Dr Andy’s early years were spent between Limpopo and Soweto, where his entrepreneurial grandfather and supportive parents played a formative role. “My grandfather was one of the early black entrepreneurs in Limpopo. He used to run several successful businesses so I spent most of my time with him, especially during school holidays,” the group CTO at Altron recalls fondly.
From a young age he was drawn to understanding how things worked, which often meant breaking them apart and putting them back together. “At about the age of five, I already knew that I was going to be an engineer. I was already dismantling toys trying to figure out what was inside and how each component worked together,” he says.
This innate curiosity led to the University of Cape Town where he studied electrical and computer engineering. He then joined Transnet Freight Rail, working on commissioning locomotives and developing expertise in power, control and diagnostic systems.
“Engineering taught me first principles thinking, which became essential when I entered the world of IT. Many IT environments are complex because over time organisations have purchased leading vendor technologies without always considering the business case. At Transnet Freight Rail the difference was clear. When you are standing next to a locomotive that weighs a hundred tons there is no room for error,” he explains.
Dr Andy’s transition from engineering into technology leadership was defined by his ability to adapt technical problem-solving skills to broader business contexts. While engineering requires precision, technology management requires balancing precision with people and process. “The shift is from being the one who writes the code or builds the system, to the one who makes sure the environment exists for those systems to succeed,” he says.
His philosophy is to ground decisions in the business problem rather than chasing every new trend. “You cannot be solving a problem you do not understand. Technology must be applied where it makes sense and where it creates value.”
Steering customer-centric innovation
As a leader he believes in empowering his team and holding them accountable. “If you hire the right people, you don’t have to micromanage them. I think micro-management is an inefficient process so I give my team the flexibility to work in their own ways, but I also hold them accountable for results.” Recognising and rewarding performance is another priority for efficient team management but addressing underperformance directly is equally important for team morale.
The nature of his role means no two days are the same. Some days are spent on strategic planning, others on negotiations with customers, and others on operational challenges. “You could be in the boardroom in the morning and on a customer site in the afternoon and I really enjoy that. I like to think on the fly, so I love that my job allows me to deal with diverse problems everyday,” he says.
At Altron, Dr Andy balances customer engagement with driving innovation. Direct interaction with clients across industries is a key source of inspiration for him. “When you sit with a customer and they explain their pain points, it forces you to think differently. That is where the real innovation happens,” he says.
He places emphasis on collaborative innovation, where solutions are co-created with customers. Within his teams, agility and creativity are maintained through structured collaboration and exposure to external ideas. “You cannot innovate in isolation. You need rhythm internally and engagement externally.”
Dr Andy is leading Altron’s AI adoption strategy, which is built on four pillars: empowering leadership, empowering the workforce, embedding AI in business processes and enhancing customer solutions with AI.
“The first step for us at Altron was to empower our leadership team on ethical AI use to help enhance productivity and improve daily decision-making. We have also empowered our workforce to leverage AI tools and have developed clear AI guidelines and policies,” he explains.
AI as a productivity partner
For him, the focus is people and making the right tools available to them. “AI is not about replacing people. It is about unlocking human potential. It is about taking away repetitive tasks so people can focus on higher-value work.”
He rejects the narrative that AI should be used primarily for cost-cutting and highlights the adaptability of human beings. “We’ve experienced many transformative moments as a species, from starting fires to electricity, and the industrial revolution. What makes us special as humans is our ability to adapt,” he says.
He believes implementing AI should always start with people and encourages IT leaders to use AI-driven technologies to give people better access to information and services, citing examples such as using AI to accelerate digital transformation in municipalities to build tech-driven African cities.
Additionally, he stresses that AI should not be used as a crutch but as a productivity partner. Employees must remain responsible and accountable for output.
Looking at the CIO role today, Dr Andy sees a fundamental shift. “The CIO is no longer just running IT as a support function. You are expected to be at the centre of business value creation,” he explains.
He believes the rise of AI will increase this expectation. “The CIO must be part of the value chain, part of customer delivery, part of the conversation about where the business is going. That is the future.”
Learning together
Reflecting on his career journey, Dr Andy recalled the challenges of moving from academia into the workplace. He values the lessons in adaptability and the importance of knowing when to move on that this period of his career taught him. To date, one of his guiding principles is not to tie his identity too tightly to his job. “I treat work as a hobby. I enjoy it, but I do not want to be defined only by it.”
Beyond his role at Altron, Dr Andy holds a doctorate in philosophy and computer science with a focus on machine ethics and computational morality and regularly contributes to the broader technology ecosystem. He regularly reviews submissions for international technology journals, feeding his love for research and academia.
Mentorship, particularly of young men, is another priority. “I coach young men on career and life skills. I think it’s important for me to share my experiences and help them navigate challenges,” he says.
When he’s not leading the tech strategy at Altron, you can find him on The Links playing a round of golf. If he were not in technology, Dr Andy said he might have pursued a career as a professional cricketer.
As a leader and mentor, he has drawn inspiration from Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown’s Multipliers. “The book is about being a leader who multiplies and empowers others to lead and it changed the way I think about leadership. I like the concept that the best engineers are lazy, which is why I empower my team to learn to do things and if something goes wrong, we can learn together and improve,” he concludes.



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