Prof Skae speaks to 180 business leaders

Professor Owen Skae, Director of the Rhodes Investec Business School (RIBS), will be addressing 180 business leaders at business leaders’ breakfast aimed at representing the construction industry. His focus will be around ‘Leadership and Sustainability’, however, he will also spend some time on the theme of (Business) ‘Competitiveness’.

The breakfast, hosted by PMR.africa, will take place on Monday 12 April in Rosbeank, Johannesburg. Prof Skae said, “I am honoured to have been given this opportunity as the construction industry has the potential to be the most visible industry to highlight sustainable business practices, whether it is eco responsible buildings, job creation or contribution to our national competitiveness through infrastructure development.”

Professor Skae has a wide and varied background in the private sector, consulting arena, academia and most recently an international organisation, but his heart has always been in the university environment.

He has spent some “tough” years in the textile industry, in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. After that, he taught prospective CAs at the School of Accounting at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where he was an Associate Professor in Managerial Accounting and Finance.

Most recently he worked for the International Trade Centre, (the joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation) in Geneva where he worked extensively in countries all over the world, advising at the highest level on priorities for addressing national competitiveness and ensuring effective public and private sector cooperation in developing export strategies for sustainable human development.

Pic by: Gabi Falanga.