Shashi Hansjee, CEO of Entelect, has scooped the coveted 2017 IT Personality of the Year title.
This was announced tonight at the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) President's Awards, held at Urban Tree in Sandton.
This year marks the 39th IT Personality of the Year Award and the 60th anniversary of the Institute, previously the Computer Society of South Africa.
Presented by the IITPSA, in association with ITWeb, the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and Gartner Africa, the IT personality accolade recognises a person who has made an outstanding impact on the SA ICT industry over the past year and a significant contribution to the IT profession.
Presenting the award to Hansjee, last year's winner Sbu Shabalala, CEO of Adapt IT, said last year's accolade was the first time he had been recognised for his efforts since he started the company.
"Last year was the first time that someone actually gave me an award and I looked back at the people who had received the award before, the likes of Mteto Nyati, and I told myself that I should not disappoint," Shabalala said.
Accepting the award, Hansjee said: "As Entelect, we are quite lucky to work with a whole lot of businesses - we have people creating jobs; we have people training IT skills. I would want to thank the IITPSA for this award."
He also took time to acknowledge his team, saying: "Our talent pool is world-class and that's an exciting team to be part of."
Nurturing software talent
Hansjee is passionate about creating an environment where SA's top software talent can be nurtured and developed.
During his time at Entelect, he has grown the organisation from 70 employees to 450 full-time staff over the past seven years, and has increased its presence from Johannesburg only, to Cape Town and Pretoria too.
"We have changed from the kind of organisation that looks to sell skills to one that looks to build skills, and one that values the strength of employer brand and culture.
"Our entire philosophy over the last seven years has been around training and development...We are one of the few companies that takes on 10% to 20% of our workforce annually in graduates."
Stiff competition
Hansjee faced off against eight remarkable finalists:
* Annette Muller, founder of on-demand workforce platform Flexy and DotNXT
* Baratang Miya, founder of GirlHype Coders Academy
* Karen Nadasen, CEO of PayU South Africa
* Mixo Ngoveni, founder of Geekulcha
* Nico Steyn, co-founder and CEO of IoT.nxt
* Reshaad Sha, executive director of Dark Fibre Africa and CEO of SqwidNet
* Yvone Thobile Mabuza, founder and managing member of Elangeni Consulting Services
* Jaco Maass, senior manager: ICT at BKB
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