied Industrial Psychology at Rand Afrikaans University (now referred to as University of Johannesburg) and later obtained a BA Honours Degree from UNISA. She is an HR Specialist with over 15 years’ experience both in global and local businesses across industries.
Ambra is passionate about People Development and the wellbeing of employees in the workplace.
She incorporates her ‘know-how’ of her Positive Intelligence Training to all aspects of People Advisory at Bearfish.

Gabby Almano
BOOKKEEPER
Gabby Almano
BOOKKEEPER
Gabby was recently awarded her BA (SA) designation from the Chartered Institute of Business Accountants (CIBA) and has over 10 years of experience working in the film industry – for large production companies including Netflix.
She’s an accomplished all-rounder with a strong capacity for learning and has excellent problem-solving and management skills, making use of her extensive experience and expertise gained in a wide range of industries including security, hospitality, landscaping and film.
Her closest friends have nicknamed her “The Ninja” (she even has the T-shirt) because of her uncanny ability to get things done, even when conditions are less than ideal. Gabby’s biggest role, however, is being a mom of two very busy little boys.

Saajidah Williams
RESEARCH ANALYST
Saajidah Williams
RESEARCH ANALYST
Studious | Resourceful | Initiative | Endurance
Saajidah has an impressive resume, boasting a Master’s Degree in Engineering as well as two Honours Degrees, one in Psychology and one in Social Anthropology. She has extensive experience in the field of road safety research, with her Master’s thesis focussed on the Night Time Traffic Death Toll, and a subsequent Honours project investigating drivers’ attitudes towards Speed.
Saajidah brings to the team a depth of insight and an eagerness to learn and solve problems.

Adrian Charles
FILM, TV AND SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR
Adrian Charles
FILM, TV AND SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR
Beginning | Middle | End | That's a Story.
Armed with a B.Journ degree in TV and Film from Rhodes University and a passion for filmmaking, Adrian has spent over 30 years in the film industry, working on everything from International big budget feature films and commercials to documentaries and Social Media campaigns. At Bearfish he has Directed two seasons of the highly successful Western Cape Highway Patrol TV series, and a range of social media content.
With his extensive experience , tireless work ethic and ability to identify and present the crux of a story in an engaging and entertaining way, Adrian is an asset on any production.

Androux Havenga
IT SPECIALIST
Androux Havenga
IT SPECIALIST
Androux was born and raised in Cape Town and completed a Diploma in Information Technology (IT) at Prestige Academy. He has extensive experience managing security and server operations for big and small companies.
His role at Bearfish is to ensure that we meet approved IT security requirements and the day-to-day management of IT operations.