Bio
Rashid Toefy is currently the Deputy Director General: Economic Operations in the Department of Economic Development and Tourism.
Before joining the department, Rashid was the Managing Director of MCI in Africa. The MCI Group is world’s largest conference and association management company, and brings people together through innovative meetings, events and congresses and provides strategic association management consultancy in 60 cities around the world.
He served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), the leading convention centre in Africa from 2008 to 2014, positioning it as a global leader in sustainability.
He has worked extensively in the travel and tourism industry, both in South Africa and abroad. He spent three years based in Amsterdam, developing business and marketing strategies for travel companies and tourism businesses in over 30 countries, working extensively in Central Europe and Latin America.
He has a degree in Economics and Environmental Science, as well an MBA from the University of Cape Town (UCT) with his Masters Dissertation focusing on Collaborative Leadership, balancing discipline and diversity in effective decision making.
He has recently embarked on his PhD qualification, focusing on “How leaders make strategic decision in crisis conditions”, through the UCT Graduate School of Business.
Rashid has become a thought leader on sustainability and implementation of triple bottom line principles within an organisation. He has spoken at several conferences, both in South Africa and abroad, about the importance and value of establishing social and environmental consciousness in businesses.
Rashid hates settling for mediocrity, and wants to do profound things that impact positively on all those around him.
He says:
“we all need to make the following two ancient philosophies part of our lives….the first is the Japanese concept of Kaizen – “continuous improvement” and the second is the uniquely African concept of Ubuntu meaning “I am because we are”.
