‘You Can Either Give Up Or You Can Fight Back'

Former Springbok captain Jean de Villiers found the perfect role once his playing career was over – trying to make a difference in people’s lives.

- Gareth Cotterell

It’s unusual for a professional sportsman to run off the field and walk into a wealth management company, but that’s what Jean de Villiers has done.

“If you asked me 10 years ago, or even two years ago, what I’d be doing now, I would never have said I’d be heading up a philanthropy division at a wealth management company,” he says.

For just under two years, South Africa’s former rugby captain has been working as the head of philanthropy at Citadel.

“Obviously the transition from being a professional sportsman to anything else is quite a big change, and I’d say mine is quite extreme as well.”

The Citadel Philanthropy Foundation is used to channel funds towards socio-economic projects that do the implementation of the programs. Before his role with Citadel, De Villiers was already involved with charities, such as the Laureus Sport For Good Foundation and the SuperSport Let’s Play initiative.

“I’m an ambassador for quite a few charities in my personal capacity, and that’s one of the factors that contributed to me getting this job and being a good fit.”

When FORBES AFRICA meets De Villiers, he is about to give a talk about his work with Partners For Possibility, an NGO that gets business leaders to help improve South Africa’s schools.

“If you look at the issues that we have in South Africa, whether it is crime, whether it is unemployment, whether it is health issues, it all, in my view, stems from a lack of education. The only way that we will improve all of those things is to educate better, and to educate more… The whole system needs improvement and it needs help. It’s the responsibility of all South Africans to help with that,” he says.

Being a former Springbok captain sometimes makes De Villiers’ philanthropic work a bit easier.