Khalid is the CEO for Kata Strategic Investments and Ki Capital Management. He was the Group Chief Executive officer of a diverse JSE-listed holding company, with various operating and strategic investments since 2009 and has been with the broader Group since 1999.
Mr Abdulla was appointed to a JSE-listed IT company during March 2020, to support the group in achieving future growth through strategic acquisitions as well as developing and building on its deal making expertise. Khalid has a proven track record of over 30 years in various leadership roles which includes developing and implementing strategies, corporate governance, corporate finance, building strong teams and organisational and operational systems integration as well as applying his astute business acumen in deal making and value creation.
Khalid not only successfully achieved the group’s goals and vision that he set for the group during 2015, he also played a key role in implementing the vision and delivering and exceeding all its objectives by 2019. He moved to the IT company after successfully completing the Vision 2020 Vision and effectively, as outlined in the strategy, transforming holding comapny into a pure investment holding company, which included him successfully listing 2 of its major subsidiaries, a technology as well as a Fishing business on the JSE.
With this strategy, he was responsible for buiding a successful and sustainable JSE listed group and has been instrumental in business development and negotiating and concluding diverse and complex transactions and deals in excess of R20 Billion over the past two decade. He also managed the various change management that comes with people and systems integration during the transaction implementation process.
He was also responsible for many awards received by the JSE listed Group as well as in his personal capacity as an accomplished and one of the most recognised South African CEO’s and business leaders over the past decade.
Mr. Abdulla has five degrees and qualifications which include an MBA from the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) GSB, B. Compt and a B. Compt (Honours), a CTA from University of South Africa (UNISA), as well as a Project Management qualification from UCT.
Mr. Abdulla completed his accounting traineeship with BDO Spencer Steward and became Managing Director of BDO Consulting in Cape Town during the 1990’s.
Mr. Abdulla has, since joining the group, served as the CEO of various subsidiaries within a JSE-listed Group of Companies including the Information Technology, the Capital and Financial Services Businesses and later as Group CFO in 2007 before being appointed Group CEO in November 2009.
He has over 30 years’ commercial experience in fishing, information technology, events and tourism, health care, as well as financial services. Under his leadership, the Group grew consistently year on year to currently become a successful Multi-Billion Rand organisation.
Mr. Abdulla has also been appointed to and serves on the Boards of various businesses and NGOs.
Mr. Abdulla also excelled in sport and his prowess on the sporting field during his youth led to him representing Western Province at squash, soccer, athletics and volleyball. In addition to this, during that period, he achieved further success by representing South Africa at volleyball and soccer.
At the tender age of 17, Mr. Abdulla was scouted to play for an English soccer team, which was a huge accolade for him. Unfortunately, he could not continue his international soccer career because of various apartheid constraints at that time and chose to study finance and business management instead.
Mr. Abdulla is a great believer in sharing his vast expertise and knowledge of business and sporting skills and practices. He believes that due to his past experience and sporting prowess, he is able to translate much of what is learnt on the sports field (strategy, planning and execution and leadership skills) and applying it in the boardrooms and in business today. Mr.Abdulla brings sporting passion, business intellect, leadership and a resolve for mentoring and coaching to all his colleagues and associates.
Mr. Abdulla is one of the most awarded business leaders and CEO’s in South Africa today, having received 5 awards during the past few years. No other business leader has achieved this to date.
To attest to Mr. Abdulla’s business and leadership skills, he was awarded amongst other.
Southern African region at the All African Business Leader Awards (AABLA), in partnership with CNBC Africa
Driver for Change 2017 Award - Mr. Abdulla was honoured as the first winner of this inaugural South African Vision 2030 award
Global Leadership Excellence Award by the World Leadership Congress and Awards, an international award, which took place in Mauritius
Top CEO Africa Award for South Africa by the CEO Today Africa Awards magazine in 2017
Awarded with SA’s most Empowered Business leader of the year 2017 by the Oliver Empowerment Awards
Mr. Abdulla was also ranked as one of the best CEO’s in the country in 2015 and 2016 as well as one of the 10 best executives in South Africa by Financial Mail.
He was specially acknowledged and awarded by his peers and industry, Mr. Abdulla was a recipient of the prestigious Black Business Executive Circle (BBEC)/Absa Bank Kaelo Award (2010), an award for giving guidance and leadership to grow junior and middle management.
Mr. Abdulla is committed to the development of human capital, the results of which have been noted in the exceptional growth of the business he heads up and the management that surrounds him.
He was a previous speaker, amongst other, for the Department of Trade and Industry at conferences in the United Kingdom and Germany for “Investing into South Africa”.
He is also a regular invitee and participant at the World Economic Forum in Africa as well as the World Economic Forum global growth Companies and Summer Davos in China.
As testimony to Khalid’s leadership, the Group received the following Empowerdex
In addition to this, the Group was named 1st overall in the Empowerdex Top 100 Empowered Companies Award of 2016; 1st overall in the Empowerdex Top 100 Empowered Management Award of 2016; first runner-up in the Empowerdex Most Empowered Black Ownership under the amended codes of Good Practice; a top 10 JSE-listed Company in the Financial Mail’s Top 100 JSE Companies for financial performance in 2016 (and 2015); Top 10 for Integrated Reporting Assurance Services (IRAS) in the Sector: ‘Financial Services – Other’ for the Highest Sustainability Data Transparency Index (SDTI) for reporting and governance. AEEI was also awarded 3rd place overall by IRAS, out of a total of 311 companies.
Mr. Abdulla is the first CEO in South Africa who is recognised for successfully concluding TWO separate listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange within a single calendar year. He is the only chief executive officer in the country, if not in the world, to have accomplished this spectacular achievement.
He was the driving force behind listing a Company in the fishing sector as well as one in the technology sector. These listings took place during 2017.
Donna Nemer, Director: Capital Markets at the JSE, acknowledged that “Under the leadership of Group CEO MR. Khalid, AEEI is the first Group to list two Companies on the JSE in 2017, the first listing in the year and closed the JSE with the last listing of the year. A remarkable achievement for any CEO not only in South Africa, but in the world.”
Another first for any South African Company, under Mr. Abdulla’s leadership, the AEEI Group was invited and honoured by the JSE at a special ceremony to open the Market at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in December 2016 to celebrate his business achievements as well as the Group’s consistent governance and financial performances over many years.
Mr. Abdulla is a strong believer and promoter of people, community and nation building. The Group he leads has also created hundreds of much-needed new jobs in our country.
Mr. Abdulla’s numerous awards, business acumen and achievements as well as the respect with which he is held by his colleagues and peers, is recognition of his commitment to a better trained and educated workforce – one that he leads by example.
Married with three children, Mr. Abdulla is very much the family man, citing them as his inspiration and motivation. The desire to repay his family’s dedication and support over the long years of hard work, education and struggle he experienced, starting out on his long and successful business career, keeps him excelling and leading by example in everything he turns his hand to.
