He is a qualified management consultant and strategy specialist who has first-hand experience in a variety of areas. He developed his knowledge base as a process engineer and management consultant and previously spent a number of years working as the Strategic lead for Customs, at the South African Revenue Service (SARS) where he worked on designing, developing and implementing the Customs Modernisation programme. In this role, he has attended and presented at many WCO committee meetings representing SARS.

In his current role, he provides management consulting to Government agencies, the World Bank and private enterprises and has worked on projects in Europe, Asia and Africa. His area of expertise is strategic consulting on border management and Customs and Excise modernisation including projects on Customs and Excise diagnostics, assessing illicit trade crossing borders, single window design and implementation, authorised economic Operator (AEO) Programmes and strategies for trade facilitation, improvement and modernisation.

Ziyaad holds a bachelor’s Degree in Commerce (BCom), specializing in Business Information Systems and has a Master’s Degree in Commerce specializing in Programme and Project Management (MCom).