Money-men steal IT thunder
Beware the rise of the chartered accountant. Granted, Benjamin Mophatlane, IT Personality of the Year, isn`t one, but he nearly was. A BCom graduate, he had already signed up as an articled clerk when opportunity knocked and he left to start Business Connexion. Bytes Technology`s David Redshaw isn`t actually a CA either, but he swears by fiscal fundamentals and has an ACMA, a UK cost-accounting qualification, on his CV (along with an honours degree in French and Spanish).On the other hand, Mike Wright and Peter Forsyth, of The E-mail Corporation and ERP.com respectively, are the real accounting McCoy. Qualified CAs both of them, Wright and Forsyth ventured into start-up IT territory when others were bailing out, and they`ve soared spectacularly.The other three non-techie nominees are an eclectic mix. Jill Hamlyn of The People Business has an honours degree in social science and was once a crisis counsellor with the UK`s Samaritans. Forge Ahead BMI-T`s Simon White, an entrepreneurial activist, has a background in economics and teaching, as does Ignatius Jacobs, Gauteng`s MEC for Education.Which leaves only Mike Lawrie, Richard Firth and Andile Ngcaba, winner of the ICT Leadership Award, holding the truly techie fort.Lawrie, Internet pioneer and staunch defender of the .za domain namespace, has been in computing since the early 1970s. MIP Holdings` Firth went straight into programming after leaving school, and Ngcaba, director-general of the Department of Communications, was once a bench worker who tested electronics. (Judging from his MCom from Wits, though, it`s safe to say that he, too, has a fair grasp of the financial side.)Could there be a message here? Benjamin Mophatlane, CEO, Business ConnexionA die-hard Blue Bulls fan, Benjamin Mophatlane, IT Personality of the Year 2002, is still on a high over his team`s thrashing of the Lions in this year`s Currie Cup final. “The drought is over!” he says gleefully. “I`m ecstatic!”The fact that he didn`t actually attend the final at Ellis Park had nothing to do with any fears that his team might not make it. “I went to my uncle`s 70th birthday party instead. It was a sacrifice, but it was worth it.”Family is a recurring theme in Mophatlane`s life. “Family is important to me and we get along very well,” he says of his parents, sister and twin brother Isaac. (Twins is another recurring theme – he has a twin, so does his mother, and there are more twins on both his father`s and mother`s side.)Having gone through school together, first at Ikageng near Pretoria then at Christian Brothers College in Kimberley, where both were prefects in matric, the Mophatlane brothers remain close. Close enough to have started a company together, then called Business Connection, and to have worked side by side for over seven years.“Isaac drives sales and strategy, and is the chief operating officer. As CEO, the buck stops with me and my neck is always on the line,” he says, flashing a mischievous grin, a facial expression that lurks close to the surface with Mophatlane, who radiates cheeriness. “I believe in being positive. When you`re down, you use more energy and more muscles,” he says of his habitually optimistic outlook. “We South Africans need to take life with a bit of humour.”On a winning streakClearly, the filial division of responsibilities at the company is working. In its first year as one of the first black IT companies in the country, it earned revenues of around R100 000. Seven years on, and now called Business Connexion following a merger in 2001 with Seattle Solutions, annual revenue has soared above R300 million, with 140 employees and offices in Cape Town, Rivonia, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth.Business Connexion also happens to be the only company in SA with triple Microsoft Gold Partner status (for enterprise systems, e-commerce and support). What`s more, it has also been Microsoft`s channel partner of the year for the Africa region for two years in a row. “We live, eat and breathe Microsoft technology,” says Mophatlane, who attributes the company`s stellar growth to its unflinching focus on its core Microsoft business.A BCom graduate from the University of Pretoria, Mophatlane`s original career plan had been to join SA`s tiny pool of black chartered accountants. Six months after starting his articles with accounting firm KPMG, though, business beckoned when the Software Connection group, with whom he worked as a student, offered to supply business start-up capital. “The opportunity came up and it was a choice between my own business versus becoming one of the few black CAs. Entrepreneurship appealed to me,” he says, recalling his and his brother`s biltong-selling days at high school not too long ago.Leaving a legacyMophatlane says he is honoured to have been nominated for this year`s IT Personality of the Year award. “I look at the other nine nominees and I see quite a lot of special people, special leaders. Possibly, I`m the youngest in the bunch.”Not yet 30, he has far from achieved all his ambitions. “Personally, I want to contribute to this country, I want to leave a legacy to my society,” he says, hauling out a business card carrying the ‘Proudly South African` logo.At this point in the conversation, a marked change comes over Mophatlane. Up to now, he`s been light-hearted, smiling often and cracking the odd joke at his own expense.His speech, although forthcoming, has been short and to the point. Now he`s solemn, almost intense, and the words flow.“Our vision is to be a true South African company, to be a role model in the new SA. IT is one of the key areas where we need to transform, and I want to help change the mindset of people, to show that young black professionals can succeed in IT. A lot of our success is due to the fact that we have had the opportunity to thrive in this new SA and it is up to my generation to pass on the torch. We`re kind of the first young black people to have had the opportunity to build an IT business.”Empowerment, of course, is part of Mophatlane`s philosophy. “I want South Africans to embrace empowerment – which doesn`t mean taking anything from those who have. It might look one-sided sometimes, but we must transform; it`s an important strategic imperative. But you must do it with your mind, body and soul, not because you have to but because you want to build an exciting future, to build something bigger and sustainable. Anything not done with the right spirit, with 100 percent commitment, can never end up with good results in the long-term.” Andile Ngcaba, director-general, Department of CommunicationRich, deep, resonant, Andile Ngcaba`s voice matches the lofty ideas he expresses. He talks about having a broad vision, of taking the long-term view, of doing what is best for the people and the country, of his passion for imparting knowledge on technology, of his delight in innovative concepts and models and ideas.“Implementing a vision is something that takes a long time to work, that is something one recognises,” says Ngcaba, winner of the ICT Leadership Award. “I do not believe in a short-term approach. I must generate new ideas and think about what must be done in 2005 or 2006. These are things I grapple with every day and night.”With all his talk of long-term goals and visions, don`t be fooled into thinking that Ngcaba has his head in the clouds. His eye may be fixed firmly on the future, but when it comes to the daily detail, he`s a stickler. “For any day in the past seven years in my job, I can tell you who I met and what subject was discussed. It is all here,” he says, gesturing around his office, where every one of his diaries has been fastidiously filed.“You must never lose sight of the overall vision, but then you must break it down into hours and days and weeks and months and years. Making that link between day-to-day projects and the vision is what fascinates me.”Ngcaba`s own working schedule is planned a full year in advance, and then broken down into days and hours. “Everybody wants to pick his brain,” his secretary had explained earlier while the ‘DG`, as his staff refer to him, was still making his way back to the office.However busy he may be, there are two types of people Ngcaba says he always finds time for: those with new ideas, and those who want to understand technology. “If somebody on my staff has a new idea, they must come running to me. Work and home are almost one and the same thing, and it is very important to me that the people who work here have the energy to continue to work at home, to keep producing new ideas and projects.”He strides towards the framed departmental code of conduct standing on a shelf in his office. “This is the most important thing in my office,” he says, homing in on the word ‘innovation`. “Innovation, that`s what gives me a kick.”Turning to the flat-screen computer on his desk, he says: “This is the other most important thing. I have a passion for getting people interested in technology so that they feel they are part of it. I must impart knowledge to others. I think I enjoy that more than anything else.”Ngcaba has little time for levity or idle chitchat, though. “I`m a deep person in terms of anything. I enjoy conversations, even informal ones, that are deep and scientific.”Still, he does admit to a hobby or two. One is bungee jumping in the Tsitsikama, Eastern Cape, although he doesn`t indulge often, maybe two or three times a year. “I like to take calculated risks and to live on the edge of life. Bungee is a thrill, it deals with stress. I would also like to do white-water rafting. I am going to learn.” David Redshaw, chairman and CE, Bytes Technology HoldingsAfter one night in Cairo, population 14 million, David Redshaw`s wife Marjorie announced that she just couldn`t live there. Redshaw was sympathetic. “You can`t go for a run in the morning in Cairo, the pavements are so full of people,” he says.Next day, the British-born-and-bred couple hopped on a plane back to SA, where he`s lived for the last 15 years, and by Monday morning, Redshaw was explaining to his apoplectic American boss why he wouldn`t be working in Egypt.“He gave me a mouthful,” says Redshaw, wincing at the memory. “I told him my wife comes first in this.” He offered to resign from the multinational but his boss said no, summoning him to the UK instead.Back in the UK, the couple weren`t convinced they`d made the right move. “Two things happened,” he says. “I didn`t think the job prospects were there and Marjorie said, ‘I want to go back to SA. I thought, ‘Why not?` and resigned.”Within three months, they were back in Johannesburg – jobless. Before a week was out, though, Redshaw had had five offers, opting to join the Altron Group, where he started as finance director at Powertech.That was 15 years ago, and the Redshaws are here to stay. “I`ve enjoyed every minute of it,” he says. “For me, it`s turned out fine. You can always make things turn out well, with the right kind of luck.”A regular jogger and still a tough opponent on the squash court at the age of 60, Redshaw is also staying put professionally. “I have no intention of retiring just yet. I love work, I always have. It`s a challenge, isn`t it?”Running Bytes has had its moments. Formed in 2000 when Altron`s IT group Fintech merged with the ailing Usko, the merged company was greeted with scepticism. “We were half written off two years ago; people saw this as the dead cat bounce – you know, you move up an inch and then sink back. It was pleasant to prove them wrong.”Bytes is now profitable, achieves annual turnover of R3 billion and employs 3 000 people. “Morale is high,” says Redshaw. “It`s important that staff feel proud of where they work and to be honest, I think some were ashamed to say they worked for Usko.”This turnaround, in an industry where many have a tale of woe to tell, is probably what prompted someone on his staff to nominate Redshaw for IT Personality of the Year. “They didn`t tell me, the so-and-so`s. The first I heard about it was when someone said, ‘Hey, you`ve reached the final 10`. I said, ‘Final 10 of what?`”And he isn`t even a dyed-in-the-wool IT type, having spent 25 years of his 37-year career in manufacturing. “IT is a different business, but it`s still a business,” he points out. “It`s still subject to all the rules that stood you in good stead when you were in another business – controlling your expenses, making sure you make cash, paying dividends. I can`t imagine running a business without a pretty solid financial background – one would never want to be totally reliant on someone else giving you their interpretation of financial information.” Mike Lawrie, .za domain name administratorIn a flower-filled retirement complex called Haven Village, just off a street named Serene, Mike Lawrie is easily, if unintentionally, the most controversial resident.Although entering his third month of retirement from the National Research Foundation in Pretoria, you can bet that SA`s Internet industry hasn`t seen the last of him yet. In between growing his beloved bonsai, doing some consulting work and taking brisk, crack-of-dawn constitutionals at the Haven Village gym, Lawrie is keeping a beady eye on government`s pending takeover of the .za Internet domain namespace.Administrator of the .za domain for the past eight years, he`s still smarting from the tongue-lashing he took in Parliament in June when his warnings over government`s plans were interpreted as threats to crash the Internet.“I seemed to have upset the Portfolio Committee on Communications and every politician in the country – but I didn`t cause the ruckus, the politicians did,” says Lawrie, who believes he was unjustly portrayed as a pale male clinging doggedly to the past.“The point I was making was that the .za domain level has to be absolutely technically stable, otherwise there is a risk – a serious risk – that the Internet will crash. If the new administering authority doesn`t know an IP number from a web site address, Internet services will grind to a halt.“That was misinterpreted as a threat, that ‘Mike Lawrie is going to crash the Internet`. Absolute rubbish. There`s no way that the person who brought the Internet into this country is going to stand by and watch it crash, never mind crashing it.”While none too popular with the politicians, perhaps, Lawrie is highly regarded as one of the founding fathers of the Internet in SA. He led the Rhodes University team that set up the first Internet-style inter-networking in the country, and ran Uninet, the country`s research and academic computer network, until its closure two years ago.Today, he`s still adamant that government`s got the .za domain debate all wrong, however good its intentions. Like it or not, though, he intends living with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and its offending .za domain section. “The Act exists. It`s not going to help if we all run around and say it`s dreadful. Going forward, we have to make the best of it. I will be working with the government as best I can to make it work as best it can.”So Lawrie, although still hoping that government will see the light and change the law, will definitely be at the party when negotiations get going over the setting up of the new domain name authority. “If the process leads to an unworkable product, the option is still there that, given the opinions and support of the rest of the Internet community, I can still refuse to hand over. But that`s not an option that is high on my wish list.” Jill Hamlyn, MD, The People BusinessJill Hamlyn`s business cards are an awkward size. Quite a bit bigger than usual, they refuse to fit snugly into a conventional cardholder. Which is exactly the point. Hamlyn does not believe in putting people into boxes.“It`s funny how people jump to conclusions, though.” Women in business, for instance, still tend to be seen either as fire-breathing feminists or as one-woman outfits. Hamlyn says she`s no feminist – nor does she come across as one – but has been mistaken for the latter. When someone she`s just met hears she runs her own business, the next question is often: ‘Oh, do you work from home?`Hamlyn, whose staff of 24 wouldn`t fit into a home office anyway, seems more amused then annoyed. “I know who I am, and we`re more of a real business than most.”After emigrating to SA from the UK 21 years ago, she worked for big corporations like IBM and Don Gray, before branching out on her own. When The People Business started up 15 years ago, Hamlyn focused on IT recruitment and then expanded steadily into the full HR spectrum, including payroll consulting, management and leadership development, executive coaching and conflict resolution. Growth over the past 15 years has consistently averaged 20 percent and annual revenues now exceed R21 million.“I absolutely adore running a business,” says Hamlyn, who has an honours degree in social sciences and used to do voluntary counselling as a Samaritan, the UK-equivalent of Lifeline. “I love negotiating and the cut-and-thrust of business, while showing that business can be done without ever detracting from the dignity of others.”She pauses: “Maybe I sound soppy. I don`t mean that business is about being nice to everyone all the time. It`s about being fair, trustworthy and excellent in communication, so that people always know where they stand.”Increasingly being called in to do executive coaching and high-level conflict resolution, Hamlyn says her greatest skill is probably to get people to open up. “I don`t judge, so people open up. It`s an enormous privilege and I would never break a confidence. There`s no price on that kind of information.” Richard Firth, CEO, MIP HoldingsFor a chief executive`s office, Richard Firth`s working space is modest. Rather on the small side for a large man, its furnishings, while functional, are hardly opulent. The only pictures on his walls are paintings by his children. The filter coffee is good, though, and it flows generously.“We`re a no-frills company,” he says, gently rapping the table with his knuckles as if to make the point that it`s not solid oak. “Four years ago, we were a prime listing candidate and it would have been a good listing. Then we sat down and said, ‘We`re software guys, let`s stick to our knitting`. So our money goes into technology and our people, and the company has grown substantially.”Notching up growth of around 70 percent over the past year, MIP`s performance in these torrid times for technology is enough to make most CEOs (with much fancier offices) turn green. “We`ve grown in a tough market,” agrees Firth. “We have good offshore international revenue and our product locally is doing well, too. We`re sticking to our knitting.”That knitting is woven firmly around its core programming skills, says Firth, who started his career as a Cobol programmer with Van Zyl & Pritchard.“At MIP, we believe you`ve got to be born a programmer. You either are one, or you`re not, and that takes logic, aptitude, an analytical mind – and time. If you`ve got 10 years experience under your belt, you`ve got experience in IT. If you`ve got one or two years, you haven`t got the experience yet.”Close on half of MIP`s 180 employees are programmers – born programmers, mind you – with experience ranging from a minimum of three years to as many as 20 years. “It shows in the quality of our delivery,” says Firth. “A lot of our customers here have had a good ride.”Firth hasn`t touched any code himself for about five years now, though. “Going from programmer to manager was quite hard for me, probably like getting divorced, but I love people, so that`s fine.”Instead, much of his energy now goes on making MIP a pleasant place to work. “When you`re a programmer, you can`t afford to be distracted by financial or personal worries. It takes about 35 minutes just to get into the flow of programming, and you have to give it 150 percent of your attention. All our employees have shares in the company and we do what we can to provide a nice working environment where people can do what they love doing. I never ever want to get up in the morning thinking, ‘Jeez, I`ve got to go to work today`.” Mike Wright, CEO, The E-mail CorporationThere`s a good reason why Mike Wright and his staff are crammed back-to-back into open-plan offices that are ridiculously small for 30 people, although no one seems to mind. “Slaves to bandwidth,” says Wright. “Lots of space or a super-fast PC – it`s an easy choice.”He points to the offices across the hall where The E-mail Corporation`s bandwidth provider is conveniently based. “We plug right into their port.”Right now, the company needs every bit of bandwidth it can get (though it`s also working on more office space in the same Rosebank building). Last month, it topped 10 million e-mails for the first time, not bad for a company in a country that has two million or so active Internet users.Wright, who`s actually a chartered accountant by training, started exploring e-mail back in the good old dot com days when it was still fashionable to throw a party to launch your web site. (He laughs uproariously at that quaint idea.)At the time, around three years ago, he was managing director – “a very green MD” – of VWV Interactive, and the client was (surprise, surprise) planning a web site launch, which would include a direct mailshot to 5 000 addressees.“Our assumption was that this was an e-mail shot,” says Wright. “Tremendous! But when we asked for the e-mail addresses, they said, ‘Aren`t we printing and posting it?` We totally missed each other.”That mailshot was dropped but the episode set his mind ticking. E-mail was clearly the future. He spent three days and nights working on a business plan and then, eureka, The E-mail Corporation, a direct electronic mailing specialist, was born.“I always thought I`d do something on my own,” says Wright, whose first stab at business was as a seven-year-old selling silkworms for 1c each on the pavement outside his house.“I`m someone who wanted to be responsible for my own success, but the business I wanted to start had to be well thought out and pragmatic, not a flash in the pan. I wanted to do it right, in a space where it would be tough for others to compete, and most of all, I never ever wanted to let anyone down.”Mass e-mail distribution fitted the bill on all counts, says Wright, who`d like people to see his business as “the e-mail company that builds great software”. “My little sister – our marketing director – would kill me for saying that,” he adds instantly, explaining that she`s positioning the company carefully as “a specialist in secure electronic document delivery”.Wright`s motto that “we`re never going to drop you” has clearly struck a chord among the company`s growing customer base, which includes top banks like Absa, Standard Bank, Nedbank, FNB and Investec.“For the first couple of years, we had that start-up feeling. This year, we passed that. We`re a real company with real clients, real revenues and real projects; we`re no longer a start-up. Hey, we`ve just had our first two orders from the UK. It seems that exactly what we do is exactly what they need. And we`ll be earning pounds!” Simon White, Joint MD, Forge Ahead BMI-TWith his overdeveloped social conscience pricking him mercilessly, Simon White is a pushover for worthy causes.“I suppose it`s one of my biggest weaknesses, my social conscience. I love this country immensely and I`ve always had a problem saying no when there`s an opportunity to contribute. I get extremely angry when people say SA is a violent country and I`ve made it a personal crusade to prove the whingers and whiners wrong.”His crusading spirit was ignited at the age of 14, when Soweto-born White began running the family shebeen – illegal, of course, at that time. “My mother (a single parent) was arrested so many times but I benefited from being under-age. The cops who used to raid us got fed up, put me in a kwela-kwela, told me I was going to jail, and drove me around for hours. They terrified me. Ever since, one of my driving philosophies has been to get involved with transformation and capacity-building. If you don`t make an impact positively on society, what is life worth living for?”Aided and abetted by seemingly endless reserves of physical energy – “I`m hyperactive, I can`t sit still, I have to be doing something all the time” – White admits he has tended to spread himself too thin for the transformation cause. “For me to be sane, I have to manage my life better, to be more reserved about getting involved.”On this score, he passed one major personal test recently by deciding not to stand for election to the Black Information Technology Forum, which Forge Ahead BMI-T helped incubate. “I was torn but I withdrew,” he says. “I told myself that there are other people who can make a contribution.”Not that he`s a rebel without a cause right now. His current crusade is to make a success of government plans to license telecoms operators in underserviced areas. “This is an incredible opportunity for local communities and entrepreneurs,” says White, who has personally visited all 10 districts earmarked for the licences, drumming up support and mobilising local communities to form bidding consortia.White, who has a BA in economics and a teacher`s diploma from the University of the Western Cape, says entrepreneurship would have been his first career choice in an ideal world.“I have a natural instinct for sniffing out business opportunities, but the social conscience always pulls my entrepreneurial spirit back. One tends to do things you see as a calling; in a certain sense, I have been married too much to that one aspect. Hopefully, at the right time, one can break the umbilical cord and do what`s in my nature.” Peter Forsyth, CEO, ERP.comChartered accountants are supposed to be cautious folk. Quite possibly, that`s why, when the stock market was dead as a dodo, Peter Forsyth decided to go for a listing in the venture capital sector.“September 1999 was probably the worst time ever to list. The IT market was as depressed as I`ve ever seen it, but we were doing it for the right reasons,” says Forsyth. “One, we needed to make sure we had a profile in the market. Two, we were a total start-up and we had to have a vehicle to make acquisitions and put a value on the share.”Three years on, ERP.com, now growing at an average of 56 percent a year, has qualified to move to the main board of the JSE Securities Exchange – a feat that Forsyth says is a first. “No other IT company has survived three years on venture capital and moved to the main board. It`s a sign that we have matured, that we have a track record. In the IT industry, which has developed a credibility problem in the past four or five years, that`s important. We don`t expect miracles but I like to think that we`ve shown we can deliver and keep our promises.”While talkative enough when the subject is ERP.com, Forsyth is reticent when the conversation turns to himself. How does he feel about his nomination for this award? “I was pleasantly surprised,” he says. Silence.“I`ve never been great on talking about myself, everyone knows that. It`s not about me, it`s about the company. We have very good people and we`re not at all interested in egos and status.”Prodded, he is only marginally more forthcoming. Why did he make the leap from accounting to technology? “I got bored with accounting. I see myself as an entrepreneur – a very patient entrepreneur. It takes time to build an asset, the last three years have taught me that.”He has also learnt that golf, a sport he took up late, at the age of 35, is a great revealer of character. “It brings out the best and the worst in people,” he says enigmatically.Which, in his case, means what? Forsyth laughs: “I`m a very good winner; I`m a wonderful person when I`m winning! I`ve also learnt how to handle disappointments, though. I can accept setbacks and put them behind me. With golf, like in business, you can never sit back and think you`ve arrived. I could kick myself for not starting earlier.” Ignatius Jacobs, MEC, Gauteng Education DepartmentSorry, man, when we`re in the middle of writing matric exams, it`s like I`m writing matric exams,” says Nash Jacobs, apologising for being so scarce lately. “You`ve got to hold thumbs for us. In 1998, the matric pass rate was 52 percent. By 2001, it was up to 74 percent. This year, we`re hoping for 80 percent.”Of all this year`s nominees for IT Personality of the Year, Jacobs seems the most unlikely candidate. On the other hand, education and technology are no longer like chalk and cheese. In fact, it`s chalkless teaching that he`s aiming for.As MEC for education, Jacobs is championing GautengOnline, the province`s drive to put at least 25 PCs in every school within the next three years. “As a developmental economy person, one sees the transition from an industrial-based to an ICT-based society,” says Jacobs, who has a social sciences degree and has held the provincial education portfolio since July 1999.“Education gives birth to all other professions, so the question is how does the education system respond to this challenge? If we equip our learners sufficiently with resources and quality teaching, this generation will be the Mark Shuttleworths, the Chris Barnards, the Miriam Makebas of the future. We`re preparing our learners for real time, real learning, real smart,” he says, quoting the GautengOnline slogan.The project is still in its early stages, but is already producing measurable results, says Jacobs. “It has had its ups and downs, but the small part we have done up to now is clearly creating a revolution in education. There is an amazing enthusiasm at pilot schools: attendance levels are rising, drop-out rates are decreasing dramatically, and school administration and lesson preparation are improving.”Take the planning of school timetables. “With chalk on a board, this used to be one of the most complex admin jobs at schools. It`s so easy now, because the software designs everything for you. As educators, we are also appreciating this information-age society.”Jacobs, who says connected computer laboratories will have been rolled out to more than 1 000 schools by next November, has high praise for the technology industry`s enthusiasm for the project. “The support from industry has been overwhelming. They have funded the entire cost of the pilot, and are coming forward with strategic support and advice. Industry is playing a crucial role and has clearly seen that this is an investment that is also to their benefit.”
11 December 2002
Beware the rise of the chartered accountant. Granted, Benjamin Mophatlane, IT Personality of the Year, isn`t one, but he nearly was. A BCom graduate, he had already signed up as an articled clerk when opportunity knocked and he left to start Business Connexion. Bytes Technology`s David Redshaw isn`t actually a CA either, but he swears by fiscal fundamentals and has an ACMA, a UK cost-accounting qualification, on his CV (along with an honours degree in French and Spanish).
On the other hand, Mike Wright and Peter Forsyth, of The E-mail Corporation and ERP.com respectively, are the real accounting McCoy. Qualified CAs both of them, Wright and Forsyth ventured into start-up IT territory when others were bailing out, and they`ve soared spectacularly.
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