Biography

- Masters of Science in Entrepreneurship (Oklahoma State University, USA) - 2011
- Bachelor of Commerce in Finance (University of the Western Cape, RSA) - 2008 - 2010

Current Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

Company: Microsoft South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Position: Business Development Manager, Equity Equivalent 

  

Business Venture Portfolio

1- Panorama Archi-Design Centre [founder]

2- Endeavours Consulting [co-founder]

3- Intesol (Pty) Ltd [founder]

4- Konnect8 Youth Empowerment [founder]

5- Financial Intelligence Society [co-founder]

6- Gabrestor Corporation [co-founder]

7- VC Architectural Design Centre [founder]

8- NB & T Construction [design partner]

9- Sunningvale [design partner]

10- Grace's Bridal [family business partner]

11- Interstate Batteries [consultant]

12- ITL Consulting [consultant]

13- Class Matters [consultant]

14- Origamu Design [consultant]

15- Rotomac Paints [consultant]

16- Sketchbooktrails [consultant]

17- Litsha Magazine [consultant]

18- GX Security [consultant]

19- Sabboath Consulting [consultant]

20- 707 Studios [consultant]

21- C-Cubed [consultant]

22- PROBUS [team leader & national business plan finalists]

Victor at Microsoft

2012

Victor is currently working for Microsoft South Africa. He is an ISV Business Development Manager in the Equity Equivalent Programme (EEP) [http://www.microsoft.com/southafrica/bee/index.html]. The EEP was launched last year and has become one of the most empowering programs in South Africa ever to be implemented by a multi-national. It has actually started creating benchmarks for multi-nationals to operate in the South Africa. It is also the first project of its kind in the world. Microsoft set aside R475million to support smaller software companies from South Africa and turn them global companies through their own software. Victor manages a couple of the software companies in the program and is a Trusted Advisor to the Chief Executive or Managing Directors.  

2011

On 16 December, Victor graduated with his Masters of Science in Entrepreneurship (MSE) at the Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University. Completing it in one year, he managed to achieve 10 disctinctions and 1 B. This program is one of the fastest growing entrepreneurship programs in the world and boasts of well renowned professors, led by Dr Michael Morris who was recently named the 2012 Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year by the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He was Victor's mentor in the USA.  The School of Entrepreneurship where Victor was learning also won accolades such as the National Model Undergraduate Program in the USA.

Victor at the Spears School of Business

He formalized his architectural business from VC Architectural Design Centre to Panorama Archi-Design Centre. His business during the year was incubated in the MSE Venture Lab hosted by the School of Entrepreneurship at OSU as well as the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship. Victor also worked as a Graduate Assistant in the Riata Center where he has been based this whole year. He was the lead GA in the successful Business Plan Competition which worth $40,000 prize money. He was also an intern at Bluewater Technology LLC where he worked as a business strategist to commercialize Bluewater's Hard-Disk-Drive invention which Samsung is interested in. This HDD technology is expected to significantly save the global HDD industry hunderds of millions of dollars. The MSE program has also aided in his networking capabilities as the students were exposed to very successful entrepreneurs and business-people. Victor had the opportunity to dine with top White House officials, Silicon Valley pioneers, and many other business-people in the US and from all over the world.

Panorama's Stillwater project - 2011

Victor was also involved in other students' business ventures and his venture under Panorama  kicked off positively. He was given a contract to re-design and re-draw some of the houses struck down by the fatal tornado that swept over Oklahoma State in the summer.

Overall, it took him only four years to achieve both his undergraduate and masters as opposed to the conventional six years. His desire was to go back to Africa, either Zimbabwe or South Africa and empower others while growing competencies and building foundations for the future. He graduated with a Baccalaureus Commerci (B.Com) in Finance from University of the Western Cape.

At age 23 and with such achievements, could this be the African Bill Gates? He refuses to be compared to Bill Gates or anyone who's lived as he said, "I would like to walk in the paths that look like they also walked in and but if I do, I walk on their paths in bigger shoes". Victor also mentions his strong desire and love for God and from his words, "doing what I do, it's not about me but other people and the generations to come after. I just want all the glory to be given to God coz he gives us everything and that many others could see and realize their potential".

Victor has been involved in the formation, growth and sustenance of 18 small businesses of which he is a founder, partner or strategist. Of the 18 ventures, 4 of them are social ventures and the remainder commercial ventures which are for-profit. He focuses on forming businesses and acquiring buy-in from other young talented individuals. He is seen to be building an army of young people who are ready and focused to impact nationals and possibly planets.

2010

Victor leading a team in the National
FNB Business Challenge

Victor started earning immense respect as a business leader at the university. He led a team in the FNB Universities Business Challenge. He was still the VP of Model UN and also the maintained a position in the cricket club committee as the treasurer. He was also the leader of the Student Digital ID system and held his directorship in Gabrestor Corporation. He competed in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange University Competition and was invited to become a member of the Golden Key International Society. Victor founder Intesol Corporation whilst still at UWC and then branched off Intesol Community Development program. This program gave birth to Konnect8 Youth Empowerment which is running successfully to date. He also founded Financial IQ (FIQ) Society with Mr Munyaradzi Nkomo, UWC's current SRC Vice-President and former JSE University Competition. FIQ was successful as it got buy-in from large corporations such as Standard Bank, Sanlam, Old Mutual as well as other smaller companies. He attended Celebration Church Cape Town where he was part of the team initiating the Business Committee at the church. Victor also participated in the Entrepreneurship Empowerment in South Africa hosted by UWC and Oklahoma State University. This program changed Victor's priorities as he He  realized his true calling, entrepreneurship. After two hours in the opening lecture, conducted by Dr Michael Morris, he decided he was not going to be a finance manager, but the businessman who manages the finance manager. He started implementing this wish by commercializing their SDID project and started doing business with the Business School at UWC. The implementation was successful and the system has been cited to be better than the traditional systems. They are currently using this system in some of the courses at UWC. Victor also started off a company with Tavonga Shoko, named Endeavours Consulting in Zimbabwe under the mentorship of Mr Gary Shoko.

Victor with the Accenture SA CEO &

2010 Soccer World Cup Managing

Director at the 2010 MTN Business

Leading CEO Council

UWC Student of the Year

Victor was selected as one of the 100 Brighest Young Minds in South Africa. From these 100 brighest young minds, 14 of them were picked to be part of "The Chosen- MTN Business Leading CEO Council" and Victor was one of the 14. They met the top CEOs in South Africa for a full weekend receiving mentor-ship and coaching as well as mapping the future for South Africa and Africa at large. Victor featured in an interview with M-Net's Carte Blanche international show. He won the following awards in his final undergraduate year: (1) Student of the Year; (2) Leadership Award; (3) The Entrepreneurship runner up.

Victor at Nelson Mandela's house

Victor took his achievements to another level as he was selected for the most prestigious scholarship in Africa, the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship. He was just an undergraduate and most recipients were PHD and Post-graduate students. It gave him the opportunity to study at any university he wished to study at in South Africa for his Honours degree in Finance. However, Victor declined the scholarship for a place at Oklahoma State University to do a Masters in Entrepreneurship. This was the first time anyone has ever declined a Mandela Rhodes Scholarship.
2009

Victor leading Team PROBUS at the
Sanlam National Business Challenge
Finals

 Victor became well versed with the systems in Cape Town and settled in very well. He excelled in everything he did during the year. He kept playing for the UWC cricket club and the UWC hockey club. He participated in the FNB Universities Business Challenge where he was a team leader. He also wrote a motivational article for the Rag Magazine. He also led a team of undergraduate 2nd year students to the national finals of the Sanlam Business Challenge where their team, Probus (Progressive Business Solutions), came second only 1% behind the winners. Victor was also the Ruth First Residence  Deputy -Chairperson and the Head of the Disciplinary Committee. He became an executive member for UWC Cricket Club and was made the Treasurer. He also helped form Model United Nations with Miss Rutendo Runi and took the position of Vice-President of the organization. At the end of the year, Victor won a few awards namely: (1) SRC Academic Awards- Top 15 Economic & Management Sciences Faulty student; (2) SDS Campus Entrepreneurship award; (3) SDS Rising to the Challenge award; and (4) Student Achievement award. On top of all this, Victor managed to get 80% distinctions during the year. He proposed  a student digital identification system with Ali Malefo which some of the departments started piloting. This system was set to improve administration of the students' academic records systems.

Victor practising with the Daredevils
IPL Cricket Squad

During the same year, his mother's health kept improving but was of great concern to him as it got worse a number of times and had to rush back home during some holidays. He also saw his brother, William Chaitezvi (28), get married to Gillian Mafunga, now Mrs Gillian Chaitezvi. His young brother, Lloyd Chaitezvi (18), also completed his high school with flying colours

2008
Victor was awarded a cricket scholarship to study at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), in Cape Town South Africa. This scholarship was hosted by LBW (Australia) and SS4LS (South Africa). He played for UWC cricket club and made a century in his debut match. He also started off a degree in Management but had never taken any management or business classes at this point. He only had the experience from the ventures he was involved in during the previous year. He struggled immensely with accounting at the beginning but never gave up. He did well during the first semester balancing academics and cricket at the same time in a new environment. He had strong support from his family, Peter Roebuck, Nicolas Kock, Mike Coward, among many other individuals. He started involving himself in many activities at the university. The met Ali Malefo and teamed up to become business partners. The first project they did together outside the classroom was well received by Mr Raymond Ackerman at Pick 'n' Pay. It was a technology that was set to change the shopping industry in Africa. It was a capital intensive project but never went too far as the recession kicked in. This sparked a new light of creativity in his life and kept on looking for opportunities. He became a co-founding director for Gabrestor Corporation which with Mr James Musakanya.  

Victor also played hockey for the university and managed to make it into the Boland Province hockey team in South Africa. He received a Half-Colours award for hockey from UWC. He won the award for the 2nd Best EMS student in residence. He was also the Masters of Ceremony at the annual UWC cricket dinner. Victor was also involved in politics where he ran for the Central House Committee, which was rare for a first year student to run for. 

2007

Victor playing cricket

Victor was meant to sign a contract with Zimbabwe Cricket during this year but instead decided to take a break and find a new meaning to his life. He got a gap-year job at Gateway Primary School where he taught physical education and also different sports at the junior school. At the same time, he was incubated at Vengesayi Architects where he was under five strong architects. They taught him all the design and architectural concepts to the extent that he left Vengesayi Architects at the end of June to start off his own design firm. Meanwhile, he was also playing cricket and hockey for Old Hararians Sports Club during the weekends. He was selected again for the Zimbabwe Board XI hockey team and was named in the Zimbabwe Mens hockey squad for the Africa Cup of Nations. 

Victor worked on the family ventures which ranged from poultry, wedding planning and construction. Since Victor was designing house, he was involved in 10 different projects and most of the houses have actually been built and people taking habitat in them. His main dream at this time was to become an architect. 

2006

Victor won numerous awards including
a National Honours award

Victor was a bit distraught by the bi-polarity of events in the previous year. He entered the year a changed man. He decided to focus on his academia as Zimbabwe cricket had disappointed him. He however captained the Mashonaland U19 cricket team and was also played for the Mashonaland U19 hockey team. He also led the Prince Edward indoor hockey team to the national finals where they won the national finals. He was selected for the Zimbabwe U19 Hockey team but did not go on tour as he had cricket commitments. He also made it into the Zimbabwe Board XI hockey team as well as the national mens indoor team. He also captained the Zimbabwe U19 cricket team to South Africa winning 4 out of five games. Victor was heavily involved in other activities. He played a couple of games for the tennis team, played badminton, volleyball, squash and every other sport possible during 2006. He is not talented in the water hence stayed away from the pool sports. He led his house to many victories during inter-house events at Prince Edward and performed very well at the National Institute of Allied Arts (NIAA) where he achieved three 1+ grades and two honours awards. His team of senior prefects, Tapiwa Mswaka, Tafadzwa Mutizwa, Tawanda Chasara, Tendai Chaitezvi, Keenan Marais, Gashirai Mwashita, Tichafara Makwanya, and himself, won a crucial national dramatics cup. At the end of the year, Victor got the following awards at Prince Edward's prize-giving day: (1) The Old Hararians cricket award; (2) The Old Hararians field hockey award; (3) The Old Hararians indoor hockey award; (4) The Endeavours Award; (5) Tokwe Head of House Award; (6) The Technical Graphics award; (7) The Leadership Award. He also got full colours in the following: cricket; indoor hockey; field hockey; dramatics; cross country and half colours in athletics. The most memorable achievement Victor felt he received during 2006 was the Honours Award for All-round excellence and leadership. This award was one of the less than 40 awards ever awarded in more than 108 years at Prince Edwards. Keenan Marais was also awarded the Honours award for Sports Excellence. 

2005

Zimbabwe U19 Afro-Asia Team, World
Cup Squad

This was one of Victor's best years of achievement! When he came back for Lower 6, he was selected as one of the 8 junior full prefects (legends) at Prince Edward. He was made the 1st team cricket captain whilst only in lower 6. He also played for the 1st team indoor hockey which won the national indoor hockey championships. He also played for the field hockey team that won the inter-city finals. Under coach Mr Jeremiah Matibiri, Victor led the Prince Edward Cricket team to winning the St Johns national cricket 20-20 tournament of which he was named Best Batsman and Player of the Tournament. In addition to that, Prince Edward School 1st team cricket set national records by achieving 513 and 520 runs in 50 over games. Victor also set a personal and national record in Zimbabwe schools cricket by reaching 203 runs in only 110 balls at the national cricket schools week on his home ground, Jubille, at Prince Edward School. Victor was selected into the U19 Mashonaland cricket team and made it into the Zimbabwe U19 cricket team for the Afro-Asia Cup and into the World Cup squad. He was also selected into the Mashonaland 1st Class team and was at one point the youngest cricketer in 1st class. He played in the game where Mashonaland set a national record where they reached 715 runs alongside 9 national team players. He also played for the Zimbabwe U19 Hockey team which toured Potchefstroom and lost in the final minute to the South Africa U19 team in the Potch Tournament finals. At the end of the year, Victor was awarded full colours for Indoor Hockey; Field Hockey; Cricket and Cross Country. He was also made Head of House in Selous House (now Tokwe).

On the downside, Victor did not make it into the top 3 prefects at Prince Edward but remained a senior prefect at the end of the year. Mr Barnes, who mentored Victor, also left the school at the beginning of the year. He also managed to acquire dismal grades as low as a 2% in mathematics. He dropped mathematics took up Geography adding to his Physics and Technical Graphics. This was a wasted year academically. During the Afro-Asia tour that year, he did not get much game time and batted lower down the order. Upon arrival back from India, there were speculations in the newspapers that he misbehaved whilst on tour but it was not true. They however managed to apologize nationally for this story as it tarnished his image. He was dropped out of the World Cup travelling team. His mother, Mrs Jennifer Chaitezvi (nee Beremauro) had a stroke after his sister's wedded to Mr Chesternoel Mutevhe. Mrs Chaitezvi lost her two sisters in a space of two months. 

2004

Victor at Prince Edward School

Victor became a full-time 1st team cricket player and even more of a senior player. He also played 2nd team hockey and then in the last half of the season, played for the 1st team. He also joined the indoor hockey team where he played for the 2nd team which won the national championships. Victor made it into the Mashonaland U19 cricket team as well as the Mashonaland U17 hockey team. He was also captain of the U17 Zimbabwe cricket team during the year. He carried on doing other events such as dramatics, public speaking etc but lost his voice for music. He continued to do well with his schoolwork and earned respect from the students at his school and nationally. He managed to pass his "O" (Ordinary) Levels with reasonable grades, but believed he could have done better. His older sister, Grace Mutevhe (30)(nee Chaitezvi), graduated with an Honours in Economics and started working for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. 

Victor at Prince Edward School

2003

Victor captained the Prince Edward U16 cricket team, and the U16 field hockey teams which were very successful and rated among the top teams for that year in the country. He also captained the Mashonaland U16 cricket team and managed to make it into the Mashonaland U16 hockey team as well. Whilst at U16 level, he was promoted to play for the 1st Team at Prince Edward where he actually started dominating. He was selected for the Zimbabwe U16 team as a vice-captain but could not go on tour that year. He was the best batsman with the highest batting average in Zimbabwe schools cricket. He joined the Old Hararians Sports Club cricket team where he played with international players who mentored and coached him well. In the same year, he acted in the school play and continued running long distance events for the school. He was then promoted academically to the 1st class of his stream. He however stopped playing rugby as he did not have enough time and also worried about his body size.

2002

At the beginning of 2002, Victor was given a full scholarship to attend Peterhouse High School. Two days before going to Peterhouse, Prince Edward School and Zimbabwe Cricket countered the offer. Victor ended up going to Prince Edward School under Mr Clive Barnes. He continued playing cricket and other talents started emerging whilst at Prince Edward. He ran athletics, cross country, and steeplechase. He also played rugby and hockey. He played for the U15B rugby team, made it into the hockey U15A team after only two weeks. He was selected for the U16 Mashonaland Cricket team and was also vice-captain of that team. Shockingly, he played two games for the school's 1st team cricket. The programs at Prince Edward made him start developing his leadership skills and also refine his skills in different activities. He was involved in public speaking, dramatics and the gospel band at inter-house levels. Victor joined Celebration Church Harare staged at Sharon School. He featured in the video of the song 'Our Zimbabwe' by Henry Olonga.

Victor leading the Cross Country &
Steeplechase teams

2001

He went to join his older brother, William Chaitezvi, at Jameson High School in Kadoma. William was the deputy headboy of Jameson. Victor played cricket, rugby, ran cross country and did athletics. He was also proficient in his academics and won an academic prize at the prize-giving day. Under Luther Mutyambizi as his coach, Victor played cricket well and was selected for the Mashonaland Province U13 team and ultimately for the Zimbabwe U14 Cricket Team. He was one of the only two black people in the team. He was also the first student from Jameson to make it into the Zimbabwe U14 cricket team. He went on tour to Durban, South Africa with Mr Dilip Chauhan as the manager and Mr Shane Cloete as the coach. He was man-of-the-match once at the Durban's Standard Bank U13 week.

Cricket practise

2000

He continued playing cricket with the support of his family and the school. He became a force to reckon in the Zimbabwe Schools junior cricket. He played for the Mashonaland West U13 team and was awarded man-of-the-match twice at the Partridges Week that year. In addition to that, he captained the cross country team, the cricket team and the soccer team in his final junior year. He was also a prefect. At the prize-giving day, he won the Endeavours Award, the Leadership Award and the Best Sportsman Award. He also started playing cricket for Kadoma Sports Club.

1999

Victor focused on his cricket as he enjoyed it immensely, he played in the Goldridge Tournament and managed to win Batsman of the Year award. He was selected for the Mashonaland West U13 team. This marked the start of his cricket career. He also attended the  Salvation Army Church with his family.

1995 - 1998

Victor attended Lady Tait Primary school in Kadoma starting from Grade 2. He did athletics, soccer and cross country for his junior school. He was very competitive in all three sports and also excelled in his academia. In the last half of 1998, he started playing cricket under coach, Admire Marodza, who is now the Midwest manager.

1994

Victor attended Sinoia Primary School in Chinhoyi for Grade 1. He won an academic award for 2nd Best in his Grade 1 class. His family then moved to Kadoma at the end of that same year.

Website links with Victor Chaitezvi

http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe/content/player/208167.html
http://beta.mnet.co.za/carteblanche/Article.aspx?ID=4193

http://spears2.okstate.edu/news/2011/03/21/osusouth-african-initiative-helps-students-discover-passions-fulfill-dreams/

http://entrepreneurship.okstate.edu/academics/graduate/2011-mse-students

http://www.thechosen.co.za/2010/pdf/the_leading_protege_council_members.pdf

http://www.brmtaylor.com/news-30.htmlhttp://www.theindependent.co.zw/sport/15566.html

http://www.uwc.ac.za/usrfiles/users/1/oncampus_nov_dec_2009.pdf

http://www.thechosen.co.za/2010/thank_you.html
http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/cricket-chat/15415-official-zimbabwe-domestic-season.html