Adrian Saville

In 1994 Prof Adrian Saville formed an investment vehicle which became the forerunner to Cannon Asset Managers which he founded in 1998. In 2017 Bidvest Financial Services acquired Cannon Asset Managers where Prof Saville served as Chief Executive until 2021, when he moved to Genera Capital, a multi-family investment office.

Prof Saville has experience in managing all the major asset classes and has successfully combined teaching and business. He has lectured at the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the University of Pretoria, London School of Business, Kelley School of Business, Rotterdam School of Management, and the Estonian Business School. He has held a Professorship of Economics, Finance & Strategy at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) since 2003, where he teaches in the fields of macroeconomics, investment finance and strategy.

Prof Saville received the Excellence in Teaching Award at GIBS on thirteen occasions since 2007. In 2012 he was nominated for the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Business Professor of the Year Award and in 2014 he received the Central and East European Management Development Association award in teaching excellence.His successful career has encompassed consulting widely to government and the corporate world, including serving as an economic consultant to Visa South Africa. He has presented to global audiences in many destinations, including Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Estonia, France, India, Japan, Germany, Ghana, Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Singapore, United Kington, United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Prof Saville was awarded the Economics Society of South Africa’s Founders Medal. He is a UNESCO laureate and a matriculant of Linacre College (Oxford). He has completed programmes in value investing at New York’s Columbia University; competitive strategy at Harvard Business School in Boston; and game theory with the University of British Columbia and Stanford University.

Qualifications

• PhD (UKZN)
• MCom -cum laude (UKZN)
• BA Hons (Econ) - cum laude (UKZN)
• BA (Econ & Law) (UKZN)

Core Discipline

• Economics

Work Experience

• Professor (Gordon Institute of Business Science )
• Consultant (Genera Capital)
• Director of Centre for African Management and Markets (Gordon Institute of Business Science )
• Chief Executive Officer (Cannon Asset Management (Pty) Ltd)
• Visiting Faculty (Estonian Business School)
• Chief Strategist Citadel Wealth Management (Pty) Ltd and Cannon Asset Managers (Pty) Ltd (Citadel Investment Services )
• Associate Professor of Finance (Gordon Institute of Business Science )
• Associate Professor and Head of School - School of Economics and Management. Programme Director: Finance (University of Natal )
• Founding Shareholder, Director & Chief Investment Officer Cannon Asset Managers (Pty) Ltd (Cannon Asset Management (Pty) Ltd)
• Founding Shareholder, Director & Investment Manager (BayHill Capital Advisor (Pty) Ltd)
• Director (BayHill Capital Advisor (Pty) Ltd)
• Chairman and Investment Manager Venture Capital Investment Fund (Private Investment Partnership) (Venture and Capital Investment Fund)
• Permanent Full-Time Post of Lecturer & Senior Lecturer (University of Natal )
• Vice Principal (Varsity Tuition Centre)

Teaching/Coaching Experience

• Darla Moore (Gordon Institute of Business Science )
• Macroeconomics: National Competitiveness (Gordon Institute of Business Science )
• JP Morgan SME (Gordon Institute of Business Science )
• Country Competitiveness and Mapping the Economic Context (Gordon Institute of Business Science )
• Investment Finance (Gordon Institute of Business Science )
• Dynamic Innovation (Gordon Institute of Business Science )