The green-fingered, musical CTO: Gijima’s Christo Abrahams

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Christo Abrahams, Gijima's CTO, is a man of diverse skills, seamlessly transitioning from the boardroom to the concert hall to the soil. Though he is a techie on paper, his greatest talent lies in giving back to his team and community.

From Eersterust to Botswana, that largely sums up Gijima CTO Christo Abrahams's upbringing. He spent his formative years in Eersterust, west of Tshwane, but his family spent a short stint in Botswana.

It was an eye-opening experience: “It was pleasantly surprising to find a learned community almost everywhere in Botswana,” he notes.

Things became a little bit tough roundabout matric, Christo explains, but pure hard graft pushed him to hold down a job with Infoplan (which formed part of Denel) in desktop support services, while trying to complete his studies with Unisa. “The internet was fairly new in the country at the time and I had the privilege of forming part of a team that built the first internet networks for the government,” he explains.

Christo truly champions continuous learning: he currently has 49 certifications and counting under his belt.

He’s had the privilege of having a front row seat to larger entity mergers, such when Denel and Eskom merged some years ago. However, a big highlight of Christo’s career was playing a vital role in building the country’s first private cloud. “I also spent three and half years with Huawei and took my experience to build even more IT wells (cloud platforms and data centres), across the continent.”

A ‘swift move’ to Gijima

Christo joined Gijima Group as the head of strategy and IT infrastructure in 2022, and not long after, he became the company’s chief technology officer.

While some might be quick to boast about a fast career trajectory, Christo says success in the IT field has been a humbling experience. “You also start to appreciate that the speed at which the industry moves puts you in a constant mode of learning, which is why I appreciate the networks I have local and abroad – mentors of the past who have invested in me,” he adds.

According to Christo, Gijima was the first company to launch an IBM power cloud capability in the country, an area where his cloud expertise came in very handy. “In fact we launched our cloud platform just last year to address mid- to high-range business requirements to be hosted on this platform, a proud moment for me,” he says.

Another highlight for Christo at Gijima was remodelling the delivery engine of the company through what is popularly known as centres of excellence (COEs). “Building centres of excellence is not an easy task, especially when you need to transfer the machinery in the delivery of the company towards that model – it requires in-depth knowledge of what centres of excellence are and how it contributes to fulfilling the strategic objectives of the business, and as it works on the business, revolutionise and transform the foundational infrastructure of the company to yield much faster success, creating greater value for partners and customers.”

Today, Gijima has launched four of those COEs (cloud, cybersecurity, digital network and enterprise automation COEs). The company is also planning to launch its AI centre of excellence later in the year.

Chaos by design

While most would dread a hectic start to the week, Christo has intentionally structured his Mondays to deal with the high-priority demands of the week – he’s set things up for himself in that way.

“I firstly ensure that customer requirements are addressed, working closely with the operational arms of the business and providing insights. Secondly, I look at how we fare in terms of the delivery capability enhancement in the company, which goes beyond charting the technology strategy, but running and operations of translation of strategy into meaningful delivery assets that can enhance the service portfolio of the organisation. Thirdly, as we mature the organisation to a platform business, it is important to get our alignment with mega industry players right. These players fall under our partner network, which augments us and brings capability to Gijima’s foundational infrastructure, and allows us to keep differentiating ourselves in the industry. As such, remaining aligned with our core strategic partners is very important.

“Lastly, I have an amazing, developing and well learning team, which is making a great impact in the organisation. However, the mental health of my team is extremely important to me,” says Christo. “I run a high-pressure environment where things have to happen fast. The collaboration, professionalism and ease with which we tackle the items on the table require a lot of support and assurance for the team.”

From a leadership perspective, Christo describes himself as a structured motivator. CTOs, according to him, cannot merely give an instruction for work to be done in a large organisation such as Gijima, purely because it sits on the tasks list. “It would never yield the right and accurate results with speed: you need to facilitate the tasking in an extremely structured way to gain momentum fast. In that process of execution, motivation is crucial to keep the team’s spirits up, especially when you explore new territory,” he continues.

From an innovation perspective, Christo was quite inquisitive at an early age. In fact, he developed his software package, a stock control system that later sold to the textile industry at the tender age of 14. He was also mature at an early stage: Christo saw an opportunity in building his network early on, not just any network, but one that comprised people much older than him. “The logic there was simple: if wisdom lies in the elderly, then why not attain it at an early stage?”

Hitting the right notes

There’s a hidden talent that Christo has kept quite close to his chest, even to his team. He’s a musician, a skill Christo has been sharpening since the age of five. “I orchestrated many symphonies and choirs back in my varsity days. I'm a true musician at heart,” he explains.

In his spare time, Christo goes into underprivileged areas and sponsors young people’s music development. “Music elevates the thinking stimuli of the brain,” he says. “It broadens intellect, especially in young people, and opens them up to much more that the world has to offer, beyond music.

“I'm not afraid of the soil,” says Christo. It is for that reason that he has developed another unique passion, designing and building gardens. “I’ve been personally eating from the soil for the last five years, I grow and consume my own produce, and I don’t believe in buying flowers – I build garden masterpieces that have a longer shelf life,” he concludes.

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