Trevor S. Norwitz, Chairman and President
Brenda Kerbel, Director
David P. Meachin, Treasurer
Jeannette Safi, Director
Trevor S. Norwitz
Trevor Norwitz serves as Chairman of the Board and President of the University of Cape Town Fund, Inc.. Mr. Norwitz is a partner at the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York, where he specializes in corporate law and governance and has advised on some of the largest global mergers and acquisitions transactions. He teaches at Columbia University School of Law, Chairs the New York City Bar M&A Committee and is active on ABA and IBA committees, and was an advisor to the South African government on its company law reform.
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Mr. Norwitz received his Bachelor of Business Science degree with First Class Honors from the University of Cape Town in 1986. On a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, he read law at Keble College, graduating with First Class Honors in 1989, and then completed an LLM at Columbia University in 1990.
In addition to the UCT Fund, Mr. Norwitz is also a director of a Friends of Ikamva Labantu, DirectWomen, Friends of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, and the Bernstein Institute for Human Rights at NYU School of Law.
Dr. Brenda Kerbel
Dr. Brenda Kerbel has been working as a Primary Care Provider in Watertown, Massachusetts for the past 30 years. Together with her husband, Dr. Richard Kerbel (UCT MBChB 1975), she works in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Dr. Kerbel attended Good Hope Seminary High School where she was Head Girl in 1970. She received her MBChB from the University of Cape Town Medical School in 1976 and did her internship in Medicine and Surgery at Groote Schuur Hospital. At UCT she was a member of the National Union of South African Students [NUSAS] and during her clinical years she was an active board member of the Students Health and Welfare Centres Organisation [SHAWCO]. She proudly follows in the footsteps of her father Dr. Solly Kaye (UCT MBChB 1946) who practiced as a general practitioner in the Cape Town area for 60 years.
Dr. Kerbel and her husband emigrated to Boston in 1979. They have two adult sons: one is a physician working in a Boston area hospital and the other is a Senior VP in a multinational firm in Singapore. Dr. Kerbel continues to maintain strong ties to the UCT medical community.
David J. P. Meachin
David Meachin has served on the Board of the University Cape Town Fund, Inc. since its inception. He is Chairman and CEO of Cross Border Enterprises, L.L.C., an internationally-oriented financial advisory and strategic consulting firm he founded in 1991 in New York, and which is now based in St. Petersburg, Florida, following 20 years as an investment banker with major Wall Street firms in New York, London and Tokyo, including 10 years as a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch & Company.
Mr. Meachin served on public company boards for 15 years – including Lyondell Chemical Company (NYSE); Millennium Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE), and The Ground Round (NASDAQ). He was previously a director of an Indian Growth Fund and of FOCOS Innovations Corp. (IT-Healthcare), and is currently a Director of the Orthopaedic Nurses Certification Board (ONCB), and an Advisory Board Member of Structured Credit International Corp. (SCIC). He served as a Director and past Chairman of the British American Educational Foundation (BAEF).
Mr. Meachin is a Member of The Economic Clubs of New York and Tampa, the American College of Corporate Directors (ACCD) and the Tampa Bay Area Committee on Foreign Relations. He is a Member of The Pilgrims of the United States, a Member and former Governor of the Union Club in New York, the Harvard Clubs of New York and Tampa, a Member and former Governor of the Misquamicut Club in Watch Hill, RI, and the Oxford & Cambridge Club in London.
Mr. Meachin received his MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School. He has graduate qualifications from Cambridge University and the French Petroleum Institute, Paris, which he attended as the Total Oil Company Postgraduate Scholar from South Africa. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, where he served on the Students’ Representative Council (SRC), and BS Physical Science (First Class) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. He matriculated from Hilton College in KwaZulu-Natal.
David Meachin is a frequent speaker and forum participant on issues of corporate governance, private equity and investment banking. In 2017 he received the Marquis Who’s Who Life Time Achievement Award.
Jeannette Safi
Jeannette Safi serves on the Board as a Director and the Secretary of the University of Cape Town Fund, Inc. She is a lawyer at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP in New York and has worked in the New York, London and Paris offices of the firm. As a capital markets lawyer at Davis Polk, Ms. Safi helps companies around the world gain access to the capital they need to run their businesses and assists them with their securities regulation compliance. Ms. Safi represents all of the major investment banks and a wide variety of corporate clients in U.S. and international capital markets transactions and advises on all aspects of securities regulation.
Born in Maseru, Lesotho, Ms. Safi received her Bachelor of Laws (cum laude) from the University of Cape Town in 2006. Ms. Safi maintains strong ties to the UCT community in New York, London and Paris and visits South Africa regularly.
