SA’s hidden advantage just begging to be called on
By Alec Hogg
After last week's Springbok performance, being South African in Ireland this week hasn't been easy. Thankfully, seeing Gail Kelly in the headlines provided some relief. Nedbank's one-time credit card head hit the global business news headlines when announcing that in February she will step down as CEO of Westpac. The giant Australian banking group has a market cap of a trillion rand – enough to buy the entire SA banking sector and have a hundred or so billion left over. Ranked one of the most powerful women in the world, Gail Kelly has done her nation proud since emigrating in 1997.
After a recent newsletter, an old pal reminded me that apart from the obvious names I'd mentioned there (Gail was not among them), a long list of other South Africans have made it big in international business. Natie Kirsh, owner of US food services group Jetro is easily forgotten because this is a private company. But the company started from scratch by Kirsh is worth many billions – in US Dollars. Of a similar vintage one can add since relocated insurance and property tycoon Donald Gordon and hotelier Sol Kerzner.
Then there's Giam Swiegers, who is leaving his job as CEO of Deloitte Australia in February to run the 7 500 employee global engineering group Aurecon. And Roelof Botha, once SA's youngest actuary, whose career at Sequoia Capital has made him one of Silicon Valley's biggest names. Botha is right up there with Pretoria Boys High educated Elon Musk, often rated "America's best entrepreneur" nowadays. And Musk chairs the company run by his cousins, Lyndon and Peter Rive, whose 6 000 employee SolarCity is America's largest solar power provider.
A proud list, and one South Africa's political leadership should be dipping into for support, guidance and intros. In this increasingly competitive world, small countries like SA have to use every possible edge. The country's successful business expats might physically never return to the smaller arena at the southern tip of Africa. But like every small town kid who makes it big, their hearts will never leave. Something worth remembering.
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