Nicola Theron is an extraordinary professor at the Economics Department, University of Stellenbosch and managing director at Econex, an economic consulting firm based in Stellenbosch. She holds a Masters degree in Economics cum laude from the University of Pretoria, and a PhD (Economics) from the University of Stellenbosch.
Prof. Theron has been actively involved in competition economics for the past 17 years, both in an academic and consulting capacity. Prof Theron teaches competition economics and industrial organisation at undergraduate and graduate levels. She is also involved in study guidance for graduate students and regularly contributes to the academic debate through papers at conferences and publications in leading journals.
Prof. Theron has provided expert economic advice to many of the large corporations in South Africa, as well as to the competition authorities. Some high-profile competition cases in which Prof. Theron provided expert testimony before the Tribunal include: SAA/ Nationwide (for SAA), Senwes (for the Commission), BATSA/ JTI (for BATSA), Primedia/Kaya FM (for Primedia), Protector (for MediClinic), Kansai/ Freeworld (for the Commission), Life Healthcare (for Life), and most recently for Computicket (for Computicket).
Prof. Theron has also acted as an expert witness before other regulatory bodies, e.g. before the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA), on mobile termination rates and the proposed Vodacom/ Neotel merger, and before The National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa), on pipeline tariffs).
She also served as a part-time member of the Competition Tribunal during 2008 and 2009. She has again been listed as an expert economist by the GCR Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers and Economists (2017).