Cosmas is Executive Chairman of Ambe Group (Pty) Ltd. He holds a Doctor of Technology in Cost and Management Accounting with speciality in Environmental Management Accounting, a Master of Commerce (M.Com) in Accountancy with speciality in Strategic Management Accounting and a BSc. Honours in Accountancy.
Prior to Ambe Group, he served as the Nedbank Chair in Accountancy and occasionally as Acting Executive Dean at the University of Limpopo (UL) between 2009 and 2016. After 10 years of UL (1999 to June 2009) trying without success to secure accreditation with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) for its Undergraduate Accounting degree, Cosmas was hired to provide leadership. Within 2 years, he designed and successfully implemented the turnaround strategy B securing the University’s coveted SAICA accreditation in 2011 and has gone on to secure same for the Bidging Certificate in the Theory of Accountancy (BCTA) in 2015 and the Certificate in the Theory of Accountancy (CTA) in 2016. He managed the strategic and annual performance planning, monitoring and evaluation as well as reporting for the entire University since 2013, serving as strategic support to the Vice Chancellor and Principal up to 2016.
Given the “#FeesMustFall” and insourcing challenges in higher education, Cosmas has fundraised about R600 million over the past seven years consisting of R11.9 million for the Nedbank Chair in Accountancy position; R225 million to support over 2500 students between the period 2012 to 2017. In addition, he fundraised R364 million for the construction of a new School of Accountancy (Accountancy Dream Complex) at the University of Limpopo consisting of lecture theatres, tutorial venues, cafeteria, indoor sports complex, multi-purpose hall, registration hall, open amphi theatre, offices, parking and other amenities. Cosmas has published extensively and supervised many postgraduate students. He is chairperson of Environmental Management Accounting Network (EMAN) Africa and seats on the global EMAN steering committee. EMAN organises yearly conferences and organise special journal issues and book publications.
Prior to UL, Cosmas served as visiting Associate Professor at the North West University Graduate School of Business Leadership where he also served as chairperson of the Faculty Research Committee for the MBA and PhD colloquiums and defence. He was also Senior Lecturer and served on various TUT structures such as the Central Research and Innovation Committee (CRIC), the Faculty Board and chaired the Faculty Research and Innovation Committee. He has published widely and provided technical advisory services for clients such as: the German Development Corporation, the National Treasury, CIMA and Anglo Plats, amongst others. He is a member of the American, European, Asian and Southern African Accounting Associations and chair of the Environmental Management Accounting Network Africa (EMAN-Africa) that organise yearly conferences. He serves as Judge for the pretigous CFO Case study competition that attracts partricipants from all over the world and hosted during the Finance Indaba yearly.