Peter Skei

I have participated as a youth leader from my high school days, in various spheres of society and was an elected leader in local, provincial, national, and international organisations. These leadership roles prepared me well for my eventual participation in the world of work, which I outline below. In all these endeavours, I always maintained a healthy participation and support of sports and music performances. Currently I still actively participate in road running events that include ultra-marathons as my life-long commitment to healthy living.
My commitment as a youth leader to the economic empowerment of young people in South Africa has become an everlasting passion to encourage business development and growth. As a leader in business, I value most the opportunity I had been offered to mentor and coach managers, including my role as leader of talent management initiatives and workplace forums over and above my executive roles. I was honoured to participate in executive management and leadership development programmes of the international Daimler Academy. These international executive management programmes offered the opportunity to enhance my skills and abilities to manage in executive roles.
This assisted me to excel in complex roles that include working with automotive production engineers as a product manager, to working with owners of car franchises as dealer development head of Mercedes- Benz South Africa and working as part of the global sales team in Stuttgart, Germany. I was intimately involved with the automotive global supply chain and product life-cycle management across various continents and countries which deepened my core skills such as strategic planning, project management, finance, quality management and entrepreneurship. The opportunity to display my entrepreneurial abilities came as Managing Head of the Mitsubishi Motors South Africa and later as the Franchise Head for the New Vaal Motors Group (major automotive car dealership group). In these roles my responsibilities included achieving numerous operating targets such as sales (R billions), profits and other key outcomes.
Whilst I obtained qualifications such as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Bachelor of Science (BSc), it should be highlighted that my desire to broaden my knowledge included many other learnings and qualifications in education and training, marketing management and leadership, obtained from leading global educational institutions. I value life-long learning and know that any organisation that desires a flexible, mature, and grounded thinker will benefit from my employment.
My enthusiasm for entrepreneurship is evident in the many start-up businesses I founded and managed to operate for many years. Nearly half my professional career has been spent in pursuit of business success in own initiatives.