AIPA has gathered a team of senior economic researchers from major universities around South Africa, including some from the historically disadvantaged tertiary institutions and other independent research agencies, to formulate a strategy and research institute. AIPA has a Board of Directors whose main responsibility is to ensure that AIPA’s programme is in line with the objectives of its founders. The Board examines and approves annual financial statements. It is managed on a day-to-day basis by Ms Lula Gebreyesus, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Institute. Prof. Philip Black is the Research Director and Prof. Jan Groenewald, Agricultural Policy Research Director. The research programme is being executed by a research team comprising of a small permanent core team and some 35 consultants and advisors mainly from major South African universities and selected African and overseas institutions. AIPA has been successful in attracting highly regarded researchers.

Ms Lula Gebreyesus, who holds the degree of B.Sc. Business Administration, is the co-founder of AIPA. In 1991 she and Professor Nomvete jointly selected and commissioned the team of leading economists who formulated AIPA’s research programme on economic democratization of South Africa. Her main responsibility is to identify, direct and manage AIPA’s research projects and complementary activities, and to this end she liaises with government departments, NGOs, economic research institutes and universities within and beyond South Africa. Ms Gebreyesus has considerable international experience, including sixteen years with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and eight years with the Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern African States (COMESA).

She was the Secretary of the Association of Vice Chancellors of South African Historically Disadvantaged Tertiary Institutions (ASAHDI), (17 in number) from 1994 – 2003. She serves as member of Board of Directors of several Institutions and companies.

Professor Philip Black is a leading economist in South Africa and world wide. He is Professor-Extraordinaire in the Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch. He was previously the Jagger Professor of Economics and Director of the School of Economics, University of Cape Town; and prior to that, Professor of Economics at the University of Stellenbosch and Professor and Head of the Department of Economics and Economic History at Rhodes University. Prof. Black is also Advisor to the South Africa Foundation, whose membership is top 100 business captains of South Africa.

He is Managing Editor of the South African Journal of Economics, and editorial advisor to Studies in Economics and Econometrics and the South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences. He is a Council member of the Economic Society of South Africa and also served on the Economic Advisory Council of the State President and on the Committee for Economic Sciences of the Human Sciences Research Council.

Professor Black has published widely in both local and international academic journals and is co-author of four recent books on the South African economy, i.e. Public Economics for South African Students (Oxford University Press, 1999); Economics: Principles and Practice, 2nd ed. (Pitman International, 1997); Leading Issues in South African Microeconomics (Southern - MacMillan, 1992) and Leading Issues in South African Macroeconomics (Southern - MacMillan, 1990).

Professor Jan A. Groenewald is a well-known agricultural economist with international experience.

Before his retirement in 1997, he was professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Pretoria for 29 years (26 years as head of the department). He had previously been senior lecturer at the Universities of Pretoria and Natal, and also research assistant at Purdue University. Prior to this, he worked for the Department of Agriculture and a private company involved with large-scale production of citrus fruit. During sabbaticals he was visiting scholar at the University of Minnesota and visiting professor at McGill University and the University of Ghent.

He has published approximately 180 articles in scientific journal and 10 chapters in books. He has received the Stals Prize for Economics from the Academy of Science and Arts, the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Fund Grant for Senior Academics, and awards from the Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa, six times for the best publication in a year and eight times for the best article in their Journal, “Agrekon”. He is an honorary life member of this association, and has been elected to the Witwatersrand Agricultural Society’s Hall of Farm.

He has also served on a few committees, the most notable of which were the Interdepartmental Committee of Enquiry into the Use of Agricultural Land (1968-69), The Committee on Working Conditions of Farm Workers and Domestic Servants (1982-1983) and the Advisory Committee on Agricultural Economics Research (1975-1990).

Jan Groenewald is presently Professor Extraordinaire of Agricultural Economics at the University of Free State.