IDC CEO Geoffrey Qhena says that education is a great equaliser ahead of The CEO SleepOut™
The levels of access granted through education and opportunity are unparalleled when you consider how one born into poverty can ascend to the highest office in the land, thanks to education. CEO of the IDC Geoffrey Qhena reflects on this phenomenon.
IDC CEO Geoffrey Qhena speaks of their company's motivations for participation: “When we saw what it (The Sun International CEO SleepOut™) was capable of doing, in terms of creating awareness and through that awareness, giving back. Firstly as a company, we realise our responsibility to give as a DFI through our funding, but also on the social side.”
As a former lecturer, Geoffrey feels strongly about the way in which education can facilitate positive social change: “I also think that education has the ability to equalise: as you know, Nelson Mandela said it many times, that ‘you can take the daughter of a mineworker and make them President’ - that ability to do that, we thought as a company, we should take this challenge.”
Geoffrey as CEO of the Industrial Development Corporation of SA Limited (IDC), is heading up South Africa's leading Development Finance Institution (DFI). A Chartered Accountant qualified in 1993, Geoffrey completed a Bachelor of Accounting Science (B Compt) and B Compt Honours from the University of South Africa. He also holds a Certificate in Advanced Tax from the University of South Africa and has completed the Senior Executive Programme jointly offered by Harvard University and the University of the Witwatersrand’s Business School.
He has been a lecturer in Accounting and Auditing at Vista University Soweto Campus (now known as University of Johannesburg). Thereafter, Geoffrey joined the Transnet Group as a Senior Manager in the restructuring department. He then joined the IDC occupying different roles until he was appointed Chief Financial Officer in late 2003, and then Chief Executive Officer in 2005, a position he still occupies.
Geoffrey chairs the Board of Foskor, one of the world’s largest producers of phosphate and phosphoric acid and also serves on the Board of Acerinox S.A., one of the leading worldwide player in the stainless steel manufacturing, based in Madrid, Spain.
Geoffrey has called on the Joint CEO of the Standard Bank Group, Sim Tshabalala and the Group Chairman of Alexander Forbes Limited, Sello Moloko to Rise Up To The Challenge #4Leaders4Change