Full Name: Pule Joseph Mothibe

Position and Company Name: Incoming CEO of Entsika Consulting Services

Main Activity of the Company: Entsika Consulting provides services ranging from business consulting and advisory to internal audit, engineering and construction, power, resource and infrastructure management, plant and asset management and training and development across all sectors

Date and Place of Birth: Not stated

Schools and Tertiary Education: Matric, Mmabatho High School; BCom, University of Bophuthatswana (North-West University); Postgraduate Diploma in Accountancy, University of Natal (University of KwaZulu-Natal); CA(SA)

First Job: Trainee accountant at Coopers Theron Du Toit (now part of PwC), 1993

Size of First Pay Packet: R2 000 a month

Career Path to Date: I worked for two organisations only before joining Entsika Consulting: Coopers/PwC, from 1993 to 1997, Kagiso Financial Services/Rothschilds, from 1998 to 2002, and back to PwC, from 2002 to 2022. I progressed from trainee accountant to partner, albeit with a four-and-a-half-year break at Kagiso Rothschild. My stay at Kagiso Financial Services/Rothschilds provided me with an opportunity to explore life outside auditing, as well as interesting insights into innovative financing, including DBFO and BOT transactions, and introduced me to the world of financial modelling

Value of Assets under Your Control: Not stated

Number of People under Your Leadership: Not stated

Management Style: I adopt a collaborative or consultative approach where everyone’s views count. Where we struggle to find consensus, I will make the appropriate call

Personal Best Achievement: Being asked to lead the PwC Southern Africa Assurance practice. The challenge was certainly massive, but the experience was mind-blowing

Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Life: My mother and my late father had a profound impact on my life. They loved education and asked for nothing but the best from their children

Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Career: There have been a few people who influenced my career, and they include Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, South Africa’s first black chartered accountant, and Andries Brink and Stefan Barac, the partners who employed me at Coopers Theron Du Toit and have always been there for me. More recently, PwC Southern Africa CEO Shirley Machaba, a friend from the 1990s, has always been prepared to lend an ear, especially when the chips are down

Person You Would Most Like to Meet: Jeoff Bezos

Businessperson Who Has Impressed You Most: People who start from scratch and innovators; at the moment, it is Theo Baloyi, founder of Bathu Shoes

Philosophy of Life: Be the best that you can be, but please let’s learn to be content. I have also learnt from my wife that sharing is caring

Biggest Opportunity: Being asked to assist as a part-time lecturer at the University of Bophuthatswana when they had staff challenges. It was big because it allowed me to influence African students to work towards being chartered accountants, then an exclusive career

Biggest Ever Disappointment: Not finishing the Comrades in 2013

Hope for the Future: That South Africa embraces the opportunity to be a world power

Favourite Reading: I enjoy Malcom Gladwell’s works

Favourite TV Programme: Come Dine with Me, MasterChef and My Kitchen Rules

Favourite Food: My mother’s homemade bread and my wife’s chickpea coconut curry

Favourite Drink: A good South African red wine and craft gin

Favourite Music: Jazz

Favourite Sport: Soccer

Hobbies: Running and golf

Pets: I’m the only pet allowed in the house

Married: Yes, with three daughters

Clubs: I play golf out of Randpark and run for the CSIR Running Club