PROFILE: Meet Chanda Kasolo, the ‘CEO’ of Luapula Plc. By Staff Reporter He makes sure he is audible enough when he is giving a speech at a public function without having to shout but he never reads from a speech, nor does he make reference to talking points. Most of his points are given off the-cuff, a clear demonstration of immense knowledge of a chosen subject of speech (s). During a one on one, however, he muffles even chews on some words sometimes but all the while, he makes sure he has got you right in front of his view and making the necessary eye-contact, as he listens and talks back. His public speeches are often characterised by sensational good homoured laughter as he cracks light jokes, mostly drawn from real life situations, and personal anecdotes, which he relays with great ease and comfort. Once the speeches are over, the jokes are done away with and a new day has broken, he is a new man. He is awake at the crack of dawn doing what he knows most, working for his ‘enterprise Luapula’ which he holds very close to his heart, no matter how long the previous night’s dinner meeting was. The man’s name is Chanda Kasolo and the enterprise is no other than Luapula Province Plc. whose official title is Permanent Secretary (PS). “Presently I believe we are the only province that has adopted the model of a company,” Kasolo says, “I know lots of people, are doing lots of great things for their provinces but I can only competently and humbly speak for Luapula which I think is doing exceptionally well through great team work.” To many he has become a model PS who takes the proverbial bull by the horn and runs with his ideas like the wind until they mature into something tangible, job creation and poverty reduction. Born on May 26 some 60 years ago but looking 48 with a heavy full lock of black hair without a strand of while, Kasolo is perhaps to an extent driven by his Gemini Zodiac sign if you care to believe in astrology. Studies in astrology show that because he was born in the first part of Gemini, his emotional make-up is dominated by the ‘element air.’ He thinks through everything, even his deepest feelings. Although this can result in rational decisions and a more or less ‘even-paced romantic life,’ it also means that may not be as emotionally responsive as most lovers might wish him to be but that’s just a theory subject to debate. Kasolo is an ‘old school’ product of the University of Zambia (UNZA) where he did his arts degree in Political Science and Public Administration. He completed UNZA in 1975 before deciding PA and political science education was not enough. He later trained as an accountant with the esteemed Pulleyn Heselton & Co – Chartered Accountants (York City, UK) and Pannell Kerr Forster (Leeds, UK) from 1980 to1984, obtaining the AAT qualification and fulfilling the Training Contract under the Institute of Chartered Accountants England & Wales-(Finalist). But before all the glamour of being a high-flyer chartered accountant, in the nerve center of the world of money, London, Kasolo was just a simple country-boy growing up in the Western Province and attending St Johns Secondary Mission School all the way from Northern Province under the Kenneth Kaunda integration programme that broke all tribal lines. He is a staunch Catholic who congregates at St Ignatius without fail whenever he is in Lusaka from his back-water base in Mansa near the Congo border. His father, Kasolo Sr 89, an education expert who believed in sparing the rod and not spoiling the child had done his tour of duty all over Western Province starting from the provincial headquarters, Mongu to the neck of the wood in Lukulu near the border with Angola. It is here where Chanda Kasolo learnt early in life under the Kaunda administration that there was no such thing as a tribe. “To me tribe was just but a social construct that existed only to create a social divide…the only thing I saw in a tribe is that it gave one a basis for a root and route identity and never a certain level of entitlement.” Perhaps it is the back-ground of growing up in a house of an education expert who continued to tell him and his eight siblings that education was important. Kasolo is the oldest of the eight. Armed with ambition and a thirst and zeal for more education, Kasolo decided that in addition to his PA qualifications and chattered education, he would pursue an MBA Degree in Business Strategy and Finance at Leeds University in the UK again and graduate in 1995 when most people had decided to settle for a first degree in a single field. “I always knew I could study something else other than stuff I learnt from my first degree as long as I had the energy,” Kasolo said, “only the sky would limit me and I refuse to be limited in my life.” Lately, he has even taken a shot at a PhD in Business Management and Strategy as the well he draws his education inspiration refuses to dry. Because of his knack for ‘strategy’ his nephew from his mother’s side, Miles Sampa, the businessman, philanthropist and politician sought his services to help him win the Matero seat in 2011 as well as being a part of President Michael Sata’s Presidential Campaign Team ahead of the polls. Between 1975 and 1978, Kasolo was one of the few ‘elite’ Zambians that applied and got jobs to work with companies such as Roberts Construction, a Chibote Investments Group subsidiary, starting as a Management Trainee and rising to Branch Manager Level in Lusaka. Between 1978 and 1979 Kasolo had a stint at Coopers & Lybrand, in Kitwe as a trainee accountant. It is from there that he won a scholarship from ZCBC to study accounting in the UK from August 1979. Having done his local stints, Kasolo decided to cast his net a little wider and get a sea-change in the UK where between 1980 and 1984, he worked for Pulleyn Heselton & Co – Chartered Accountants (York City, UK) for 3years as a trainee Chartered Accountant and then moved to a bigger firm of accountants: Pannell Kerr Forster (Leeds, UK) between 1983 and 1986 where, “I rose to position of Audit Manager, in charge of audits up to turnover of £420m, supervising a group of fifteen audit staff.” Anyone who was in the UK that time would tell you that the money for the Chattered accountant was good, the offices were huge, the champagne and caviar was flowing and the competition was high. It was not a job normally left not for Africans or blacks but Kasolo’s record of performance and high qualifications made him take to the job like a duck to water, earning him the necessary respect. It is these educational experiences and ‘hands-on’ experiences that have probably enabled Kasolo to easily fit into his new job as PS/CEO for Luapula, once seen as a Cinderella province but is seeing massive development opportunities opening up. James Chungu, the enterprising chair and founder of Chita Lodges in Lusaka, Samfya Holiday Resorts on the sandy banks of Lake Bangweulu including River Motel has nothing but kind words for Kasolo. “He has got a big heart Mr. Kasolo,” Chungu says, “he is also very encouraging to young people whom he wishes nothing but success and to me personally, he has been very supportive. God will continue blessing him.” The massive development projects currently lined up for Luapula that are expected to make a real change in the province in terms of real job creation are largely due to his chutzpah that makes him ‘go out and get it.’ But he plays it all down saying, “everything that Luapula has coming its way is due to the corporation from the local leaderships, the chiefs, head men, the Provincial Minister and of course the Provincial management team.” Despite pushing 60, Kasolo still has a full black head of hair with no sign of a receding hair line today or tomorrow. A man who has totally defied age and walks the walk and talks the talk. Kasolo, the oldest item in the family of eight has three teen-age children with one adopted one. The package includes a 24 year old daughter that has just graduated from university on top of her class as Medical Doctor in UK. In Mansa and beyond he is known by those he works with as a hard working go getter PS who condones nonsense and rewards hard work. Kasolo is compassionate, hates injustice and will always come to one’s rescue once he has established that a person was unjustly injured by a group of people or organization, regardless of what repercussions his association with the injured would have on him. “I have seen him embrace the injured and take them into his custody and care regardless of what the association would mean on his personal well-being,” a colleague from Mansa says. After many years in the air conditioned and board rooms of London, Kasolo started returning to Zambia around 2001 to help his older brother Michael Sata—a cousin actually—to set up the Patriotic Front (PF) whom he shared a vision for change with. “I helped set up and form the first London based PF branch in order to help raise money for the party and help the big man who was already doing very well under harsh circumstances as an opposition leader,” Kasolo said. On his return, apart from working for a drilling company he had helped establish, Kasolo hit the campaign trail, hitting the trenches and never looked back. In discussing his major career move from London, he muses that he, “wanted to use the work experience I had acquired in the various management roles in business and the strategic business management knowledge I had learnt on the MBA Degree course and turn them into real life.” “I established my own Business Advice practice, which provides business consultancy to companies in distress or those on business growth strategies and development. I was CEO between 1996 – 1998 and again 2004 – 2006,” Kasolo said. The company he Set up in Zambia was called British/Zambian drilling company for water and mineral prospecting, EDS(Zambia) Limited, in January/February 2009 from scratch, including ensuring compliance to local and UK corporate governance requirements. “I was CEO for the business in its infancy, and then recruited a long-term CEO for the business which has now relocated to Senegal in West Africa,” Kasolo says. Today all the experience and education acquired, he is directing towards developing Luapula, his newly found love. Kasolo is pursuing the cattle-restocking programme in Luapula, water reticulation, a sugar and ethanol plantation, an agriculture economic zone near the border with the DRC among many other things. One thing that has earned him respect is his ability to convince investors to come to Luapula and start projects using their own money without stretching dear public resources. There is no telling where his development grid will go but it definitely appears as if it is on the rise as he hits sixty but feels 40. He detests throwing his hat into the political minefield but lately he has cast aside the caution and taken on some people and institutions he has deeply believed are up to no good and are harming the Sata administrations dream. “President Sata means well and when I see his name get dragged in the mud for political expediency,” Kasolo says, “I get upset and talk sometimes just to set the record straight as a family member because what I really am is a technocrat.” With his immense education, resilience, depth and compassion plus a proven record of success, there is no telling where Kasolo is going but he definitely not a particle in space. He is a man to look out for, even though you cannot see him coming.
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 21:12:00 +0000
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