Executive Committee

Hennie du Plessis - CEO
(Pr Eng, M Eng (Technology Management))

Hennie’s university studies culminated in bachelors and honours degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Pretoria (1978 and 1981) and a Masters Degree in Engineering Technology Management from the University of Stellenbosch (1993).

His early working career included road construction and road design, and from 1983 to 1992 he worked at the CSIR’s Division of Roads and Transport Technology. During the latter part of that period he was a research programme manager, with responsibility for technology management and international marketing. He travelled extensively during 1992 and 1993, inter alia to service a consulting assignment for the transport department of the Taiwan Government.

He joined the Groman Consulting Group in early 1993 as a senior management consultant and was appointed managing director in October of that year. He serviced several large corporate clients in the public and private sectors, including CSIR, Natref, SASOL and Armscor.

He joined the PQ Africa Group in January 1999 as Managing Director of QEDI (Pty) Ltd, and was also responsible for the group’s health industry initiatives through a business venture called PQ Health. With the merger between QEDI and Mediswitch in May 2001, Hennie was appointed as CEO of Digital Healthcare Solutions.

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Dries Hofman - Financial Manager DHS; Financial Director Switch and Med-e-Mass.
B.Comm, B. Acc, C.A. (SA)

Dries graduated from The University of the Witwatersrand in 1982 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He worked at Deloitte and Touche as an articled clerk from 1985 to 1989, effectively remaining with the group for 1-year beyond the completion of his articles. He was the Audit Senior in charge of various audits, and gained exposure to the mining, manufacturing and engineering sectors. Whist at Deloitte and Touche, Dries completed his Bachelor of Accountancy degree in 1988 and wrote the Public Accountants’ and Auditors’ Board examination and was admitted as a Chartered Accountant in 1990

He then joined Hudaco Trading Limited, a Top 100 company as Head Office Accountant, where his responsibilities included Foreign Exchange and Group Insurance. Dries then moved on to join a fast growing software company, the Infoware Group, as Financial Director.

In October 1996, Dries was appointed as the Financial Director of Toco Lifting, where he was responsible for the entire financial reporting and management of the company. Dries joined the Mediswitch division of Usko as Divisional Financial Director in May 1999. Subsequent to the merger of QEDI and Mediswitch, Dries was appointed as the Financial Manager of Digital Healthcare Solutions and the Financial Director of both DHSwitch and Med-e-Mass.

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Peter Kennedy - Managing Director Switch
(Dip Datametrics UNISA)

Peter’s early career saw him gain exposure to- and experience in- banking, retail and manufacturing. In 1986, Peter joined IGI Life as an Analyst Programmer. He advanced his career and upon leaving IGI Life, he held the position of General Manager, Information Technology.

In 1996, he joined SA Druggists as IT Director of their Pharmaceutical distribution division. When SA Druggists started MediSwitch, Peter was transferred to this new division as Commercial Director. MediSwitch was sold to USKO (now Bytes Technology Group) in 1997, and in 2000 Peter was promoted to Managing Director of MediSwitch (Pty) Ltd.

With the merger of MediSwitch and QEDI, Peter was appointed as Managing Director of DHSwitch (Pty) Ltd.

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Gideon Brits – Managing Director Med-e-Mass
BA (Hons)

Gideon began his career in the healthcare sector in 1997, having gained some 22 years of managerial experience subsequent to the completion of his Bachelor of Arts in 1975 and his Honours degrees in 1977.

He began his career in the healthcare sector when he joined Execusys, managing their administration department and subsequently taking on responsibility for client relationship management, and joint sales and marketing responsibilities . He assisted in the establishment of 11 new business units including the revamp of the Execuscript business, which handled data management for doctors.

In 1998, Gideon was appointed as Managing Director of MPNet, a claims clearing house, which cleared claims on behalf of Medical Scheme Administrators. In 1999 he assisted in starting up Brainware Health, and in establishing Execusource, a business unit which focused on data processing and management services for healthcare practitioners.

In December 1999, Gideon partnered with IQ Health and the IQ Business Group to purchase the rights to the software from Brainware Health and start Lucramed, a company of which he was both co-owner and Managing Director. Lucramed was a specialist Practice Management software business serving medical practices countrywide.

In 2000, Lucramed and Med-e-Solve merged to form Med-e-Mass, and Gideon was appointed Managing Director of the new entity, which operated within the MediSwitch Holdings Group. In the subsequent merger of QEDI and MediSwitch into Digital Healthcare Solutions, Gideon was appointed as Managing Director of Med-e-Mass and as a member of the Exco of Digital Healthcare Solutions.

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