Change, dreams and community
- By Vivienne Rowland
Graduates from the Wits Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management were reminded of three important things in their path ahead: change, dreams and community.
These were the themes of the address delivered by the invited speaker, Willem van der Post, a partner at Deloitte South Africa.
“We live in a world that is known for one constant and that constant is change. The world around is moves and changes rapidly and graduates are affected directly by this. By the time you are employed after completing your degree, your degree is already outdated. This changing world poses you with a challenge: successful companies of the future are looking for technologically advanced and innovative thinking graduates,” said Van der Post.
On dreams he said: “Dreams are built on the back of sweat. Success comes with an immense amount of hard work. The view from the top is breath taking, and I hope you enjoy the climb.”
Van der Post also urged the graduates to go back to their communities and share the knowledge that they have gleaned from their personal experiences. “South Africa is in dire need of leaders – socially, spiritually and politically. It is your duty and I implore you to go back to your communities.”
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About Willem van der Post
Willem van der Post is a partner at Deloitte South Africa, where he specialises in financial services.
Van der Post has been in several positions at Deloitte worldwide, having been the audit manager at Deloitte UK and Deloitte Australia.
Before he specialised in financial services, Van der Post was the national recruitment partner at Deloitte South Africa. In this role he was responsible for building a talent acquisition business within the Deloitte partnership.
This included workflow design, implementing database management systems, designing and implementing a team structure, creating the strategic go-to-market marketing campaign, design and functioning of an appropriate billing and collection system, and strategically managing the innovation and improvement aspects of the business unit.
Van der Post has qualifications from the University of Cape Town, the UCT Graduate School of Business and the University of Stellenbosch.