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Alex van den Heever holds the Chair of Social Security Systems Administration and Management Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.

He has a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Cape Town and has worked in the areas of health economics and finance, public finance and social security in various capacities since 1989. This includes participation in the Melamet Commission of Inquiry into Medical Schemes (1993–4), the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into Comprehensive Social Security (2000–2), and the Ministerial Task team on Social Health Insurance (2003–5).

He has also held positions in the Department of Finance (Central Economic Advisory Services), the Industrial Development Corporation, the Centre for Health Policy at the University of the Witwatersrand and the Gauteng Department of Health.

Over the period 2000 to 2010 he worked as an advisor to the Council for Medical Schemes, the establishment of which he was partly responsible for, together with the regulatory framework, and in an advisory capacity to the social security policy processes (including the Department of Social Development, the National Treasury, the Inter-departmental Task Team on Social Security), taking forward the recommendations of the Taylor Committee, and the Competition Commission (regarding private health markets).

He has published extensively in the fields of health policy, the implementation and review of health public private partnerships, and the regulation of health systems.