Professor Henry (Jatti) Bredekamp is the CEO of Iziko Museums of Cape Town since November 2002; and since October 2006 President of the South African National Committee of ICOM (International Council of Museums).

His origins are firmly rooted in the Overberg of the Western Cape. Born at the Genadendal Mission Station before the end of the Second World War, he began his career as a farm school teacher near Leeu Gamka in the Great Karoo. He later joined the University of the Western Cape, which he had served for twenty-seven years. He holds Master degrees in History, obtained as a Fulbright scholar from the Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA, and the UWC in South Africa. In 1976, he was appointed Lecturer-Researcher at UWC's Institute for Historical Research and moved swiftly up the ranks. In 1992, he was appointed Associate Professor and, in 1995, he succeeded the world-renowned scholar Colin Bundy as Director of the Institute at UWC.

The CEO of Iziko Museums has traveled and studied extensively. He has spent time in the USA as a Visiting Fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies of John Hopkins University in Washington D.C. in 1984, as well as an academic Fellow at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands in 1989/1990 and the Africa Studiecentrum there in 1996/1997.

Prof. Bredekamp has published prolifically on topical historical issues and is an acknowledged authority on Khoisan Revivalism and Khoikhoi identity. Since 2002 he has presented papers at the Biennial Conference of the African Studies Association in Hamburg, Germany, the International Congress on Archives in Vienna, Austria, the ICOM General Conference in Seoul, and ICOM-UK in Liverpool, ICOM-ICME in Nafplion, Greece, and most recently at the Zanzibar International Film Festival at the Serena Hotel of Stone Town.

He is the former editor of Kronos, the Journal of Cape History and since 2005 ar a member of the Editorial Board of the Korean-based International Journal of Intangible Heritage. In addition to his academic commitments, he is the Joint Project Manager of the Swedish Africa Museum Programme Network (SAMP) project on historical and contemporary slavery, as well as a Trustee of the Groot Constantia Trust and the Genadendal Mission Museum. He is also a member of the Castle Control Board, AFRICOM, and the Cross-Cultural Task Team of ICOM and the Strategic Planning Working Group of ICOM for 2008-2010 as well as a advisor on the Board of the Speaker and Chair of Parliament’s Millennium Project.

In August 2005 the Western Cape Business Opportunities Forum awarded him the Certificate of Appreciation in recognition of his contribution to the development of Black SMME’s. The following year he obtained the Samp/ALAS Certificate for attending and successfully completing the Course in Network Management in Madagascar and Sweden.

January 2007