Deon Opperman
Deon Opperman
Current title
Executive Director, Overberg Productions; Chief Executive Officer, Deon Opperman Productions (Pty) Ltd
Course at Wits Business School
Master of Business Administration, 2006
A defining moment in my career
The defining moment of my career happened when I was 12 years old. My father was the managing director of Glenton & Mitchell in the Eastern Cape, the company that launched Joko Tea during the first half of the 20th century.
He was also a city councillor for many years and occupied many other civic positions. To me, he was a hero. One Saturday morning, I accompanied him to the factory of which he was the manager, located on the West Bank of the Buffalo River in East London.
We were standing on the steps to the entrance, when I said to him, “One day when I grow up I hope that I can be as successful as you have been, Dad.” He was quiet for a while and then said, “No, my boy, I am not successful.
I wanted to be an architect.” Though he was ‘successful,’ he had never done what he really wanted to do. Because of that moment with my father, I have made those things, and only those things, for which I have a passionate enthusiasm, my business.
