Dr CR (Chris) van der Merwe

Dr CR (Chris) van der Merwe, who has a doctorate in education, has extensive knowledge of and is highly experienced in the independent school sector. He founded Curro in 1998 with 28 learners based in a church and steered the company to listing on the JSE in 2011. Dr CR (Chris) van der Merwe was named Business Leader by the Bellville Chamber of Commerce (2011) for his efforts in establishing Curro, and was one of the four finalists in the exceptional category of the EY World Entrepreneur Competition in 2013. In October 2017 Chris was named Business Leader of the Year by the Durbanville Chamber of Commerce. On 3 October 2017, Stadio Holdings, the tertiary component of the Curro business, unbundled from Curro and was listed on the JSE with Chris as CEO. Stadio focuses on widening access to tertiary education and has approximately 30 000 tertiary-education students in its group of brands.