I remember one morning, a couple of weeks ago, while sitting at a table at Europa@Hub, I noticed another lone coffee drinker, a little way off.

A few days later I was introduced to Johan Swart, the newly appointed Project Coordinator for the ACTIVATOR™ Programme.

Johan has vast experience in both the public and the private sectors, and has held senior management positions for the last 27 years. He seems tailor-made for his role as co-ordinator of the Activator™ projects.

I arranged a meeting to find out who he is, where he comes from and how he sees his role at ACTIVATOR™? “I see ACTIVATOR™ as an enabling business brokerage with the mandate to take conceptual innovation ideas and assist them in reaching commercial viability. This, in turn, is given the necessary impetus by involving our academic institutions, industry, research institutions and government, in the process”, explains Johan after relating some of the career highlights he has enjoyed. “

At the age of 23 I took my first management post and, after a couple of “development jobs”, joined the Randburg City Council as a training officer. I became heavily involved in the organisational transformation and eventually served as Executive Officer at the Johannesburg Metropolitan Council.” In the early 1980’s Johan drafted the first affirmative action policy for Local Government and held strong views on the value of adult education, a pioneering stance at the time, to say the least. Once the political decision was taken by Government to proceed with the development of a Mega City, Professor Padajachee (the newly appointed CEO at the time) didn’t hesitate to get Johan on board. His role as Executive Officer at the Johannesburg Metropolitan Council, was a definite career highlight. “It was a huge promotion and my role involved heading up the task team that negotiated the process of re-deploying 34000 members of staff from 13 organisations into one Mega City. We achieved the best success rate on a global scale for that sort of initiative, only experiencing six redundancies out of 34000 employees.”

After 11 years of service Johan left the public for the private sector, having completed a MBA degree at Newport University. “During that time – the early 1990’s – there was great international pressure on South Africa to transform and most local universities were not internationally accredited. I chose to obtain my MBA through distance education and had to make great personal sacrifices to attend the various ‘study school’ events at Newport University, based in California, USA.” Although Johan’s studies were paid for, his tickets travel and accommodation costs were not, but he did all in his power to ensure that he was in attendance.

In the private sector Johan acted as the Business Development Director at Voicetech, VOX and later Business Development and Human Resources Director at Five Mobile Networks. Here he was involved in the tender for the third Cellular Network in South Africa that was ultimately won by Cell C. Not deterred, Johan took the bid to Mozambique where his interests eventually expanded to property development, import and export and the support of emerging business. No stranger to the turbulence of high-end business, Johan displays that quality always noticeable in the movers amongst us; a wonderful sense of humour and a never-say-die determination.

“When I saw the advert, I immediately decided to apply for the Project Coordinator post at ACTIVATOR™, because my focus and passion has been to develop and support emerging business and I view The Innovation Hub as a place where free-thinkers can collaborate to produce the solutions for the future. I see my involvement here as a calling and my vision is to promote ACTIVATOR™ as a dynamic, noteworthy presence in the quest to stimulate growth and development while ensuring that the marketing mix received due attention in order to reach our goal of creating clusters in ICT, Biotechnology & Aerospace”

I asked Johan about his hobbies and the fact that he obviously houses a creative spirit in that he lists activities such as writing music reviews, painting, photography, growing trees and restoring classic motor bikes as pastime pleasures. Upon this he laughs and says “I am from a creative family. Although both my parents were teachers; my mom busied herself with stage directing, while my father painted in his free time. I love to go to extremes; from cave exploration to scuba diving, growing my trees to the art of writing, painting and photography.”

As self proclaimed bachelor, it is a given fact that Johan has enjoyed many adventures along the way, and will still ensure that he is never left out where “things are happening”. It is wonderful to share in his enthusiasm for the task ahead, because right now I would say; Johan Swart is eager to get to work. So if you have not run into him yet be sure that he will seek you out for a warm hello and a chat. Welcome to The Innovation Hub, Johan. May your time here prove to be both challenging and satisfying!

For more information contact Johan at jswart@theinnovationhub.com

Johan Swart is the newly appointed Project Coordinator for the ACTIVATOR™ Programme.