Charity
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Diving – Work with Kids (Townships): During my time as a dive instructor (1995) in SA we ran a programme for local township school kids where they came to our diving school as a class and got free diving lessons. We wanted to show those kids an alternative way to spend some free time, allowing them first-hand to experience a sport that for most children back then was simply not available.
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Microsoft “Pate für Schlaumäuse Projekt”: I joined this MSFT programme in 2006. Schlaumäuse was a software that was installed on tablet PCs and distributed free of costs to schools and kindergartens in poorer areas of Germany. My role to deliver the PCs and support the kindergarten or school afterwards as well.
Entrepreneurial
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Towards the end of my time at Blaxxun, I tried to build a business combining my passion for golf as a sport and the then “New Economy”: Together with two partners I founded GOBIZ, trying to establish a communication platform for golf players. We wanted to create a series of business tournaments, using the online platform as a communication or matchmaking tool before and afterwards. We invested time and budget but came to realise that due to professional obligations we wouldn’t be able to run it as a side-line business as successfully as planned – hence our decision to sell the platform (with a small profit) and focus on our careers.