Christiaan Engelbrecht (pictured), who has worked previously for Vodacom, Deloitte UK and Deloitte, took on the role of CFO for Ster-Kinekor from 1 November. We caught up with him to find out how things are going. "If you ask how I feel about my appointment it is difficult to put into words how humbled I am to be considered for this role and how excited I am to co-create with and learn from everyone in Ster-Kinekor and Primedia.”
How do you feel about your appointment as Ster-Kinekor CFO?
"As a first year student at TUKS, I remember the Head of the Accounting Department saying that one out of three students would graduate, one of ten students would complete articles, and one of a hundred would be a CFO/FD. The accuracy of these stats are debatable, however, being appointed as a CFO certainly feels like one has reached a major milestone in your career. On top of that to have the privilege working with a high calibre CEO such as Wanda Matandela is a blessing I wish I could share with everyone. The industry is over-the-top exciting and the quality of leaders at Ster-Kinekor and our holding company, Primedia, are aspirational to say the least."
"If you ask how I feel about my appointment it is difficult to put into words how humbled I am to be considered for this role and how excited I am to co-create with and learn from everyone in Ster-Kinekor and Primedia."
What will you set out to achieve?
"The entire Ster-Kinekor Theatre C-suite was changed within the last year; something that could disrupt any business. We are now putting the strategic and operational frameworks in place to move from a good business to a great business. It is critical that I, together with my teams, keep relevant. We have set ourselves the challenge to move from a predominantly back office, reactive, traditional finance function into strategic finance partnering function where we add insight and value to business."
How will your past experience at Deloitte and Vodacom help you?
"I have been very fortunate to have had careers at large organisations, filled with the diversity of experiences that equipped me for a CFO role. Deloitte set the foundations for thinking thoroughly and challenging the norm for continuous enhancement of Deloitte and its clients' businesses. Vodacom taught me large corporation and listed paradigms, organisational governance and operational efficiencies."
"What I will hold most dearly from both these companies is the holistic training, relationship building and networking opportunities they create for their employees."
What would like to discuss or learn with or from other CFOs?
"We live in a world where change has become the only constant, where technology is evolving so fast that accounting functions will be completely different in the next few years and where we live with a lot of uncertainty about the political, economic and environmental arena. My aim is to converse with the broader CFO community to ensure we stay at the forefront of finance; to ensure that we keep creating value for our stakeholders and to continue to enhance the work-experience for the people in our departments."
