There’s something special about seeing a South African make their mark on a global scale. We’re still revelling in Charlize Theron’s Oscar win and even when Elon Musk is being controversial on Twitter, we can’t help but feel like we’re part of his billion-dollar success story. As head of Google’s global Chromebooks division, John Solomon is another local flying the South African flag internationally. Describing his success as a combination of good timing and good luck, he believes that good fortune comes to the well-prepared.

Discussing how his local upbringing contributed to this preparedness, he says that growing up in SA taught him to have a holistic approach to technology, considering the value and impact of a solution from end-to-end. “You have to think about the user, how the technology will be used by different people, how it will be deployed and what it can and can’t do.”