After 28 years Helmi Dreijer, Information Technology’s Senior Director will be retiring at the end of 2014. “Retiring” might not be the correct term when referring to Helmi though. Spending time lounging on a stoep will only be on his list in ten years’ time, he says. Marida, his wife, also devised a few things to keep him busy with.

Everyone who know Helmi knows he has an unlimited amount of energy and that he’s always busy running around. He believes life’s too short and there’s too much still to do.

However, he is looking forward having more time for his passions – friends, family and golf (in no particular order). Especially golf of course. He professes he doesn’t have a golf handicap, the game itself is in fact the handicap. But he remains optimistic about his golf skills and believes they will vastly improve in a few years’ time. He also wants to convince a few colleagues to take up the game.

“Technology tends to consume and suck you in and then you don’t see the beautiful mountains surrounding us. Now I have the opportunity to enjoy the mountains more.” They’re looking forward to this new phase in their lives, but it will still include many of his old colleagues.

One of the most important lessons he’s learnt over the years, is to balance your passion for work with your passion outside work.

Technology has always been one of his greatest passions and in spite of his time at Information Technology coming to an end, he has various ideas and plans lined up already.

“I still want to contribute and make a difference where technology is involved.”

Higher education institutions will be depending on and using technology more and more in the future. Especially video-stream technology can create many opportunities for teaching and learning.

He was involved in the first eCampus project where the value of technology was highlighted. The second eCampus project is playing an even bigger role in enriching the classroom experience and also to broaden the university’s footprint, locally, as well as internationally.

He’s not too concerned about his legacy at IT. “The IT environment changes so quickly and 2015’s IT management already have exciting developments lined up.”

His biggest motivation over the years to go to work with a positive attitude has been the people. In time colleagues became friends and this is what he’ll miss the most.

“To get to work on a Monday and listen to everyone’s weekend adventures – who went hiking in the mountain, fell off a bike, went windsurfing and of course, did something great with technology.

Intellectual talks, the challenge to help solve a sticky problem and the opportunity to make a difference, provided more than enough daily motivation. He says it’s easy to be positive when most of his colleagues at the university have a positive attitude themselves.

“Success leads to success and positive thinking. Together with other university colleagues IT managed to accomplish quite a bit.”

He still remembers the first e-mail he and Herman Heunes sent from the Vax and PC and the excitement of the event.

His interest in computers was sparked in 1974 when the first Apple computer was imported to South Africa. He immediately started to disassemble it and tried copying it electronically so he and his friends could afford their own versions. It took a while, but on the West Coast, where he lived at the time, time stands still.

“My son was almost called Apple!”

At school mathematics, science and canoeing, rugby and athletics kept him busy. “All those things that get a boy’s adrenalin pumping.” He still believes one has something which scares you every day. Do something bold, but don’t be reckless.

At Stellenbosch he studied Engineering, first Electronic, but also Industrial Engineering. Later in his career he completed an MBA and at this point, became more interested in Information Technology.

During the interview for his position at IT, the Vice Rector of Operations asked him why he wanted to return to Stellenbosch. He replied by saying, initially one comes to Stellenbosch to become a full-grown person and that he wanted to recreate and continue this feeling of growing and experiencing things in Stellenbosch.

“Phew, Marida and me won’t give up Stellenbosch for anything in the world.”

There is nothing he won’t miss, he says. Even struggling with problems and battling to find a solution, in spite of technical glitches with 3G and Wi-Fi, wasn’t as bad.

Unfortunately some users initially though Information Technology was a general information service and could, among other things, tell you how to prepare frogs’ legs! Incidents like these made for light entertainment.

“The entire time I spent at Information Technology was a highlight. To be part of something bigger and make a difference is an amazing experience and privilege.”

 

This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2014 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Our people. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.