Nicol Verheem, UP alumnus and Oscar winner, on failing as part of growth

As a Tuks student he moonlighted to pay his bills, and now his team has won a technical Oscar for creating new technology that gets used in making many of our favourite movies and shows. 

Nicol Verheem is an entrepreneur and innovator who completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Electronic Engineering degree at the University of Pretoria, and went on to become CEO of Creative Solutions and founder of Teradek. In 2021, he won an Oscar at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scientific and Technical Awards. 

On this episode he speaks to us about:

• His surprise at winning an Oscar, and what that process was like. 
• How something they had already created turned out to be an innovation for the movie industry.
• How entrepreneurship means striking out on your own and taking some risks.  
• How failure is an important part of entrepreneurship and growth. 
• That one of his first leadership experiences was moonlighting as a programmer to fund his studies.

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LeadUP is a production of the University of Pretoria’s Alumni Office. Our host is Lennox Wasara and our team includes Elna Schütz and Samantha Castle. Our sound engineers are Louis Cloete Productions.