Ravindra Naidoo is the Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Employment Service (YES), an initiative of organized business, with over 1900 corporate partners. Previously, from 1996-2005, he was the Executive Director of NALEDI, the trade union-aligned thinktank. From 2005-2008, he served as the Coordinator of the SA government’s Directors-General Economic Cluster, reporting to Cabinet. From 2008-2012, he was Group Executive at the Development Bank of southern Africa.

He also served as Executive Director for Economic Development for the City of Johannesburg (2014-2016), as well serving as non-executive on impact investment funds (where he currently is an Investment Committee Chairperson). Some of his successes include the establishment of the SA National Green Fund (at the DBSA), being the manager of the multi-stakeholder “Health Roadmap” that culminated in government’s AIDS turnaround strategy (that saw average life expectancy rise from 49 to 62 years), and the restructuring of the Unemployment Insurance Fund to include coverage for the first time of over 600,000 domestic workers. Other significant roles over the years include the Statistics Council, UIF Board, EXCO of HRDC-SA Council, Wits University Research Committee, and Advisor to Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs. He holds a master’s degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.