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Voices from the Free State: UFS alumnus Frikkie Meintjes a global team leader

03 May 2021 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath

Frikkie Meintjies_web read more — Frikkie Meintjes

University of the Free State alumni have an impact on a diverse range of fields, locally and internationally. They are sought after in private and public companies, leading and working in some of the top companies and organisations. One such individual is Frikkie Meintjes, Head of Global HR at Greenpeace International.

Reconnecting alumni with the UFS and their university experience, François van Schalkwyk and Keenan Carelse, UFS alumni leading the university’s United Kingdom Alumni Chapter, have put their voices together to produce and direct a podcast series, Voices from the Free State. The podcasts are authentic conversations – providing an opportunity for the university to understand and learn about the experiences of its alumni and to celebrate the diversity and touchpoints that unite them. As part of the series, featured alumni such as Frikkie Meintjes share and reflect on their experiences at the UFS, how it has shaped their lives, and relate why their ongoing association with the UFS is still relevant and important.

Listen to Frikkie Meintjes talk about his UFS experience and connection here:

University of the Free State · #AlumniVoices Episode 4: Frikkie Meintjies

About Frikkie Meintjes

Frikkie Meintjes is a senior management professional with extensive experience in strategic and operational leadership and people management, gained over twenty years in complex international organisations. His senior management experience includes being a member of the senior management team of Greenpeace Africa and being appointed Acting Executive Director in 2015/2016 for a period of 11 months during a leadership transition phase.

He is an experienced leader who effectively leads multicultural teams to achieve organisational goals. Frikkie’s notable achievements include harnessing a new team across four offices on the African continent, implementing a new job evaluation and grading system (Hay Group) through collaborative team efforts and a related salary structure for four offices across Africa, establishing a staff representative forum (similar to the Dutch Ondernemingsraad), and ensuring unqualified external audited annual financial statements (after a period of successive failed audits).

Leading teams from around the world

Frikkie is currently the Head of Global HR and manages a team of six HR professionals. His key deliverables include implementing the Global People Strategy and handling HR people or systems-oriented critical incidents at any of the 27 regional and national offices. The position also strengthens the global HR community and uses data to improve the overall organisational effectiveness of HR across the global organisation. In addition, he is responsible for ensuring the alignment of HR strategies and its implementation across the global organisation and provides support and expertise to senior leadership and HR professionals.

Frikkie has also worked as an international development manager in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where his role ensured the continual growth and development of particular Greenpeace-affiliated national and regional organisations though the provision of strategic support and advice to the organisation’s leadership and by optimising synergies between organisations across the Greenpeace federation in the process of upholding the integrity of the Greenpeace global organisation and movement. The development of the executive director included regular coaching and mentoring. He represented the International Executive Director during local board meetings. Organisations assigned to him included Japan, East Asia (with offices in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea), and Southeast Asia (with presences in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia).

Prior to that, he served as the Operations Manager: Office of the Executive Director at Greenpeace International. He was an observer, mentor, and coach on the Future Leadership Programme held in May 2017 in Vienna, Austria, and provided advice to fifteen emerging talents. He was also a member of the Performance, Accountability and Learning (PAL) Steering Committee, advising the global organisation on monitoring and evaluation strategies, policies, and best practices.

Frikkie Meintjies has also worked for World Vision as a support services director, and for Phumani Paper in Johannesburg as an executive director.

The UFS – where it started

He completed his studies at the University of the Free State in the field of Commerce (1990-1996). During his studies, he had been involved in various activities and societies, which included being recognised as Best Residence Committee Member for Cultural Affairs; recognised as the Best Student Association, recognised for the best community engagement programme of a student association; member of the Residence Committee: Cultural Affairs and Liaison, and Chairperson of the Association of Management Sciences.

News Archive

UFS changes format of graduation ceremony

2011-04-17

The highest number of qualifications in the history of the University of the Free State (UFS) will be awarded at the autumn diploma and graduation ceremony from 9-11 May 2011, which will be held in the Callie Human Centre on our Main Campus in Bloemfontein.

From this year, the format of the ceremony will change to make it more visible to students and the public. For the first time, all the doctoral and master’s degrees from each respective faculty will be conferred during one ceremony on 11 May 2011, instead of each faculty handling these qualifications individually. Another change in the format is that the procession will gather on the Red Square in front of the Main Building and move to the Callie Human Centre from there. Both academic staff and graduands will partake in the procession.

A total of 3 674 qualifications will be conferred during this year’s graduation ceremony, including 629 diplomas, 2 613 Bachelors and honours degrees, 372 master’s degrees and 58 doctorates.

An honorary doctorate in Drama and Theatre Arts will also be awarded to theatre stalwart Mr Pieter Fourie. He is one of the most acclaimed Afrikaans playwrights in South Africa and probably the only person to have left his mark as an actor, director, artistic director and writer.

Mr Fourie was awarded the Gerhard Beukes prize for drama , was honoured for his contribution to the arts by the South African Academy for Science and Arts and was appointed as trustee of the Arts and Culture Trust of the State President in 1997. He has also served as a committee member of the South African Academy for Science and Arts.

Mr. Fourie has also been the proud recipient of the Hertzog prize for drama, two FNB-Vita awards and a Fleur Du Cap award.

The full programme for the respective ceremonies is as follows:

Monday, 9 May 2011:

At 08:30, certificates and diplomas, excluding PGED and PGES, will be awarded to graduates from the Faculty of Education and at 12:00 PGED, PGED and B and honours degrees will be awarded to students from the same faculty. At 15:30 on the same day, certificates and B and honours degrees will be awarded to students in the Faculty of the Humanities.

At 19:00, the Faculties of Education, the Humanities and Economic and Management Sciences will have their prize-giving ceremonies for outstanding achievers.

Tuesday, 10 May 2011:

At 08:30, students in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences will graduate and at and 12:00 the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science will join them. This includes students in BML, B.Admin., B.Pub. and related honours degrees. At 15:30, 503 students from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences will receive their certificates, diplomas and B and honours degrees.

At 19:00, the Faculties of Health Sciences, Natural and Agriculture Sciences, Law and Theology will have their prize-giving ceremonies.

Wednesday, 11 May 2011:

The Faculty of Health Sciences, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Theology will be awarding their certificates, diplomas and B and honours degrees at 08:30. At 12:00, all faculties will award a total of 372 master’s degrees and at 15:30 a total of 58 doctorates will be conferred.

The Chancellor’s Dinner will take place in the Centenary Complex on the Main Campus of the UFS at 19:00.

The graduation ceremony of our Qwaqwa Campus will take place in the Rolihlahla Mandela Hall on the Qwaqwa Campus on 7 May 2011 at 10:00. All the faculties at this campus will confer their degrees, certificates and diplomas at this ceremony.

Media Release
21 April 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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