Built by founders.Run by operators.
An experienced leadership team operates across each of the group's three businesses — supported by Nic and Kyle Dunn, the founders, majority shareholders and active operators of Abakhulu Energy.
Iftar Goolam Rassool
- 10+ years in the corporate sector across various financial management roles.
- Prior to Zestcor, spent over 5 years at Access Chartered Accountants as a financial consultant.
- Joined Zestcor in 2018 as Financial Manager; subsequently promoted to Group CFO.
- Bachelor of Accounting Sciences Honours (UNISA); Chartered Accountant.
Jake Govender
- 25+ years in the finished lubricants industry.
- Began at ExxonMobil as a Lubricant Business Consultant after 10 years at Engen Petroleum across SA and African markets.
- Joined Centlube as CCO; appointed Executive Director (commercial sales) in 2019, then Sales Director in 2023.
- Appointed CEO of AGL in 2024.
- National Diploma in Marketing and Management.
Duncan Brown
- 8+ years at ExxonMobil Chemicals in the polymer business across Southern and East Africa, prior to joining Zestchem as MD.
- Founded Absorb Products, a specialised export-container packaging business, in 2001.
- Sold Absorb Products and the BOPP import business to West African Group in 2015; joined WAG for 3 years.
- Bachelor of Arts Degree (University of South Africa).
Calvin Ranjit
- 17 years' experience across Lubricants, Energy, Petrochemicals and specialty chemicals industries across Africa.
- Proven success in technical sales, strategic business development and key account management within mining, energy and lubricant markets.
- Previous roles include Eskom, Shell South Africa, Puma Energy Africa, CJP Chemicals and Afton Chemical Additives.
- BSc Mechanical Engineering.
Nic Dunn
Nic has spent more than two decades building the infrastructure through which southern Africa accesses the global base oils and lubricants market. As co-founder and Co-CEO, he leads the group's strategic direction and holds its most significant external relationships — including the ExxonMobil partnership at the heart of the business.
He cofounded Zestcor in 2014, establishing what would become the sole authorised distributor of ExxonMobil base stocks across South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa — a position no competitor in the region holds, anchored by 26,244m³ of bulk tank storage at Bidvest Tank Terminals in Durban and the full Group I, II and III base oil slate.
Before Zestcor, Nic spent five years at Engen as Strategic Global Accounts Manager, managing Engen's global alliance relationships with ExxonMobil and PETRONAS Lubricants International across southern Africa. He followed this with a posting in the United Kingdom at PETRONAS Lubricants International, leading new business development across Great Britain and the Nordic markets.
Nic holds a BCom in Economics and Business Management from Stellenbosch University.
Kyle Dunn
Kyle is the operational architect behind Abakhulu Energy Group. As co-founder and Co-CEO, he is responsible for the group's commercial operations, financial discipline, and the structural integrity that allows a business of Abakhulu's complexity to function as a coherent whole rather than a collection of separate entities.
He began his career at Pick n Pay, where over eight years he rose to National Property Development Manager — overseeing the retailer's national expansion programme and reporting directly into the Group Property Director. The skills he built there — capital allocation, long-term asset thinking, operational oversight at scale — translate directly into how Abakhulu is run today.
Kyle cofounded Zestcor in 2014, and over the following decade helped grow the group's revenue from its early-stage base to over R3 billion, while expanding from base oil distribution into lubricant blending and specialty chemicals. The group's consistent EBITDA growth through COVID, global supply disruptions, and a full buy-back of their minority shareholder reflects the operational steadiness Kyle brings to the co-CEO role.
Kyle holds a BCom in Accounting from the University of Cape Town.