Lifetime award for Bertie Lubner

ROBYN SASSEN

The air was thick with excited expectation as the jam-packed auditorium at Sandton-based graduate business school Regenesys readied itself for the start of the first of its three annual graduations, last week Friday.

The ceremony celebrated the institution and lauded one of its trustees, Bertie Lubner, for the business successes he has achieved, his leadership qualities and the contribution he has made to socioeconomic development.

CEO of Regenesys, Siege Brownlee, in opening the proceedings, said: “Regenesys started from an idea; 15 years and 95 000 graduates later, we are in 125 countries globally, including Mumbai in India and Lagos in Nigeria, our newest campuses.

She saluted the project’s founding directors, Penny Law, William Vivian and Dr Marko Saravanja.

Kuseni Dlamini gave keynote

Keynote speaker, Kuseni Dlamini, chairman of the Times Media Group, offered the graduates caveats to being business leaders in the world: global competitiveness; intra-regional trade and investment; human capacity and ethical leadership grounded in values.

Student upon student – 194 in all – came forward to be capped. With a shouted out “Go, Ma!” some praise songs and much ululating emanating from the audience, the environment, electric with joy, gave an understanding of the challenges these men and women have faced in reaching this point.  Few are school leavers. Many are professionals returning for a second or third degree. All of them balance work with studying.

Morathoa Thoke, head of the SRC, who received her postgraduate diploma in public management, said: “Potential is within us. We’ve talked the talk and walked the walk and now we must be agents of change. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge.”

Dr Saravanja then made a special presentation to veteran businessman and philanthropist, Bertie Lubner. The audience stood in unison, as a deeply moved Lubner gathered his thoughts.

“I do not believe you lecture people,” he said quietly. “I believe you talk to them. When I look at all these beautiful faces… each of you has chosen to make a life of your own. What greater joy can one have.

“I hope I am a realist, but one should never expect to be rewarded for doing the right things. The reward in one’s own soul is far greater.

“One thing I have learned is that it is empty and dangerous to try and have education without challenge, science without humanity, and commerce without morality.

“There is a world of difference between interest and commitment,” he spoke of how Regenesys posits change in the lives of so many young people, as he paid tribute to Dr Saravanja. “Interest is something one does only when it is convenient. But commitment can change your life.

“May you be empowered for the rest of your days and may you also realise that it’s not only about what you have done for yourself, but what you can give back to society.”