Cobus van der Merwe is a former army man who has managed to carve out an impressive second career in defence technology. He’s an experienced negotiation team leader in both partnership establishment and contract closure in land warfare and aviation systems. He is currently a senior executive specialising in electronic warfare at Saab Grintek Defense, based in Centurion, South Africa.
Cobus has extensive experience in leading defence-level operational test and evaluation teams and performing customer value engineering. In this conversation, taped a couple of months ago, Cobus shares insights gleaned from an extensive defence career which straddled the seismic shifts which occurred within South Africa’s socio-economic landscape over the last three or four decades.
Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission.
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Cobus van der Merwe is a former army man who has managed to carve out an impressive second career in defence technology. He’s an experienced negotiation team leader in both partnership establishment and contract closure in land warfare and aviation systems. He is currently a senior executive specialising in electronic warfare at Saab Grintek Defense, based in Centurion, South Africa.
Cobus has extensive experience in leading defence-level operational test and evaluation teams and performing customer value engineering. In this conversation, taped a couple of months ago, Cobus shares insights gleaned from an extensive defence career which straddled the seismic shifts which occurred within South Africa’s socio-economic landscape over the last three or four decades.
Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission.
Oliver Fortuin heads up BT’s (formerly British Telecoms) operations in Sub-Saharan Africa, where he is tasked with leading the charge for a legacy ICT institution (that is nearly two centuries old) in some of the world’s most promising developing markets.
Prior to joining BT, Oliver held executive positions at i1 Solutions, HP and IBM, and earned an MBA from the Open University, UK.
In addition to chatting about his upbringing and his journey up the corporate ladder, the conversation touches on everything from macroeconomics to business challenges that keep Oliver and his team on their toes.
Be sure to listen in if only to hear Oliver’s answer when asked (rather unfairly) what disruptive trend could potentially render BT redundant in the next decade.
Music Credits:
All music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission.
African Tech Conversations
Cobus van der Merwe is a former army man who has managed to carve out an impressive second career in defence technology. He’s an experienced negotiation team leader in both partnership establishment and contract closure in land warfare and aviation systems. He is currently a senior executive specialising in electronic warfare at Saab Grintek Defense, based in Centurion, South Africa.
Cobus has extensive experience in leading defence-level operational test and evaluation teams and performing customer value engineering. In this conversation, taped a couple of months ago, Cobus shares insights gleaned from an extensive defence career which straddled the seismic shifts which occurred within South Africa’s socio-economic landscape over the last three or four decades.
Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission.
