Professor Nick Binedell is the founding director and current professor of the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and a leadership speaker.

He holds a PhD from the University of Washington in Seattle, where he was a Boeing Scholar, an MBA from the University of Cape Town and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Rhodes University.

After an initial career in the mining and manufacturing sectors, including a period as a general manager, Nick has invested the last 30 years of his career in business education.

In 1998 Professor Nick Binedell was invited to establish a new business school focused on meeting the individual and corporate needs of business in South Africa. GIBS has rapidly established itself as a leading business school in South Africa with a strong focus on partnering with leading South African corporates and providing a high level of local and international business education.

It is ranked as one of the top 40 global executive education providers by the UK Financial Times, while the GIBS MBA is ranked among the top 100 business schools globally in the prestigious Financial Times Executive MBA Rankings 2011 – the only business school in Africa to appear in these rankings.

His extensive experience in the field of management education includes being the founding director of GIBS where he is currently dean and the Sasol Chair of Strategic Management.

Nick is a board member of the International Management Board of The Association of MBAs (AMBA), which is one of the three leading global accreditation bodies. He also serves on the Academic Advisory Board for the same body.

He was the founding president and a past president of the African Association of Business Schools (AABS) where he served two terms. He also served two terms as the chairman of the South African Association of Business schools (SABSA).

Professor Nick Binedell area of interest in business concerns strategic leadership. He has a deep appreciation of the challenges facing executives in complex organisations and has a high level of interest in the competitive dynamics of companies and the challenging search for excellence.

Prof Nick Binedell is particularly interested in the link between strategy, leadership and execution.

He is a frequent public speaker regularly addressing executive teams and conferences on the area of competitive strategy, on global dynamics and their impact on competitiveness, on South Africa’s business challenges and the leadership skills, energy and capabilities required to manage in a challenging, exciting and fast changing country.

A determined traveller and explorer, his earlier roots included extensive travel and by the time Professor Nick Binedell was ten he had lived in Zimbabwe, Germany, Yemen, Kenya, South Africa and Britain.

Nick has spent five years in the US and in the past three years has travelled to and worked in Shanghai, Dubai, Lagos, Delhi, Rio de Janeiro and Ho Chi Minh City as well as European and American cities.

Professor Nick Binedell has a deep appreciation of the challenges facing executives in complex organisations. He retains a recognition of the effort, energy, insight and skill required to run an effective and focused business.