Jaci holds an undergraduate and Master's degree (by research) in Chemical Engineering from the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa and an MBA (cum laude) from the University of Pretoria. She started her career in industry at AECI’s Research Department as a Process Engineer before moving to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, as Programme Manager for Food Science and Technology. In 2005, she became the Chief Operations Officer of Wits Enterprise, the wholly-owned commercialisation company of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. In 2007, Jaci moved to Port Elizabeth and established the Innovation Office at Nelson Mandela University where she was Director until June 2017 as well as CEO of Innovolve, the university’s wholly-owned commercialisation company. In that role, she was responsible for research contracts, Intellectual Property protection, commercialisation, and incubation. 

While Director of the Innovation Office, Jaci established and was chair of the Regional Innovation Forum in Port Elizabeth and established Propella, a business incubator in Port Elizabeth. She was previously the President of the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association, SARIMA, and is still the Chair of the Course Review Committee for the global Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals, ATTP. Jaci is a Registered Technology Transfer Professional.

Jaci joined the University of Bristol, in June 2017, as Senior Investment and Commercialisation Manager and was appointed as Head of Research Commercialisation and Investment in 2019.