Alan Knott-Craig (born 14 August 1977,

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

) is a South African entrepreneur and author. He is the founder of ''Project Isizwe''

Early life

Alan Knott-Craig (jnr) was born on 14 August 1977 in Pretoria, where he lived until he left school in 1995. His early school career was at home where his mother, a qualified teacher, ran a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

. At age 6, he went to Glenstantia Primary School, graduating to the

Glen High School The Glen High School is a public English medium co-educational high school situated in the suburb of Waterkloof Glen in Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It's one of the top and most academic schools in Gauteng. The school has ...

, Pretoria in 1991. His father,

Alan Knott-Craig (Senior) Alan Knott-Craig (born 8 May 1952, Oudtshoorn, South Africa) is a retired South African former CEO of Vodacom (1996 - 2008) and Cell C (2012 - 2014). Early life and career Knott-Craig was born on 8 May 1952, Oudtshoorn, South Africa, where he ...

, was Senior

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of Mobile Communications at

Telkom SA Telkom SA SOC Limited is a South African wireline and wireless telecommunications provider, operating in more than 38 countries across the African continent. Telkom is majority state-owned (55.3%) with the South African government owning 40.5% ...

, and later CEO of South African mobile networks, Vodacom (1996-2008) and

Cell C Cell C Limited (stylised as Cell ©) is as a private mobile operator based in Sandstone, South Africa. It was founded in November 2001 by Lambert Moloi. As of August 2019, the Company’s current CEO is Douglas Craigie Stevenson Douglas may re ...

(2012-2014). In 1996, Knott-Craig (jnr) was accepted for a BCom Accounting at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (formerly University of Port Elizabeth). He graduated in 1998, and completed his postgraduate degree, B Com Honours in Accounting, in 1999. He did his articles at

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

between 2000 and 2002.

Career

Knott-Craig qualified as a Chartered Accountant (SA) at the end of 2002. He worked in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

office of Deloitte USA for a short period. He returned to South Africa and in October 2003 he founded ''Cellfind'', one of South Africa's first mobile-location-based service providers and served as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

until 2005. In 2006 he was appointed as CEO of ''

iBurst IEEE 802.20 or Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) was a specification by the standard association of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for mobile broadband networks. The main standard was published in 2008. MBW ...

'' and built one of South African's largest wireless broadband networks. After the birth of his first daughter, he left ''iBurst'' in 2009 to relocate to Stellenbosch. In 2010 he founded and became CEO of ''World of Avatar'', an investment house for apps for Africa and later acquired and became CEO of Mxit, Africa's biggest social network. He left Mxit and World of Avatar in October 2012 after a disagreement with his partners. In 2013 he founded 'Project Isizwe'', a non-profit company managing the deployment of the largest public free

Wi-Fi network Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...

in South Africa. In 2014 he founded ''Herotel,'' a wireless broadband provider in South Africa, Between 2003 and 2013 he co-founded and/or funded 17 companies in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications sector in Africa, including ''Cellfind,

Lucky Mobile Lucky Mobile is a Canadian prepaid mobile virtual network operator and a subsidiary of Bell Canada. Founded in December 2017, Lucky Mobile operates on the Bell Mobility network alongside fellow subsidiary Virgin Plus. It targets the same market seg ...

, iFind34600, COLV, World of Avatar, Toodu, FSMS, Triloq, 6th Line, Daily Maverick, ARC Telecoms, Pondering Panda, MorMor Media,'' and '' Boom.fm''.

Personal life

Knott-Craig married Sibella Bosman in 2002. They have three daughters and live in Stellenbosch,

Publications

In April 2008, he published ''Don't Panic'', based on an e-mail he sent to his staff aimed at persuading South Africans to stay in the country and contribute positively. The book became the best selling book in South Africa for 2008. In 2019 he wrote a follow-up article. This was followed in 2012 by ''Mobinomics: Mxit and South Africa's Mobile Revolution'' which he co-authored with Gus Silber. ''Really, Don't Panic'' and ''Moenie Stres nie'' a follow-up of ''Don't Panic'' was published in 2014. In 2015 he co-authored ''So, You Want To Be A Hero'', a collection of essays, tips and cartoons targeted at young people looking to fast track their careers. He writes a daily blog for entrepreneurs at www.bigalmanack.com

Awards and recognition

Knott-Craig was named as a

Young Global Leader Forum of Young Global Leaders, or Young Global Leaders (YGL), was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum. The YGL, a non-profit organization managed from Geneva, Switzerland, is under the supervision of the Swiss government ...

by the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

in 2009. ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' listed him as one of the top 10 young African millionaires to watch in 2013. He was also included in “100 Choiseul Africa", a list of top 100 young African business leaders in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knott-Craig, Alan 1977 births South African businesspeople Living people