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Thagaran Govender: A class act

Thagaran Govender was the top 10 finalist for the IITPSA's 2016 Visionary CIO Award.

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 24 Nov 2016
Thagaran Govender: We need to skill our children with very strong technology grounding at primary school level.
Thagaran Govender: We need to skill our children with very strong technology grounding at primary school level.

Govender was in the first non-white graduating glass in 1994 to have been offered computer studies as a matric subject. "My teacher at the time basically told me after a week that I wasn't going to cut it. That pushed me to keep going, and if I had to pick a career today, I wouldn't want to do anything else."

Govender was awarded a scholarship, and went to Boston to study computer engineering. Once there, he was offered an internship at the State Street bank, a Fortune 500 company, which sponsored the rest of his education.

Graduating in 1999, Govender returned home to head IT at Icasa. "I thought I was skilled enough; we needed black professionals."

He spent five years as Group CIO of Transnet, and then moved to the Land Bank to help turn the organisation around. He then joined Mercantile Bank as CIO.

"There are many things we've done in terms of IT; we have a sustainable organisation, but a standout is that the bank is growing 20% year on year, while other banks are growing between four and seven percent."

He believes the use of technology in education, particularly in primary education, is vitally imporant. "If we can skill our students with very strong technology grounding at primary and secondary school level, we'll make a world of difrence."

Read about the other Visionary CIO finalists

ASHLEY VEASEY
BRENDA NIEHAUS
JAMIE WHITTAKER
LEN DE VILLIERS
LIBISI MAPHANGA
PETER ALKEMA
RIDWAAN BARDIEN
SEAN MARITZ
TRAVIS DEWING

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