ICAN Passport to the World – If They Can I Can with Sven Thieme

Welcome to the ICAN Passport to the World series.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Namibia have invited 99FM’s Kirsty Watermeyer to meet some of their members. Namibians who have built their careers and lives around the field of accounting. These Namibians are the shapers of industry, captains in their fields, who are growing and building business in Namibia.

One such Namibian whose journey to become an accountant is pure Namibian inspiration is that of Sven Thieme, Executive Chairman of the Ohlthaver & List Group.

“So on the one side it feels like theory although you are in the business, then the other side is to actually create and develop processes and procedures from a private sector or corporate point of view.”

Thieme graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1991 and became an audit manager at Deloitte & Touche, Luxembourg before he joined the Ohlthaver & List Group of Companies in 1998.

“I think what we always forget that in today’s world people are very much empowered. They have the social media, they have the access to any information they want to at any time and therefore people have matured. Now if we don’t treat people as mature persons or employees or so, we will not get what we want out of them. So today, I think we need to move away from telling people and rather go for inspiring people…”

He became the Executive Chairman of the Group in 2002 and assumed responsibility for strategy formulation and execution. Sven has served as Chairman of the Development Bank of Namibia, is the current Chairman of the Windhoek Country Club and Chairman of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation and NCCI President, amongst others.

“…first of all you learn that there is a bigger purpose in what you do…”

Watch this this incredible story with us… If You Can #ICAN.