Elaine Rumboll was appointed director of the UCT GSB's executive education portfolio in 2005. A former performance artist, internationally published award-winning poet, blues singer and academic-turned-businesswoman, Rumboll has an eclectic mix of skills. She holds a MA (cum laude) in comparative literature and an MBA (Wits).

Elaine has lectured in the comparative literature department at Wits and consulted for local government in Gauteng, South Africa, and in London, United Kingdom. After having spent three years working in maximum-security prisons for men and women running creative transdisciplinary workshops, she reskilled herself and entered the world of business and went on to become dean of Damelin Management School.

She has served in an advisory capacity for several organisations on leadership development, including Johnson & Johnson, Massmart Holdings, Nestlé, Animation SA, Metropolitan Holdings, the Western Cape education department and the Cape Film Commission. She is currently also the programme director for the UCT GSB Business Acumen for Artists Programme. Her fields of expertise are in the arenas of new programme development, programme design, strategic innovation and leadership development.

She is currently working on a PhD, looking at attention economics and the role of curiosity as an enabler of learning in organisations. As well as heading up the executive education unit, she also teaches on a number of customised leadership programmes for UCT GSB.

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