About Us

Gary is a qualified chartered accountant who returned home to South Africa in January 2007, after having spent the previous five years as Commercial Director of Nando’s UK. Prior to that, Gary worked as an investment manager for Capricorn, a private equity business, which operated in the leisure and financial services sectors both in South Africa and in the UK.

On his return from the UK, Gary partnered with Charles Luyckx, a colleague of his from Nando’s in the UK, to build an organisation that could use their collective skills and resources to make a positive impact back home. That was the beginning of the FUEL journey…

Gary is a water sports fanatic who loves spending time outdoors with his family and friends.

Zanele holds qualifications in development studies and has worked with several organisations where she was heavily engaged in community and rural development initiatives. She conducted research and facilitated health & hygiene and water & sanitation projects. She also facilitated children camps that mainly focused on child development.

Zanele is a talented singer and song writer who feeds her soul with good music daily.

Charles is a co-founding director of Nando’s UK which today employs over 17,000 people, as well as having been a director of other leading food service businesses in the UK including PizzaExpress, GBK and others.

His life purpose is to make a meaningful and permanent contribution to the lives of the people of Southern Africa and is married with three beautiful daughters.

He is a member of the third class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-South Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Njabulo studied at the University of Johannesburg and holds a qualification in Public Management and Governance and she majored in Development Studies. Prior to joining FUEL she worked at Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator where she engaged with young unemployed South Africans seeking first time jobs. She is passionate about making a difference in people’s lives and enjoys listening to music, singing and spending time with her family.

Jade studied at the University of Johannesburg and holds a qualification in Humanities majoring in Psychology.

She is passionate about making a difference in people’s lives by simply listening, as listening is the key to success.

Jade also enjoys listening to music, attending religious gatherings ,cooking and spending time with her loved ones.

Sharon is a Development Studies graduate from the university of Venda.

She has the best interest at heart for the development of rural communities as she worked for Centre for Positive Care organization where she facilitated about HIV and other health issues.

Sharon likes listening to music and spending time with her loved ones during her spare time.

Samuel studied at the University of Mpumalanga, and he possesses qualifications in Development Studies. Before joining the FUEL team, he worked at the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment as a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) intern. He participated in performance monitoring of EPWP sub-programmes implemented by DFFE, he also played a crucial part in evaluations conducted on these programmes.

He is passionate about making a significant contribution to changing the lives of people. He believes that this can be achieved through research on socioeconomic issues particularly in marginalized communities to come up with solutions that will benefit the people.

He enjoys going to the gym, listening to music and spending time with his loved ones.