About SYNAQ
For the last 20 years SYNAQ has been delivering confidence, efficiency & security to South Africa’s biggest brands.
Our Management Team
David Jacobson
In 2004, David co-founded SYNAQ with the vision of delivering cloud communication services powered by Linux and Open-Source technology. By 2010, SYNAQ was recognized by Forbes as one of the top 20 tech companies in Africa. A thought-leader in his field, David is a member of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) and mentors aspiring founders at organizations such as the Branson Centre, Start-up Bootcamp, and EO Accelerator.
Thirusha Chetty
Thirusha Chetty is the Managing Director of SYNAQ, a Chartered CIO, and one of South Africa's Top 100 Influential Women in Tech. With a Master's in Digital Business Management she is a recognised industry speaker and technology contributor, actively shaping the national digital agenda through editorial contributions and policy work, including the drafting of the South African AI Act. With global executive experience, Thirusha leads SYNAQ's strategic execution and innovation agenda—delivering secure, people-centred solutions that scale with purpose, from Africa to the world.
Sam Gelbart
Sam has been with SYNAQ for over a decade, leading the development of internal products and managing the company's cloud platforms. A passionate technologist with a focus on big data, he oversees SYNAQ's multi-terabyte Elasticsearch data cluster and analyses data for both customers and the business. As a shareholder and one of SYNAQ's initial angel investors, Sam holds a B.Com degree in Economics and Industrial Psychology.
Lodewyk de Kock
Lodewyk oversees SYNAQ's Technical Operations, leading Engineering and Support to deliver secure, high-availability services. He brings deep expertise in infrastructure, email security, and data centre operations, aligning technical delivery with SYNAQ's growth and innovation goals.
Lucas van der Merwe
With over 15 years of experience in B2B sales leadership, Lucas has built his career on genuinely understanding people's problems before trying to solve them. He's led and rebuilt high-performing sales teams from the ground up, consistently turning under-performing divisions into top performers through disciplined forecasting, thoughtful incentive design, and hands-on coaching. Lucas is passionate about developing talent and building strong, collaborative teams — and brings that same commitment to growing SYNAQ's customer base and partner ecosystem.