Lisa Gordon-Davis is the owner and Managing Director of Kundiza Training and Consulting, a business that specialises in training and consulting to the tourism and hospitality industries and beyond. She has extensive experience in the field, having started her career as a Hotel School lecturer, with a National Diploma in Food Service Management. She acquired higher diplomas in Post School Education, Food and Nutrition and Management Practice during her tenure as a lecturer at the Cape Technikon Hotel School in Cape Town.
Lisa then moved to Johannesburg to
the position of National Training Manager for the Hospitality Industries
Training Board (HITB). In this
position she was part of the team that implemented National Vocational
Qualifications for the hospitality industry in South Africa. Lisa was also very involved with
schools, colleges and universities in support of their programmes, quality
assurance of these programmes and as part of advisory and curriculum development
structures. She acquired a BA Hons
degree in Human Resources Development during this time.
When the HITB evolved into the Tourism and
Hospitality Education and Training Authority (Theta), Lisa was appointed
manager for the Hospitality Chamber and the Gaming and Lotteries Chamber. She then completed a master’s degrees
in Management: Human Resources at
Wits Business School.
Lisa was seconded by Theta to run the South
African Tourism Institute (SATI), a project established and funded by the
Government of Spain. In this
capacity, she oversaw a number of training projects including oversight of GTTP South Africa, careers information, bursaries, and training of government
officials amongst others.
On the closure of SATI, Lisa became a
training consultant, delivering training in a number of countries in
sub-Saharan Africa, for a range of beneficiaries, from accommodation grading
assessors, to tourism teachers and small business owners. Kundiza currently specialises in environmental
training for the tourism and hospitality industries, and teacher support to
schools and colleges. She has written or contributed to twenty academic text
books on different topics.
Lisa lives in the small town of White River
in Mpumalanga with her partner Billy, and their two little girls, Teya and
Agena.
