Thami Msubo

Born in the vibrant KwaMashu township, Durban, South Africa, Thami Msubo’s journey is one of bold ideas, global reach, and transformative leadership. A Boy Scout leader at just fifteen, he went on to earn a master’s degree (1993) with the Rector’s Book Prize from the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer, supported by a prestigious DAAD scholarship. He was among the first young black South Africans selected for the accelerated management development programme of the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft (CDG) in Cologne, an initiative that included advanced business administration training at Siemens AG (Munich) and Bayer AG (Leverkusen). Those formative years instilled in him the discipline of German operational excellence and the enduring belief that leadership is both a science and a moral art. Msubo’s four-and-a-half-year tenure in Germany, fully funded by the German taxpayer, to whom he remains deeply grateful, was followed by short-term assignments in India and Australia and a career spent largely in South Africa, driving large-scale organisational turnarounds across the continent. Guided by an unwavering intuition, never dismiss an idea until tested, for even a “crazy” idea can reshape the future, he continues to embody the values that have defined his life: humanism, change-making, and the enduring wisdom of his late mother, Ntombi. A lover of bop-and-swing jazz and long-distance running, he finds rhythm, resilience, and reflection in both music and motion.

Author's Books

A Case for AI Ethics to Achieve Sustainability

What if the real power of AI isn’t in its speed, data, or dominance but in its ability to serve humanity with conscience, dignity, and sustainability?In A Case for AI Ethics to Achieve Sustainability, Thami Msubo, a South African thought leader and workplace diplomat bridging shopfloor realities a...

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