earned the status of a full professor in 1997. “I was aware that it was quite possible that I would assume a management position in a local university and I therefore enrolled for an MBA at the Durban Westville Graduate School of Business. It was not easy being a full-time professor attending part-time classes of a challenging business course while also trying as much as possible to spend time with a young family,” said Otieno. He obtained the qualification in 1999 by which time he had assumed the position of Head of the Engineering department. He was lured to Johannesburg by the prospect of working at one of the largest technikon faculties in the country in a very senior position – Executive Dean of Engineering at Wits Technikon. “That was a contract and therefore I did not feel secure in my position. In March 2003, I was headhunted by Technikon Pretoria who offered me a permanent position. In retrospect, I would not encourage young professionals to be too concerned about job security as no position is water-tight as one can still be retrenched. In addition, being in a contract position somehow pushes you to work even harder in the hope of it being renewed.” In 2004, Tshwane University of Technology was born following the amalgamation of Technikon Pretoria, Technikon Northern Gauteng and Technikon North West. Otieno’s job
security was rattled once again as all lecturers were required to apply for positions in the new university. He was the successful candidate and retained his position in at the merged institution up to March 2010 when he was appointed Durban University of Technology’s (DUT) Deputy Vice Chancellor in the area of technology. He holds the position to date and as he is second only to the university’s vice-chancellor, he effectively is one of the highest ranking academics in SA of foreign origin. He attributed his success to a number of reasons. “As a foreigner in any country you need to work much harder to justify your position. I also have strength in research having been rated a C1 researcher by the National Research Foundation. I actually think that I would be an A rated researcher today if I was not in a management position as I would have more time to study certain topics and have my articles published.” Otieno admitted to also having a passion for human resource, finance and strategy having sat on the boards of various high level organisations such as the South African National Roads Agency Limited and Randwater. He was also chairman of the City of Johannesburg rubbish collection company PikiTup and plans to use the leadership experience gained in all these entities to continue to transform his division at DUT and elsewhere in SA as he consults privately in his areas of specialisation.
black graduates and post graduates. In the two years I have been at the university, we have doubled the research output at the university and I believe that in a few years time we will be very highly rated amongst second tier universities in SA.” Having successfully battled a cancer scare recently, Prof. Otieno advises readers to have regular medical checkups as the earlier conditions are detected, the greater chance modern medicine has of effectively combating them. He revealed that one thing he would like to achieve in his lifetime is to head a university in Kenya. “I recently visited South Korea and Singapore and tears literally welled up in my eyes because it pained me to see how far they had come in spite of having had a lower GDP than Kenya when we gained independence. I would love to be the vice chancellor of a Kenyan university and bring some fresh thinking from the experiences I have gained here. If that is not possible I will do my best to play a role in some other way because I was educated by the Kenyan taxpayer for my first degree which formed the foundation of my career,” he concluded. - Keith Kundai “Have you LIKED our facebook page?” www.facebook.com/expatmag
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