Kyle was born in Johannesburg and grew up in Zimbabwe. He began his working life as an apprentice with the Zimbabwe National Parks before training as a deep-sea diver and subsea welder in the UK. Kyle worked in the subsea construction industry from 1996 to 2007 where he was involved in oil field construction, cable laying and salvage projects in South East Asia, China, Africa, UK and USA. In July 2007 Kyle enrolled at the Beijing Language and Culture University to study Chinese and the following year attended Tsinghua University where he was involved in researching the expansion of Chinese oil companies into Africa. Kyle spent the following 3 years with Joy Global in China, a multi-national manufacturer of coal mining equipment, where he was responsible for tendering and project managing the delivery and installation of underground equipment into Chinese state-owned mines. On his return to South Africa in 2012, Kyle began working with Lombard Insurance Company to develop their China-Africa business. Lombard has a partnership with a Chinese insurance company through which they service Chinese construction companies operating in Africa. Kyle travels extensively in Africa and China. He holds an MBA from Wits Business School and Pontificia Universidad Catolica in Chile. He is reasonably proficient in Chinese, Indonesian, Spanish and ChiShona. Kyle and his wife Meryl are the founders of LinguaMites Trilingual Preschool in Johannesburg which offers preschool education in Chinese, English and isiZulu. Kyle has two children, Zipporah and Titus; who were both born in Beijing.

Last Modified: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 15:33:58 SAST