Dr Jaco van der Merwe – investing in The Young to make a global impact
It is often said that education is the key to success, and if there’s anyone who is a true testament to how hard work pays off, it has to be Dr Jaco van der Merwe. Innovative and passionate about software solutions, he is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DVT, a global Digital Technology Solutions company of 600+ staff with offices in South Africa, Kenya, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland and remote delivery teams in more than seven countries. He started at DVT in 2005, leading the Gauteng region and has been CEO for the last eight years. He completed his B.Sc. Computer Science, Cum laude in 1993 at what was known as The Rand Afrikaans University at the time. Dr Van der Merwe holds a doctor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Johannesburg and has focused his PhD research on Intelligent Software Agents and Information Security. He is involved with DigiTech research at tertiary institutions where he examines Master's Degree research dissertations in Information Security, Mobile Banking and eCommerce and has lectured Computer Science Honours degree courses part-time. He often performs as an external examiner for the Honours level Information Security Governance course at the University of Johannesburg. He is also regularly invited as external head judge on the final year Projects Day at the Academy for Information Technology at the University of Johannesburg, where he has been a judge for more than 20 years. In 2019, he was a finalist in the Institute for Information Technology Professionals of South Africa (IITPSA) Personality of the Year award “In recognition of his exceptional contribution to the South African ICT industry.” On where South Africa is now, in terms of access to technology and software development, he believes that more work in data science needs to be done. “The development of software in the country is on par. We’re not behind from a global point of view. Where we are lacking is in the world of data science of AI (Artificial Intelligence). Universities address it well where there are programmes in place where data science and machine learning is taught but there aren’t many clients in the corporate world that are applying. We’re heading in the direction where many companies will be applying the work of data science in the next few years,” he said. Van der Merwe, who is married with two daughters, enjoys spending time with his family, cycling, squash and travelling. When asked if his two young daughters have a passion for software development, he delightfully shared that his eldest daughter in Grade 11 recently decided to take up IT as a subject in school and his youngest daughter looks to follow suit.
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