BPhil in African Studies, MSc in Building Science (University of the Witwatersrand)
Appointed to the board: 17 May 2013
Taffy Adler is the director of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Re-Imagining Wits Property Project. He was CEO of the Housing Development Agency, a national government parastatal from the agency’s inception in 2009 to May 2015. He is also the chairman of Indluplace Properties and a director of Arrowhead Properties, both listed property companies, and chairman of the Apexhi and Arrowhead Charitable Trusts. He sits on the board of Makhulong a Matala, the tenant development arm of the Johannesburg Housing Company.
From 1976 to 1986, Taffy was a full-time official in the non-racial trade union movement. In 1987 he became coordinator of the Labour and Economic Research Centre, and in 1991, became the founding CEO of the Land Investment Trust.
Taffy has held directorships in at least 20 development-orientated companies over the last 10 years. He has held several appointments, including joint convener of the National Technical Committee of Housing Subsidies, which developed the first housing subsidy scheme for a newly democratic South Africa, membership of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on Urban Management, and, from 1994 to 2009, as adviser to the National Minister of Housing.
In 1999, Taffy was named Gauteng Housing Person of the Year by the SA Housing Institute and in 2007 he was named South African Social Entrepreneur of the Year. He is also a Fellow of the Schwab Foundation. He has lectured at the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Cape Town, and has either written or edited 19 journal articles and books.