Werner Barkhuizen, Executive Director
B.A., Hons BA, M.A., Registered Occupational Psychologist
Werner Barkhuizen has consulted in a multiplicity of organisational environments ranging from listed and non-listed entities in the consumer goods and chemical industries to the mining sectors.
Werner has served both as an internal and external consultant and has extensive experience in transforming and leveraging people and organisational potential. He persistently propagates the alignment and synchronisation of organisational and people strategies and has consulted extensively on countless issues ranging from internal business processes, competency-based and psychometric assessment, people management, coaching, mentoring, performance management, motivation, leadership development, organisational strategy to mergers and acquisitions and both qualitative and quantitative analyses.
His professional consulting career gained momentum at Arthur Andersen Consulting where after he joined Tiger Food Brands, South Africa's largest food brands corporation; and thereafter by SHL, one of the world's largest organisational psychology consulting firms.
In 2003, Werner founded Eknowvation, a business and organisational psychology consulting firm specialising in organisational optimisation - The alignment of people, strategy and process. In addition to consulting on organisational optimisation, he concluded two BBBEE transactions with a combined value of R94 Million; oversaw the successful implementation of SAP at a client firm and is currently managing turnaround projects at a client organisation.
Having consulted to global corporations, to name but a few, Absa, Anglo Platinum, BHP Billiton, BP, Discovery Health, Experian and Sasol, Werner developed an unfathomable appreciation of the dynamic forces that drive and accomplish organisational strategy and ultimately creates organisational capability and shareholder value.
Possessing acute business awareness, combined with diverse experience and knowledge, has enabled Werner to serve on the board of directors of a major listed organisation and, in addition, he held the position of Consumer Psychologist and Marketing Manager for a major food brand and significantly increased top line growth through the implementation of sound market differentiation and segmentation strategies in a highly competitive and commoditised industry - His first attempt at marketing produced a bronze award at the Cannes International Advertising Awards in France for outdoor branding.
Werner is a registered Psychologist and has presented his research findings at three international conferences. His world-first research findings have also been published in an international scientific journal and he is currently completing his Ph.D. at R.A.U.
Furthermore, he is a distinguished orator and is acknowledged for his profound knowledge on subjects such as self-efficacy, psychoneuroimmunology, information processing and aviation psychology.
Early in his career Werner found solace in entrepreneurship and with his "can-do" attitude he has combined his scientific knowledge with several unique and pragmatic applications into profitable client-centric solutions.
As an exchange student for entrepreneurship, Werner visited Russia and Ireland and lectured on Entrepreneurship in both Moscow and Limerick. Werner is an avid aviator and pilot's several different helicopter types. He's received numerous awards, was editor of the university newspaper, chairperson of several committees and councils and served as student council member.
Besides flying helicopters and investing aggressively in property, Werner has a plethora of other interests and hobbies and enjoys wakeboarding, scuba diving, playing chess, reading business and scientific journals and books, writing articles and finally, specifying and developing internet applications and solutions. He loves travelling and has set foot on every single continent, except Antarctica, having visited in excess of 40 countries thus far!