Meet the Mentors

SAHISA Representative

Mike Thiel has committed his teaching career of over thirty years to finding innovative solutions to the education inequalities that are at the core of South Africa’s economic challenges. Preferring to stay at the ‘chalk board’ and test methods that can be scaled in time, he graduated from the University of Cape Town, has taught in four provinces (Western Cape, Northern Cape, Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng) and been Headmaster of four independent schools since 1997 – St Patrick’s CBC Kimberley, Clifton College Durban, Dominican Convent School and St David’s Marist Inanda in Johannesburg. Each has offered different opportunities with CBC being co-educational, Clifton being a new high school starting with just grade 8, Dominican an inner-city school of 900 children with 300 orphans and vulnerable children and most recently the opening of the Alexandra Campus as a satellite of St David’s to provide greater access to excellence across two campuses.

In this work, Mike has found greatest satisfaction in building relationships and supporting the growth of so many talented teachers he has had the honour of working with and mentoring. It is this belief that we have the most exceptional pool of hard-working educationalists to develop a generation of young people eager to bring the richness of their diversity to building their country that keeps Mike motivated. The opportunity to bring his experiences to the work of OISESA is an exciting one, knowing how important it is to constantly ensure that our schools are doing the best we can for our richest resource – the children of Southern Africa. Mike is the SAHISA representative on the board.

Mike is married with four children, and in rare free moments loves visits to the bush and the beach and is an avid reader across a range of topics.