From managing pensions to ensuring safer skies
Thomas Kgokolo is the founder of Fin-Equity Advisory and is currently seconded to Air Traffic and Navigation Services as the interim CEO
Your job at the Mineworkers Provident Fund puts you in charge of R28bn. What are your main tasks each day?
I am the chairperson of the audit and risk committee, which entails governance and risk management of investment decisions and financial strategy of the fund. I also hold regular reporting meetings with management to ensure that finance and investment strategies are managed in line with stakeholder expectations.
How did you find yourself doing this job?
Late in 2012, I got a call from a former colleague that the fund was looking for a young, dynamic chairperson for the audit and risk committee. This was a big break for me as the board trusted a 29-year-old to lead the committee. Moreover, I was appointed the deputy chairperson of the board of trustees at the same fund. We have since managed to grow assets under management from R16bn back in 2013 to a respectable R28bn.
What big mistake led to your biggest lesson during the course of your career?
While doing articles, I held back on my potential due to low confidence, and I have since learnt that you can never realise your full potential by playing small.
What did you want to be as a child?
I have always wanted to be medical doctor, but my late father disagreed and suggested I become an accountant.
What do you find most meaningful about the work you do?
Our main goal at Mineworkers Provident Fund is to ensure that mineworkers and their families are well looked after after retirement. The governance role I play ensures that mineworkers can retire with dignity.
At ATNS, the CEO role has allowed me to have a positive effect on the working environment of our employees, enabling them to continue providing safer skies for all our flying public.
Another critical aspect, other than being part of an aviation collective that is geared to make SA and the rest of the continent technologically competitive, is to ensure that ATNS becomes a fully fledged caring and responsible corporate citizen.
Our footprint is visible in all nine provinces. We are taking aviation to our rural communities, thereby ensuring we provide awareness and employment to those who have no post-matric study opportunities. What is the best career advice you have received, and who gave it to you?
The best career advice was “to always treat people fairly and to give my best effort irrespective of how small a task is”. This I got from my grandmother Jullieth Kgokolo
What makes someone employable?
I have a soft spot for someone with a positive attitude towards their work and colleagues.
This, and an ability to make firm and informed decisions, makes one employable.