Ferdinand Van Heerden
CEO and Founder, COOKO
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Bushbaby turned industry innovator. Born in the Kruger National Park's frontier town Phalaborwa, South Africa, Ferdi's journey has been anything but ordinary.
A trip through Mozambique, devastated by 20 years of civil war, inspired Ferdi's strategy as co-founder of ReDI School of Digital Integration for refugees, 25 years later. As a teenager, hitch-hicking through the rural hinterlands of South Africa's Natal was the spark for founding COOKO nearly 40 years later.
Ferdi is constantly finding patterns and seeing connections in the world around us. This skill has served him well as a strategist for P&G, a global communications manager at Adidas and a business designer at the well-known design studio IDEO. Ferdi has dedicated the last 15 years to working exclusively to drive the sustainability and the regenerative agenda.
