Karen started her career in graphic design while working for Sun International in Jo’burg. Together with a colleague she initiated a magazine targeted specifically to the VIP gambling fraternity. They wrote articles, chose photographs and loved every minute of it. Karen then worked independently under an experienced designer to design and layout the magazine. It was a huge success and we did a few more issues. Karen was hooked!
Tanya is a bright, bubbly energetic woman with a real knack for business. At the moment she runs Fishing Fever at the Dulcet Centre, it sharing a building with her other business, N.3. Fire.
Tanya started off, of all places, in catering, spending a year at Fern Hill hotel. From there she moved onto a series of different adventures – guest houses, running a KFC, working as a paralegal in a debt collection company. On returning to Howick in 2009 she took up the fishing tackle shop her father had set up, while at the same time visiting clients who need their fire extinguishers regularly checked. It’s an important role as if a building doesn’t have the relevant fire protection equipment, insurance won’t pay out. As a result of this Tanya and Nicky Gray of Cook Fuller (short-term insurance) have a symbiotic relationship, each helping out the other.
There’s no doubt that Tanya likes the people interaction part of her work – she’s just a people person. It can however be trying when some (elderly) men don’t want to talk to a woman about fishing, and try to go directly to her father. While a deep sea fisherman himself, his normal reply to this is ‘Ask her’. And indeed, it’s from her customer feedback that Tanya manages to learn so fast.
Married last year, Tanya’s husband is also a high energy type of person, leaving home each morning at five-twenty and only getting back at six or seven at night. But both seem to handle the demands of their jobs well, and as Tanya says, if an opportunity opens in Joburg, they’ll take it.
And, as you can imagine, even if this means that she doesn’t need to work, she will, setting up an event management company. This is something she’s already had some practice at, her putting together all the arrangements for her own wedding at a cost of less than R10 000!
Gordon started his career as a Municipal Manager – indeed, the youngest in the role – in the North Coast. Unfortunately so effective was he, that when called in to sort out the finances of the Ulundi Municipality, and needing to fire the debtors department, he was put on a hit list. He left, farmed citrus in Richmond, and then entered the corporate world in the forestry industry.
During this time he made his way through a string of qualifications – diplomas such as the National Diploma in Company Administration, then in Public Management, then Financial Management, and then the Executive Leadership Development Programme through the UKZN.
Russell’s passion is people development, and his work, training trainers, is ideally suited to this. He was born in then Rhodesia and started off his working career as a Police Officer in the British South Africa Police, the force being regarded as being one of the best in the world at the time. He came down to SA in 1980 to join AECI. There he was involved in Training and Development and established the first security training and dog unit. Following on from this he then took up the position as Head of Security with Hulett Aluminum in Pietermaritzburg. Over the years this role changed to include services, national transport, product packaging and Health and Safety.
His work in large corporates then continued apace, his moving to Joburg for five years (and staying seventeen!). There he was appointed Managing Director of Gray Security Central Company. Three years later he was appointed as Group Executive (Inland Companies) in Gray Security and was responsible for Management Development, Liaison and Quality Assurance. He became very involved in the various National Qualification Framework structures working with the private security industry, the police, Correctional Services, Justice Department and the Legal fraternity. He was appointed as the first Deputy Chairperson of the POSLEC Seta. Frustrated with the slow implementaionof skills development strategy and the inhibitors that exist in such national structures, he made a decision in 2004 to join forces with his wife, Colleen, a Teacher and Remedial Therapist, and establish Inkwazi Learning Network. Continue reading
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