Paul Malherbe

I grew up on a farm in the Northern Cape, the driest and most arid province of South Africa. The climate of this birthplace exposed me early on to both the beauty and the harshness of life.

Formally, I hold an undergraduate degree in finance, complemented by a master’s degree in business as well as attending Harvard Business School on strategic and leadership dynamics. I spent almost a decade at the helm of a multinational organisation headquartered in Europe, represented through multiple African offices in more than 20 sub-Saharan Africa countries. I was privileged to spend 13 years at the coal-face of SME financing and entrepreneurial mentorship in South Africa. I travelled more than 40 countries across Africa, through Europe and North America, sat in many conferences and addressed many a distinguished audience about SME’s, business development and enterprise growth. In the leadership role of a large company I held boardrooms in my hand with strategy, structure, vision and team, knowing you cannot do it alone.

The boardroom battles and market strategy hold nothing to the harshness of sitting with a business owner, who has given their all, whom you have worked with to turn their business, till they finally slide you the keys to the business across the table with an “I cannot anymore”. The harshness of a restructure, walking with a colleague through a retrenchment in a corporate re-boot.

The accolades, travels and the corporate acquisitions hold nothing to the beauty of a business vision when an entrepreneur finally opens the front door for the first time, giving birth to a life-long dream. The beauty of a brilliant mind, a colleague, a protégé, a friend, whom you mentor and guide to unlock their potential and soar in their own confidence.

Life is filled with beauty and harshness. Life and business centre around people – how we treat them, respect them, recognise them. And through that, change their lives and that of those around them; changing a village.

Like my partner David, one of my favourite quotes is Teddy Roosevelt’s “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”. Well, sometimes, you can do more, because you are there.