ROYAL HUSTLERS Riaan Burger - Throw your heart into it!
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ow the CEO of one of Namibia’s largest diamond companies, Riaan Burger grew up as a farm boy who loved the outdoors.
He was an energetic child and developed a love for sports at a young age, playing everything from cricket and rugby to golf and tennis. But his biggest passion was building little model aeroplanes. Budding Engineer “My biggest dream as a child was aviation and aeroplanes. I liked the idea of flying but I didn’t only want to get a plane, I wanted to build it!”, says Riaan. His determination saw him play around with model planes and attempting to build radio controlled aircraft. Years later, this passion led him to study engineering at the University of Stellenbosch. There he poured his passion into a field of study that would help him finally realise his dream. Right after Namibia’s independence and soon after graduating, he returned to his home country to pursue a career in aviation at Air Namibia. “But at some stage, I realised that I’ve got other interests as well and I failed to see career opportunities in aviation, so I went into mining.” At Namdeb, he found his passion and spent the past two decades in diamond mining. On the meaning of success “My idea of success has definitely changed. Early in my career I wanted to climb the corporate ladder and thought the higher you got in a corporate environment, the more successful you would be. That’s changed for me in the latter part of my career. For me, success now has more to do with joint achievement and legacy.” Riaan strives to make a significant change in people’s lives and contribute to the wellbeing of communities through the work he does with his team at NAMDEB. He gives credit for his drive and love for studying to his parents, both of them academics who taught him at an early age that one never stops learning.
Joining NAMDEB When Riaan joined NAMDEB as a junior engineer with no leadership experience, he was thrown into the deep end and had to learn everything about management and the mining industry. “I suddenly had to understand what management was all about, how mining systems worked and then rapidly realised that a lot of skills I thought I had were really not relevant,” says Riaan. He learnt from the people working for him, and since he was only in his 20s he looked to colleagues in their 40s and 50s for direction. That, he says, helped him a lot in his early years at NAMDEB. As he explains: “I learnt from fantastic leaders in the organisation and that helped me grow my leadership skills and leadership style. I went from being a fairly arrogant young engineer who thought he knew everything to a leader who understands that the people in my team are all capable and talented, and my role is to enable them to do their best”. The future of NAMDEB “We are doing some really interesting things and have been doing some incredible research over the last couple of years, in particular on the geology of the shallow marine area,” says Riaan. This work, he adds, has also led to a number of PhD studies on the subject and many other projects are happening at the company. Riaan remains as committed to his work at NAMDEB as he was when he joined the company 26 years ago. He is the same passionate man who strives to give his best in everything he does, a trait he credits to his parents. “As my dad always said: ‘Something worth doing is worth doing well’. I think that is such an incredible motto.” Riaan is true to this motto to the fullest, adding: “Life is too short not to be passionate about something. If you do something, throw your heart into it.” Tune in to The Royal Hustlers on 99FM every Monday to Friday, with Namibian Royal Hustlers on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 07h35.
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