Sun International CEO Graeme Stephens nominates 7 other CEOs for The Sun International CEO SleepOut™
The Complimentary Breakfast's Rian Van Heerden catches up with Sun International CEO Graeme Stephens and you'll be surprised at what he does for his involvement at this year's The Sun International CEO SleepOut™!
As the Title Partner of The Sun International CEO SleepOut™, CEO of Sun International Graeme Stephens reflects on their participation: “We got involved last year with the inaugural one and it had a degree of appeal to me. My staff approached me to say ‘would I mind sleeping out in the streets to raise awareness of homelessness?’ and I said ‘not at all!’ So it snowballed from me seeing myself alone on the streets to being surrounded by just under 250 CEOs outside the (Johannesburg) Stock Exchange last year. It was a very special evening for us and for South Africa and we want to take it to the next level this year.”
Here's where Graeme surprises many: “I expect a lot of the guys who I challenged and pitched up last year, to come again. I’d like to add a few new challenges this year: my good friend Mark Barnes has a job as the CEO now of the (South African) Post Office - he came last year in his personal capacity. Gloria Serobe at Wiphold, I expect to see her there and her colleague Louisa Mojela. Our Premier David Makhura - we had a good evening last year, discussing the problems of the country, solving them around the fire; I’m sure David will be back, I look forward to catching up with him. Sim Tshabalala and Ben Kruger: Standard Bank are great because they’ve got TWO CEOs, so they can pay twice! And one more: Steven Ngubeni, the CEO of the Gauteng Gambling Board - we pay him a lot of taxes every year, I think it’s time he paid us back some in good stuff!”
Graeme joined Sun International on 1 October 2011 as New Business Development director. He has spent 15 years as a financial services advisor focused in particular on the tourism and leisure industry and was with Kerzner International Limited for seven years as the Senior Vice President: Project Development. Graeme was appointed as Chief Executive and to the Company’s board with effect from 1 February 2013.