Our Team
Lucas van der Merwe
Founder & Owner
Born in Sasolburg, raised in Rustenburg, Lucas matriculated in 1992 and completed his degree in Human Resources and Labour Law by 1995. Upon graduation, Lucas had managed to pay for his entire degree by being employed as a cleaner in a local hospital. While working for A company practicing Labour Law, Lucas met a man in the gym one day who gave him the idea that would forever change his business ideals.
Beginning with six employees at a retail client, Lucas would arrive in Tembisa at 04h00 each morning to recruit under flashlight another suitable employee day by day. By night, Lucas would wade through admin, invoicing and management of the sites on his own, only to return to Tembisa by 4am.
Lucas lives according to “the power of now” and has over the many years infiltrated this system into the ethical conduct of the business… ensuring that is businesses has maintained its exceptional standards of service excellence and productivity.
Elizma Pheiffer
Chief Executive Officer
Born in Thabazimbi, Elizma matriculated in 1997 in the North West, and spent 18 years in the Retail and Labour Industry as a Warehouse Manager and Labour Consultant. Her numerous responsibilities and extensive experience in Retail and Distribution Management have rewarded her countless awards over the years.
After a successful career over the past 25 years in the Retail & Supply chain, Elizma now enjoys coaching and advising all employee’s as how to achieve the same goals and objectives that she so passionately has overcome. Constantly inspired to develop her employee’s objectives and own personal goals through team synergy, Elizma is a great supporter of staff wellbeing, client satisfaction and maintaining the standards that LJ ensures.
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Elizma's absolute lojalty towards LJ and its employees is evident in her daily interactions with stakeholders and definitely sets the basis expected of all LJ representative to follow.
Martin Pheiffer
Financial Director
“A goal without a plan, is just a wish”… – Martin
Martin was born in Rustenburg and matriculated from Bergsig High. He was a champion athlete and cricket player and after school completed an International Diploma in COBAL programming and proceeded to open his own Computer School for 420 students which explains his superman skills on Excel today! His love for analysing figures and statistics is something we all lack, and Martin’s strongest point is ensuring these figures get relayed to the rest of us.
Martin has 14 years experience in Warehouse Operations and his passion for working with people ensures he gets the most out of his team to always reach targets and work at maximum productivity. Anyone can have a conversation with Martin’s picking team and know that he is the firm favourite outright.
One day we will tell Martin his main job is being a comedian…until then, he remains our Financial Director.
Lynda Pentz
Operations Director
Lynda was born in Vanderbijlpark and grew up for majority of her childhood in Mpumulanga. Lynda started her career in retail and warehousing shortly after school and through determination and hard work achieved many success thus far in her career.
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Her experience in the industry and within the company, positively contributes to her value add for both the client and her regional teams.
Lynda’s indepth knowledge in Supply Chain & Warehouse remains the fundaments of how she manages the regionals teams to meet required deadlines and unified goals set. Her unique management style also ensures that consensus exists between all stakeholders.
Craven Alexander
IR Director
Craven was born in Klerksdorp and raised in Fochville and early in his career developed interest in Labour Relations and studied further in this field.
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Craven’s extensive experience of 25+ years with labour relations, positively contributes to the practises implimented and followed by LJ to ensure that the neccessary legislations are adhered to and that such practices are adapted accordingly with any legislative changes.
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With Craven’s experience in facilitating international employee-employer training programs, LJ is enabled to better the labour relationship approaches to ensure that sufficient attention are applied during the recruitment and employment processes and that the individuality of employees are valued at all times.
Craven further plays a vital role in ensuring that the neccessary agreements, ex. service level agreements, employment contracts or training agreements, are intact to protect both the company (and its clients) as well and management of the complexity of labour force relationships.
Sonja van Jaarsveld
National Executive Support Manager
Sonja, born and raised in the East Rand in Gauteng, is definitely the entertainer within the Group. Beyond her great sense of humor, lies ultimate commitment and attention to detail in all her functions.
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Sonja's diverse experience in admin, payroll, management and finance contributes to her successes achieved within the group thus far. Sonja is the mastermind behind ensuring clients are invoiced accurately and that all employees get paid on a weekly basis.
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With competence, she guides her teams to become the best versions of themselves and to consequently excel in the execution of their functions daily.
Francious Pheiffer
National HR Manager
Francious was born and raised in Pretoria, Gauteng and matriculated from Strand High School in Cape Town. Shortly after he matriculated he commenced his employment within the group as an intern whilst studying part-time.
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Francious's hard work over the years and determination to achieve nothing other than success, not only paid off in his career within the group but also with his BCom Business Management (Cum Laude) degree obtained.
Francious is often the innovator that will follow newer and modern approaches to ensure the client expectations are met and budgets are adhered to accordingly. He further plays a vital role in the support to all management structures and to assist across all departments within the group.