Meet Gavin Dalgleish – Managing Director of Illovo Group

Different seasons require different leaders who according to Illovo Group Managing Director, Gavin Dalgleish (51) are not born but rather serendipitously carved out by the vagaries of life.

“No, I don’t subscribe to the view that leaders are born. What I do believe though is that there are situational leaders for different times. I guess different leaders for different seasons,” Dalgleish says.

Now at the helm of Africa’s largest privately owned sugar group for four years, and with a career deeply steeped in the sector, Dalgleish talked to the Shukela Magazine about his life, what and who made him the leader that he is and what he hoped for in his future.

“I am passionate about our out-grower programs in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa. We are creating generational wealth in so many communities. I am passionate about Africa’s developmental agenda. So, when my season comes to an end here that is where I would like to pour my energies,” he said.

Dalgleish’s laugh rings out loudly down the vast concrete passageways of the group’s modern building on Umhlanga Ridge as he and an employee share a joke over a cellphone message.

But, sitting in a brocade chair looking out over the end-to-end views of the Indian Ocean, his inner steel glints. “In the current economic and political climate there are leadership values which are non-negotiable. Such as promoting a learning orientation in the organisation, being self aware, remaining open to feedback, humility and being engaged with your people. I really am not absorbed in my job title, but I am absorbed in the responsibilities,” he said.

Naked ambition, he added, was off putting. “I also don’t like to take myself too seriously.”

Deputy head boy at Durban’s George Campbell Technical School, a Chemical Engineering major, Dalgleish however pointed to his early childhood, school teachers and being in the right place at the right time – serendipity – as landmark moments in his life. “My father was an instrument artisan. In my early life he worked at a fertilizer factory in Saudi Arabia. I attended an American Consular School. That was liberating. We visited Beirut for a time. It was such a beautiful city. We travelled through Europe. Those journeys gave me fascinating insights.”

And while it was not generally popular to send a son to a technical school back then, Dalgleish attributed his time at George Campbell as formative. “I had great teachers who tested and challenged me.”

As a vast and complex organization, the Illovo Group – now a wholly owned ABF (Associated British Foods) subsidiary and no longer listed on the JSE – has certainly had visionaries at its helm. Long before it was considered popular, Illovo saw the potential and seized the opportunities for growth on the African continent.

As the first scientist appointed as Group Managing Director, however, Dalgleish’s leadership style is vastly different from the patriarchal style synonymous with the sugar industry’s past. A style that became even more evident when he put forward the names of great leaders he admired. “Firstly, former president Nelson Mandela. He is a leadership icon for all of us. I would love to talk to South African cricketer Hashim Amla about the 300 Test runs he made against England. Did you know he was fasting at the time? Incredible. Another is the Kenyan born cyclist Chris Froome. U2’s Bono and Kevin Spacey, I would love to chat to them too. All of them are great leaders, I am a little concerned though that I haven’t named any women in that list. I will have to think about why that is,” Dalgleish said.

And while he might ponder on that, Dalgleish however, was quite clear on his most immediate priority. “I see myself as the custodian of a great organization. And when I hand it over it must be in a better way than when it was when I took up the position as its leader.”

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