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A career of rising to the challenge
MOST OF THE MORE than 600 000 student beneficiaries had not received their allowances for 2018. “Many people told me that it was absolute madness to take this on, but I felt compelled by my background that it was the right thing to do. I find it difficult to resist challenges,” says Dr Carolissen.
Dr Carolissen grew up in Ravensmead and matriculated at Florida Senior Secondary School where his English teacher, future University of the Western Cape (UWC) Rector Professor Brian O’Connell, had a profound influence on him. One of five children raised by a single mother, Dr Carolissen received a bursary from the Department of Coloured Affairs to study at UWC.
He says, “No other institution off ered generations a gateway out of poverty. I am extremely thankful that UWC, under the visionary leadership of Prof Richard van der Ross at the time, took a chance on me with my poor matric marks.
“UWC provided us with opportunities that we could not get elsewhere. We were exposed to the most incisive minds debating black consciousness and social mobilisation to fi ght apartheid. I met some of the greatest thinkers from across South Africa.”
Dr Carolissen completed a BSc in Physics and Mathematics, a BSc Honours in Physics and an MSc (cum laude) supervised by Dr Rene Pretorius, a world leader in nanotechnology. After graduating from UWC, Dr Carolissen worked as a production engineer at Firestone in Port Elizabeth, a laboratory technician at UWC and a researcher at the CSIR. Prompted by Prof Jakes Gerwel, he returned to UWC in 1990 to lecture in solid-state physics, quantum mechanisms and experimental nuclear physics.
In 1991, he was awarded a six-month fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed groundbreaking experiments and published three internationally reviewed papers on Schottky barriers. The research prompted Pennsylvania to off er him a PhD scholarship, but he opted to complete his PhD in Solid State Physics at UWC.
Dr Carolissen discovered an interest in development studies, and enrolled for a Business Administration (Hons) degree followed by an MBA at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. He passed both cum laude and won the Old Mutual Gold Medal Award.
In 2000, he joined the SABS as a business development manager and a year later was promoted to Managing Director.
“SABS was bankrupt, but in fi ve years we accumulated cash reserves close to R100 million and doubled turnover. We worked hard on changing bureaucratic mindsets to embrace transformation,” says Dr Carolissen.
In 2005, he joined the SARS Executive Team as Group Executive (Revenue Planning and Analysis) and completed an MCom (International Tax) at North-West University.
Dr Carolissen says that UWC shaped his social conscience. It was where he realised the need for activism to uplift communities. He has chaired the Kuilsrivier Residents Association, established Kalkfontein Village to house 500 formerly homeless families and built the Ikwezi Preschool in Gugulethu. He is currently a trustee of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls and served as Chair of the Wits Council for an unprecedented three terms, helping the university navigate the 2015–2016 #FeesMustFall crisis.
“The experience at Wits during #FeesMustFall prepared me for the work I did over the 28 months as administrator at NSFAS,” says Dr Carolissen, who stepped down from the position in December 2020.
Dr Carolissen ensured the infusion of new skills and governance processes at NSFAS, invested in relationship building with all stakeholders, established good governance and upgraded processes and systems to counter fraud. Data exchange protocols were developed with institutions to arrest irregular expenditure that amounted to an astonishing R7,5 billion in 2017 and 2018.
Staff morale improved and many worked throughout the festive season to process NSFAS fi rst-time applications. More than 750 000 NSFAS students could register in 2020 without having to pay registration fees, a fi rst for NSFAS. From 1 March 2021, Dr Carolissen took on a new challenge, having accepted the post of Dean of the University of Johannesburg Business School.
Dr Carolissen says, “Throughout my life’s journey I kept on remembering my mother’s words – where there is a will, there is a way.”
