Tienie E.

Previously head of Learning and Development (HRD) at SABMiller, Dr. Tienie has 24 years of experience across academic, training, consulting and corporate background (11 years Academic and 11 years Corporate). Dr. Tienie Ehlers studied B.Com and then his B.Com Hons in Strategic Management at RAU (now UJ). He started working for TUT (Tshwane University of Technology), then UP (University of Pretoria) and then UNISA which concluded his 11 years academic, training and consulting background. During this time he also completed his MBA from RAU and then completed his PhD (D.Com) in Business Management in 2000. He ended his academic career as Professor and Head of Strategic Management at UNISA, making him one of the youngest Professors at UNISA. During this time, Tienie was involved in presenting various papers at Conferences as well as articles in academic publications. Tienie and a colleague from the University of the Free State wrote the first South African text book on Strategic Management which is now in its third edition and has sold close to 100 000 copies across Universities to date. It was during this time in 2004 that Tienie was approached by SAB and appointed to report into Ken Hitchcock, (later ABI MD), starting his SAB career in the Commercial area. Soon after this he was appointed as HR Manager in East Coast Region in 2006 and then as HR Manager at Alrode Manufacturing in 2007 where he held that position for 2 years. During his time at SAB East Coast Region he was awarded the MD’s award for the best HR Region in the group and during his time at Alrode Brewery was awarded best HR Practitioner of the Year for the work he has done on employee engagement and the impact it had on performance. In 2009 he was appointed on the SAB HR Executive Team as OD Projects Manager, also looking after Leadership and Performance Management for the whole of SAB. Since 2010 he was the HRD manager for SAB where he headed up all Learning and Development (Competence Development) for the group including Performance Management and Leadership Development. During this time Tienie has implemented a whole new L&D Operating model and ways of working to align with business priorities and strategy. He headed up SAB’s drive within the capability building space which has proven to be a major factor in the company’s success over the last few years. In 2017, he has been appointed as CLO (Chief Learning Officer) at USB-ED (University of Stellenbosch Business School - Executive Development) and in the same time, Tienie is acting as Trainer and Consultant focusing on Human Capital, Strategy and Leadership.