Ben Zaaiman

FOUNDER

Ben started Dcisio Consulting in 2001 after a successful career in high-tech entrepreneurship, the corporate world, and strategy consulting.

Ben has led numerous international consultant teams in designing and implementing national economic development and enterprise support programmes in South Africa, Ghana, and Botswana. Ben has served as the founding CEO of two successful incubators and has worked intimately on the design and development of 20 similar SMME support initiatives.

Ben has been fortunate enough to personally mentor more that 400 emerging entrepreneurs. His clients have included the World Bank, the EU, and numerous governments, universities, and corporate clients such as AngloGold Ashanti, RBN, SABMiller and the CSIR.

Ben holds an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles where he majored in Finance and Entrepreneurship. He also holds a Bachelor in Industrial Engineering (With Distinction) from the University of Pretoria.

Ben trained at Harvard Business School (Building New Ventures), London Business School (Market Driving Strategies), Cranfield Business School (Developing Deliverable Strategies), Wits Business School (Venture Capital Practitioners Foundation Course), UCT, and GIBS. Ben was certified as Executive Coach with the Centre for Creative Leadership in Brussels.

Ben has participated in and presented business incubation courses and workshops in Canada, USA, UK, China, Kenya, Botswana, Ghana, and Finland. He completed Korea’s 14-day Science & Technology Park Training Programme in Daejeon, as well as a 2-week Training Workshop on Business Incubators in Shanghai, China.

Ben has hands-on aquaculture experience on the farming of tilapia, catfish, pangasius, and trout, and has been trained in entire aquaculture lifecycle from hatchery, nursery, grow-out, to harvesting, processing, and business development. His training has taken him to Australia, the Netherlands, Brazil and South Africa.