I was born in Cape Town close to the time of the first moon landing - hence my nickname 'Buzz'. I developed an interest in playing golf from a young age and played in the South African Junior Golf Championships at the age of 16. After matriculating, I embarked on Chemical Engineering studies at UCT in 1988 and had a bursary from the mining house, JCI. After discovering my true interests, I changed the direction of my studies to Chemistry and Computer Science. I finally graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry in 1993.

After graduating, I worked for Grace Dearborn, a leading water management company in South Africa, both in the laboratory and as a technical sales consultant. In 1995, I joined a subsidiary of Iscor Ltd, Suprachem (Pty) Ltd, a company focused on adding value to chemical and related waste and by-products from the steel industry. I started in sales, moved on to market development and in 1998 became Suprachem’s Business Development Manager and, shortly thereafter, also the Business Manager for Nu-Rock South Africa, a newly created joint venture company between Suprachem and Nu-Rock in Australia which was started from one of my business development projects to agglomerate steel mill and other industrial waste and by-products into useable building materials (aggregates, bricks, blocks, pavers, etc). I managed the project from laboratory scale to commercialisation.

In 2002, I completed an MBA at Wits with the aim of starting my own business. Subsequently, I consulted to Mittal Steel (now ArcelorMittal) on value addition to their waste and by-products, started a building renovations business (Square Tortoise CC) and, purchased, redesigned and re- launched a time capsule concept for parents to collect and store memories and mementoes from their baby’s first year, called Memory PodTM.

In 2006, I took up an opportunity as Assistant to the Managing Director at Holcim (South Africa), now called AfriSam (South Africa), where I was also tasked with the coordination of the company’s Business Risk Management.

I joined the Gordon Institute of Business Science (University of Pretoria's Business School) in September 2007 as a full-time lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Operations. In February 2010, I moved to the Adjunct Faculty position with GIBS, allowing me to continue lecturing, as well as, pursue my private business ventures and grow my business improvement & coaching consultancy. In support of pursuing excellence in my coaching practice, I embarked on and successfully completed a Certificate in Leadership Coaching at my alma mater, Wits Business School.

I got married to Frances in 1994 and we have four wonderful children aged 9, 9, 8 and 3. We had twins at the start of my MBA and the third child during my electives and research. They were such a blessing to us that we even had a fourth child! We all enjoy various sports including golf, tennis, cricket, soccer, rugby and swimming.