Anita Loots is a professional engineer. She graduated in South Africa and worked as a structural design engineer and specialist in construction materials in private sector and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa, where she later became responsible for Strategic Innovation Management interventions across the organisation.
In 2000, she became the Managing Director of Quo-Tec Limited (UK) - a technology strategy and project management consultancy) and worked across several disciplines and industries for the benefit of large UK government-funded strategic research and development programs.
She returned to South Africa in 2004 and started a small consultancy. She had several contracts during the early years (Department of Public Works South Africa, Square Kilometre Array (SKA SA) through the National Research Foundation, Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Executive position, nuclear industry)) but over time devoted more attention to the SKA SA Project in South Africa. As Associate Director, she has handled various portfolios within the SKA SA and is currently responsible for the initiation and implementation of the African VLBI Network (AVN) to engage all African SKA partner countries through capacity building programs, establishment of VLBI-capable telescope systems, enabling institutional and governance programs for SKA Readiness on the continent.
She is a “student for life” and part-time researcher in engineering (working towards her PhD in Engineering Management), is passionate about development of young people and is an outdoors and sports enthusiast. She is a member of the Engineering Council of South Africa, and the South African Institute for Civil Engineers and serves on the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) for ASTRON in the Netherlands.