Executive Head

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Interview with Mike Greeff Staff 2006 - 2015

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  • Item
  • 2015

Interview with Mike Greeff – Staff - 2006 to 2015
Before joining St David’s in 2006 as chief executive officer, Mike worked in the banking sector for 20 years
before running his own consulting company specialising in development finance mainly in South Africa,
Eastern Europe and Africa. Mike enjoyed his business which was very successful and identified NGO’s or
groupings that banks would not consider and, under the auspices of Shore Bank, (Chicago) would
guarantee loans with the backing of the US government.
Whilst in the banking sector, Mike ran leadership camps for grade 11 to matric boys through the auspices
of Rotary. As a matriculant and head prefect at Parktown Boys, Mike had attended one of these camps
himself and eventually his boss at the time asked him if he would get involved. Mike also saw this as a
form of outreach through his own company and also his old school. Some of the youngsters who attended
the camps asked him to come and speak at pupil development workshops such as the one he was involved
with at St David’s. Whilst running his own company he continued with this as a form of personal corporate
outreach. This extended to working with staff at schools and several strategic planning workshops.
In early 2000 Paul Edey and Kevin Brewer asked Mike if he would facilitate a staff planning session at St
David’s and look at a restructuring programme for the school management. In 2005 Paul Edey called him
again and asked him if he would do an intervention to assess the success of the restructuring programme
and at the same time told him he was resigning and suggested that perhaps Mike should consider applying
for the position of chief executive officer.
Mike then recused himself from the intervention process and recalls meeting with Tony Chappel, the then
chairman of the board on a Saturday in May 2006.
Mike was not a Marist pupil himself but was a practicing catholic and his grandparents had been managers
of the Maristonian club at Woodmead. Mike’s mother was brought up there and loved everything Marist.
Unfortunately Mike’s parents were not in a position to be able to send him to St David’s and he went the
public school route but always had a very strong association with the Marists. Hs mother sadly passed
away the day before Mike met with Tony Chappel and he regrets not being able to tell her about the
planned meeting. Mike then went through a set of interviews with Br Jude, Mrs Sealand and others and
eventually began his career at St David’s in September 2006 and has never regretted it.
Mike’s involvement with the Marist Brothers was key to his move into education and he qualified as a
teacher shortly after coming to St David’s; all his prior qualifications being commercial degrees. There were
many different issues he was tasked to deal with and, apart from the absolute strengthening of the Marist
link with the brothers and the rest of the Marist world; these included risk and governance; strategy and
ethos. St David’s was and still is a Marist catholic independent school. Mike’s dream is that boys currently
at the school will still have, in twenty years time a Marist school which is relevant to the times to which they
can send their children.
Shortly before he died Br Anthony expressed the opinion that St David’s was more Marist then than when
the brothers were running the school purely because the lay Marists running the schools are so acutely
aware of their responsibilities inherited from legions of Marist brothers who laid the foundations.
St David’s performance is being acknowledged in education and catholic education circles with many
members of staff being leaders in the educational environment having positions within the IEB, ISASA, the
Catholic Schools Office etc . Br Jude was instrumental and brave in his support and encouragement of lay
teachers and staff.
Mike is very proud of how vibrant MOBS has become with a combination of both younger and older MOBS
working together with Willy Castle in the chair.
The Foundation has grown with Chantal Ratcliffe being the right person at the right time followed now by
Lara Klement with whom the development has continued and flourished with a Marist perspective. Mike is
intimately involved with the running of the Foundation which is now far beyond where it started and has
moved to a different level of maturity. Lara has done an incredible job supported by Thierry Dalais, Rob
Smith, Tony Chappell, Gianni Mariano and with Br Jude at the very heart of it.
Mike is currently chairman of the African Law and Brothers Commission which covers the entire African
continent and he reports to Br Javier who in turn runs the secretariat of the laity in Rome. Br Joe originally
asked Mike to represent Southern Africa at the first meeting of this body.
Mike has set in place a good financial management structure with the school being run along business lines
but not as a business, with both schools being directed by the two headmasters and their staff. The school
is currently in a good place and Mike feels that Rod Smith summed it up well in his retirement speech when
he said, “On our day we will beat anyone but we are too small to be arrogant”. The school is in a healthy
space but that can change overnight, it has to be maintained and sustained. Its strength lies in the numbers
with people doing what they are good at, who are passionate about what they do and educating within the
Marist ethos.
Mike currently enjoys a little bit of teaching in guest slots with the grade 8’s through to matric, and is also
involved with staff development assisting with the induction of new staff and is fully involved on a pastoral
level with both headmasters.
2016, Willy Castle will be playing an active role and Mike is confident that what we celebrate in 2016 will be
celebrated in the same vein in another 25 years time with a golden thread running through it.
Mike feels that it has been a privilege for him to live at Maryknoll and to be part of the school for the past 10
years.
Mike has, as from 1 March 2015 been appointed director of the Marist Schools Council.
JLE January 2015

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Paul Edey 1995 - 2006 Staff

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  • 2016

Interview with Paul Edey 1995 – 2006
Paul Edey was appointed as college headmaster during 1994 to start in January 1995. He had
previously taught at St John’s College and King Edward VII School, where he was a viceprincipal.
The search for a new head to take over from P Davies was led by Tony Frost, head of
human resources at Lonhro,and a colleague of the chairman of the board,Terence Wilkinson.
1994 had been a difficult year for the school with the board conducting a survey which had
resulted in the headmaster, Paul Davies, stepping down. The deputy head, Gary Norton, acted
as head for eight months with Paul Davies continuing to live at Mary Knoll for 7 months and only
moving out in the December of 1994. The school was battling financially and had endured a
succession of lay headmasters in the college following the last Marist Brother, Brother Timothy
Mc Krindle ( (1967-81) South Africa was in a state of flux with the first free and democratic
elections resulting in Nelson Mandela coming to power in April 1994. The relationship between
the prep school , which was thriving and successful and the college which was battling for
numbers was poor
Paul’s biggest challenges were to win the confidence of the prep school and the parents to
encourage them to send their sons to the high school rather than local rivals St Stithians and St
John’s College. In 1995 sixty four boys were admitted into grade 8 and split into three classes.
Some of the top prep boys had been awarded scholarships to rival senior schools, but for the
first time in many years the numbers were up in the college. The school wrote the Transvaal
education department matriculation examination (TED) and the results were generally
undistinguished. There were 267 boys in the High School in 1995 with Michael von
Guilleaume,head boy and Jeremy Wickens, deputy, leading a small but very talented matric
group.
Although Anglican, Paul made doubly sure that the Catholic ethos remained and strengthened.
The numbers picked up from 1996 with a small but stable staff of 18 with some very strong
teachers such as Lesley Henning (HOD Maths), Belinda Marais (HOD Afrikaans), Richard
Girdwood (English and senior housemaster) and Rod Smith, former headmaster of Sandown
High School. We were very fortunate to have a very successful rugby team in 1995 with the side
winning 18 out of 19 matches and going on a very rewarding tour of Australia to round off the
season. Of interest was the fact that the touring squad had 5 boys in it from Jabulani Technical
High School in Soweto whose tour was paid for through the fundraising efforts of the St David’s
community. 1996 was a very weak year academically but the numbers were increasing and
things were looking up.
Rick Wilson was appointed head of the prep at the beginning of 1996. He took over from the
very successful and charismatic Greg Royce, who had left in the middle of 1995 to become
headmaster of St Peter’s Preparatory. The senior school suffered a blow at the end of 1996
when the loyal and hardworking deputy headmaster Gary Norton left to take up the headship of
Oakhill School in Knysna. Pete Geldenhuys, Andrew Brownlee, Greg Lamb and Richard
Girdwood, all four housemasters left during the course of 1996. In one year the entire college
management team apart from the head and bursar had left. Malcolm Williams, an old friend and
colleague of Paul’s from Wits and King Edward’s, was appointed as the deputy head during

  1. A number of other colleagues from the King Edward’s days joined the staff with Simon Fry
    and Stuart Foulds coming in as the heads of department of History and English respectively.
    Teresa Vroom became the librarian.
    Critically, at this time Kevin Brewer became chairman of the board and together with the school
    management team and the support of the Marist Brothers an exciting development plan was put
    together for the school. Under the leadership of Bill Carter and Gerrit Wessels of the
    architectural firm Taljaard Carter, this was to result in the complete redevelopment of the school
    over the next decade. The development plan covered a 10 year period. In 1997 the grade O
    block was built and the high school pavilion replaced the long serving zozo hut from which tea at
    sports fixtures had been served. For years the long suffering mother’s committee, under the
    extremely capable leadership of Mary von Guilleaume, had complained how the cream scones
    and cakes had gone sour in the heat of the summer. These developments were followed by 6
    new classrooms, the redevelopment of the quadrangle, the amphitheatre and the Champagnat
    hall. Two new libraries, a music school and a design and technology centre were to follow in
    quick succession when the astroturf and the new car park were developed the school was
    almost unrecognisable from its rustic appearance of the mid 1990’s. The school borrowed R12m
    with an unsecured loan from Standard Bank after Br Jude and Kevin Brewer went to see Myles
    Ruck. It has to be noted that there was some uncertainty over tenure as the land and buildings
    belonged to the Marist Brothers and all major capital projects over R500 000 had to be
    approved by Rome.
    Over the next seven years the numbers in the senior school increased to 500 and there were
    now more applicants than places. Scholarships were offered to top children which culminated in
    2001 when Garth Horsten, Kyle Wales, Jean Paulo Peirera were in the top 50 IEB matrics for
    that year. The sport showed steady improvement under the leadership of Graeme McMillan with
    cricket in particular able to compete against the top state and independent schools. Hockey was
    driven by Malcolm Williams and the school had reasonably good rugby sides. The prep was
    also very strong in athletics, soccer and swimming., this began to have important spin –offs for
    the college.
    Father Brewer died in 1999, the boys adored him, he was always on the sports field or
    backstage providing support to the boys, but he hated authority and didn’t like headmasters!
    The school was now being headed up by non-Catholics and there was a lot of talk about ethos.
    The brothers started the pilgrimage to France and Rome in order to give lay school
    administrators and teachers a feel for, and understanding, of the Marist ethos and charism.
    It was comforting to have brothers at the school as a buffer against the board which became
    increasingly secular. The school was now being run in a far more business-like manner, but it
    was essential that the Marist ethos be maintained, something which was quite difficult given its
    location in the richest business centre on the african continent.
    Kevin Brewer had had the time and energy to really set the school development plan on its way
    and at the same time to keep a close eye on the finances. He was followed as chairman by
    Tony Reilly, Eric Annegarn, and Tony Chappel. Certainly the board and PTA had some very
    strong people like the Brocco’s, Emmanuels, O’Shea, Busschau, Van Linden families and
    Trevor and Glenda Anderson played a major role. The characters on the staff were Anderson,
    Ansell, Joseph, Castle and Marais.
    Paul was made executive head (CEO) in 2002 which was motivated by Kevin Brewer. Paul had
    been head for 7 years and had started looking around elsewhere to further his career. With
    numbers around 1,100 the school had to think about where it was going next with the building
    having largely been completed. Hence the idea of a super head to deal with the CIE, brothers,
    and JOCASCO and to build up the Foundation office. In the first year of the new headship there
    was no deputy, or clarity on Paul’s role. It was a difficult period for Paul and his great friend
    Malcolm Williams, who was appointed as head of the high school as the new roles were
    established. Malcolm was studying for his Master’s in Education and initially had no deputy until
    the appointment of David Smith to the role.
    Paul seldom interfered with the prep school and only when there was flack did he get involved.
    The prep probably got limited value from the new structure. The philosophy behind the
    appointment of a non teacher in the CEO role was that Mike Greeff brought experience of
    strategic planning, HR, and financial skills with him. He was adept at handling the non- teaching
    aspects of school administration.
    The admin staff Paul recalled were the bursar Malcom Smit, the charming and efficient pair of
    June Anderson (college secretary) and Lindsay Van Heerden, head’s secretary, Genny
    Carvalho, Audrey Williams, Mary von Guilleaume, Sister Mary Ryan and Willem van der Merwe
    and his great team on the grounds George Ndlovu, Big Julius Shivambu, Thomas Ramutsindela
    and of course the long serving Phineas Selima and Julius Shibambu (Zimbabwean) who had
    worked in the brothers dining room for years, deceased who worked for the school for 45 years.
    Paul mentioned that the book written by Margeurite Poland “The Boy in You” about the history
    of St Andrew’s College sold for R450 per copy when it was published in 2008 and a limited
    edition of 100 leather bound copies sold for R5000.
    Paul is currently headmaster of St John’s College.
    JE 2016

Egenrieder, Julie