Please take part by sending us a short message with news about yourself or your fellow alumni’s career achievements to alumni@up.ac.za or fax (+2712) 362-5088. Kindly ensure that you include the UP qualifications and graduation year.  

• Dr Aldred Genade (BA(Theology), 2002; MA, 2004) has been appointed as Director of the new management unit in the Faculty of Theology at North-West University's Potchefstroom Campus. He has also been appointed Senior Lecturer in the New Testament. He is, among others, responsible for the management of the Theology Distance Programme.
• Jaco Minnaar, (BEng(Agricultural Engineering)), 1998) was nominated as Free State Agriculture’s Young Farmer of the Year for 2011. He will represent the Free State at the National Young Farmer of the Year Competition, which will be held later this year. Competition is presented by Agri SA and Toyota South Africa. Jaco grew up on the family farm Botesrust and went to school in Henneman. Later he obtained a degree in Agricultural Engineering at the University of Pretoria. He is a versatile farmer, and specialises in mealies, potatoes, soya, livestock and game.
• Theo Skosana (BEng(Industrial Engineering)) is the Provincial Director of Standard Bank in the North West.
• Errol Kruger (BCom(Business Economics), 1985) was the Registrar of Banks until 1 July this year, when he retired from the post. He was the fourth and longest-serving Registrar of Banks. On 1 August Errol joined the Qatar Financial Centre as Managing Director. His responsibilities include supervision of banks, insurance companies and portfolio management companies, as well as the authorisation of companies who want to do business with these institutions. He started his career 34 years ago as a clerk at the South African Reserve Bank, and was involved in bank supervision and regulation for the past two decades.
• Dr Frederick C de Beer (MBChB, 1971; MD, 1982), long-time University of Kentucky faculty member and current Chairperson of the Department of Internal Medicine, has accepted the position of Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice-President for Clinical Academic Affairs. He completed his postgraduate studies at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London. He served as professor of Medicine at the University of Stellenbosch before going overseas.
• Johann Strydom is the Managing Director of World Leisure Holidays. He joined the travel and holiday industry approximately 13 years ago. Before this, his career had taken some very eventful turns. He was, among others, Manager of MultiChoice, formed an association with Byrne Fleming (SA), acted as Assistant Head Manager of Federale Volksbeleggings' spare parts department, was Financial Director of South African Breweries’ sorghum department and accountant at TOSA, owned by Stewarts & Lloyds.
• Heyneke Meyer (BA(Physical Education), 1988; BA Hons(Geography), 1990) (Laureate recipient, 2007)) has been appointed executive of rugby at the Blue Bulls Company Pty (Ltd). Meyer will be responsible for the overall management of Blue Bulls rugby, which includes amateur rugby as well as professional rugby, with the focus on the performance of the teams in professional rugby. Meyer led the Bulls to four Currie Cup titles and to their first Super Rugby title in 2007. He joined the union at the end of 2009, following his return from England, and was involved with the training of coaches.
• Candice Dabner (BCom(Marketing Management), 2007) has been appointed as Project Coordinator at LiN Media, the umbrella organisation that represents ten community newspapers in Limpopo. She was previously employed by an advertising agency in Johannesburg. In her new post she will manage all projects and activities of LiN Media, which now has its own office in Tzaneen.
• Malene Breytenbach (BA, 1968: BAHons(English), 1973) studied at UP, and moved to Stellenbosch in 1985, where she furthered her studies and obtained a doctorate in Journalism, a master’s degree in Old Near East Study and a master’s degree in Antique Study. In 2005, she debuted at Lapa Publishers with a romance, Palmyra herleef. After that she wrote various historical, contemporary and medical romances (also under the pseudonym Marilyn Bennet). She also wrote various short stories for magazines and newspaper articles.
• Zak Benjamin (BA(Fine Arts), 1979) first studied architecture, dropped out, and worked as a stoker and a pipe-fitter before enrolling for fine arts. He made decor for the State Theatre, ran an art school in Cape Town and was a teacher and a lecturer at the Vaal Triangle Technikon and the North-West University. The opening of the Zak Benjamin Retrospective at the Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein, on 20 September 2011 coincided with this veteran South African artist's sixtieth birthday. Some of the works from the show will travel to other venues around the country during 2012.
• Dr Elmi Muller (MBChB, 1995) has recently been nominated as winner of the Shoprite/Checkers Woman of the Year Competition in the category health care, as she was the first person in the world who performed a kidney transplant from an HIV-positive person on another HIV patient. She is a surgeon at the Groote Schuur Hospital. She performed the first groundbreaking operation in October 2008, and has since completed 14 more such surgeries.