Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025
March 7, 2025 3:00-5:00 p.m. (SAST)
Regional Ambassadors Hosting Events
Venue: Asla Park, 1 Henry Vos Close
Strand, (off the N2) Offices of Rovensa Next
2025 Theme: Accelerate Action : the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality
Every woman deserves the right to be heard, to lead, and to thrive. Equality is not just a dream, it’s a fundamental truth. When women are empowered, communities grow stronger, societies flourish, and the world becomes a better place for everyone. Let’s continue to break down barriers, uplift one another, and create a world where every woman can reach her full potential!
Join us for a bite to eat, a glass of wine and a fireside chat
PLEASE REGISTER HERE BEFORE 28 FEBRUARY 2025
Our Speakers
Dr Madelein Kleyn 
Dr Kleyn is Registered South African Patent attorney. She has more than 30 years experience as in-house IP counsel that includes 17 years at Sasol Limited an International petrochemical company, 12 years at Oro Agri International Limited (now Rovensa Next) an international agri company, followed by 4 years as director of Technology Transfer at Innovus, Stellenbosch University. She is presently the Chief Intellectual Property and Legal Officer at Omnisient (Pty) Ltd, a fintech start up specialising in privacy enhancing software and the licensing and monetization of data. She is also the CEO and founder of Mad K IP Consulting (Pty) Ltd which core business is advisor services relating to IP strategy, IP protection mechanisms, commercial aspects of IP. She is currently Vice President of LES SA and a Vice-President of LES International.
Her technical expertise includes petrochemicals, chemistry, process engineering, explosives, agriculture, data and software. Her main areas of IP expertise include deal negotiations and licensing, Due Diligence, IP Portfolio management, IP policy and strategy development and implementation, data privacy and data monetisation. She regularly advises on corporate governance and IP risk management and specialises in drafting and advising on IP-related business transactions, and specialises in technology transfer and licensing. Her client base spans Europe, USA, Canada and South Africa.
She has authored and presented various articles, papers and publications on IP matters internationally specifically on technology and IP licensing, trade secrets and commentaries on national IP related legislation. Her publications can be viewed on her LinkedIn Profile. She is a research fellow at the Anton Mostert Chair of IP, and has from 2014-2024 lectured the Patent an Design LLM module at Stellenbosch University, Mercantile Law department, which she developed in 2014. She also developed the course and teaches the module Technology Commercialisation at the University of Technoloft and Science, THI Business School, in Ingolstadt Germany. She is also a tutor and mentor for WIPO.
Since 2014 she is the co-editor of International Pharmaceutical Law and Practice which covers key pharmaceutical law topics in all of the major industrial countries, Published by Matthew Bender Elite Product and co-authors the South African Chapter of this publication, ISBN: 9780820557823. She published the a bundle of her articles in Eliva Press, entitled ISBN-13 : 978-9994983162 and authored a Book Chapter in Intellectual Property Management for Start-ups. Enhancing Value and Leveraging the Potential, Springer, released under ISBN 978-3-031-16992-2.
Madelein was included in the IAM Strategy 300 – The World’s Leading IP Strategists since 2015 and featured in WTR300 World’s leading trademark professionals since 2016. She has been acknowledged as a Global IP Leader by IAM 300 in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Dr Joanne van Harmelen 
Dr Joanne van Harmelen is a registered patent attorney with over 15 years of experience in the legal profession. She specialises in patent filing and prosecution in the biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and chemicals sectors as well as advising clients on related regulatory and IP commercial matters.
Her clients include leading international biotechnology companies and start-ups with operations in Africa, North America, Europe, Australasia and Asia.
Joanne has been consistently recognised as leading patent and IP lawyer by a number of rating agencies, including Chambers & Partners, IAM Global Leaders, IAM Patent 1000, Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars, The Legal 500 and Best Lawyers®. She is presently the President of LES SA.
She started off her career in academia, completing her PhD in medical microbiology and vaccine development, at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Thereafter, Joanne joined the HIV vaccine development team at UCT as chief scientific officer. At the time, the group was involved in the preparation of Phase I clinical trials to be performed in South Africa and the United States of America for a UCT-developed HIV candidate vaccine. Joanne’s contribution to the vaccine extended to being the researcher responsible for creating the DNA vaccine plasmid in the laboratory at UCT. That DNA plasmid was picked from one of only two bacterial colonies successfully generated by Joanne, after she decided not to bin the petri dish on which they were growing to start from scratch!
Joanne’s approach to advising clients is to consider holistically the commercial and intellectual property aspects of the clients’ business. She believes that an ability to be responsive to colleagues and clients is one of the most valuable assets an attorney can have.
Joanne is mother to a teenage daughter and an avid gardener and foodie. She feels that although sometimes challenging, maintaining a work-life balance is key to any professional’s sanity.