
FTI Consulting Appoints Coenraad Bezuidenhout as MD of Public Affairs
Global Business Advisory Firm FTI Consulting Inc. is delighted to announce the appointment of Coenraad Bezuidenhout as a managing director in the firm’s Strategic Communications segment. He will head up FTI Consulting’s Public Affairs practice and will be based in Johannesburg. Coenraad is a trained political economist and brings more than a decade and a half’s experience in public affairs and economic policy advocacy to FTI Consulting. He joins from the Manufacturing Circle, a national corporate association of manufacturers, where he served as Executive Director. Previously, he respectively headed economic policy and the Business Parliamentary Office at BUSA, prior to which he excelled in numerous legislative monitoring and political support roles at the Parliamentary precinct in Cape Town.
Coenraad has been appointed to expand FTI Consulting’s already significant public affairs and government relations capabilities in South Africa to mirror its global offering to serve both global and domestic clients in South and Sub-Saharan African markets. He will continue to offer independent political, economic policy, economic diplomacy and trade commentary on South Africa and African markets and their position in international and multilateral formations, as he has done to both national and international media in his previous positions. He joins Yolandé van der Riet, who runs FTI Consulting’s healthcare practice based in Cape Town. Yolandé is a former Department of Health official and more recently worked for the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa.
Max Gebhardt, managing director and head of FTI Consulting’s Strategic Communications in South Africa, said, ‘Coenraad brings with him a wealth of experience in helping guide companies through an increasingly complex regulatory environment. We are delighted that he has chosen to join FTI Consulting and help build our Public Affairs practice in South Africa. This is part of our continued investment in South Africa and the launch of our Public Affairs division follows the establishment of our Economic Consulting practice in South Africa in April.’
The Economic Consulting practice provides law firms, corporations and government agencies with sophisticated and comprehensible analyses of complex economic issues to assist them in understanding the issues and opportunities they face.