Dr Pillay is the Chief Executive Officer of the Durban Textile and Leather Incubator (DTLI) that was established as a Non-Profit Company and began operating at the DUT Fashion Dept, 96 Felix Dlamini Street in April 2023. The Incubator has since moved to a building at 126 Johannes Nkosi that was provided to the incubator by eThekwini Municipality. DTLI is the result of a partnership involving SEDA STP and eThekwini Municipality. The aim of the new business incubator is to develop and grow sustainable SMMEs in the Clothing, Textiles, Footwear and Leather Sector. This sector was once thriving industry in KwaZulu-Natal that was almost destroyed in the 1980’s because of cheaper imports. Between April 2023 and March 2025 DTLI supported and grew 96 SMMEs to become suppliers to the local economy and for some SMMEs to export their products internationally. The incubator has also developed programmes to address the needs of Industry and a further programme to introduce SMMEs and Cooperatives to Entrepreneurship and 4IR in partnership with FP&M Seta. The Incubator achieved a clean audit for the 2023/24 FY. It has also partnered with CSIR to develop two R&D projects that are aligned to the circular economy. These include the development of material from cannabis/hemp waste and the recycling of fabric. Prior to the setting up of DTLI, Dr Pillay established the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Rapid Incubator (CSERI) at DUT (ML Sultan Campus in July 2015. The CSERI grew into a strong and sustainable incubator that continues to support and grow SMMEs across all sectors. Besides her experience within the business incubator ecosystem, Dr Pillay served as an educator and lecturer for many years. She supervised Master’s and PhD students while she was at DUT. She presented papers on Social Entrepreneurship internationally and co-published articles as well as contributed chapters in two books on social entrepreneurship. Dr Pillay served as the Coordinator of Entrepreneurial Universities: Community of Practice at Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) for four years during which time she co-supervised the Baseline Study for Entrepreneurship at Universities in South Africa.