Professor Carolina Koornhof will soon be retiring from the University of Pretoria (UP) after almost 30 years of service. She has served the University in key leadership positions,  including being the first female Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS), followed by three terms on the Executive of the University, initially as Executive Director of Finance and Business Initiatives, a role that evolved into ever-expanding  responsibilities.

One of her highlights was being appointed as Dean of the EMS Faculty.

“It was a vote of confidence from the faculty where I had studied, so it meant a lot to me,” says Prof Koornhof, who was born and raised in Pretoria, adding that another memorable moment was the day she heard that she’d got her doctorate. “It’s really like getting your colours for becoming an academic, and it was an important milestone for me, personally. It was a tough journey, as I’d had two young children at the time. When I completed my doctorate, my children were seven and 10 years old.”

Prof Koornhof’s primary recollection of UP is its culture of kindness.

“I love the people at the University of Pretoria. The biggest asset of this university is the attitude, the culture, the commitment, the welcoming atmosphere and the friendliness of the staff. We don’t put it on the balance sheet,” says Prof Koornhof, whose role on the Executive Committee is focused on financial accounting. “We care about one another. It’s kindness, encapsulated in what we call THE UP WAY – that is, the way we treat one another and the way we show our students how to treat people. You should always be respectful and willing to listen, even though you may not agree. That’s THE UP WAY, and it’s really why I love working at this university.”

Prof Koornhof will be leaving her mark in many ways. There are the two accounting textbooks she co-wrote that are still used by students – Descriptive Accounting and Fundamental Accounting – and as Dean for two terms, she changed the face of the faculty,  literally.

“When I started at the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, I was the only female professor and there was one female associate professor,” she recalls. “When I left, there were 10 female professors and associate professors. Now several heads of departments are women as well, so I really had the opportunity to mentor and empower women in the faculty, and that was a privilege.”

She also helped transform the chartered accountancy profession by starting a chapter of the Thuthuka programme of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants at UP that aimed to broaden diversity in the profession.

“A highlight for me was the year in which we were the first university to have one of our Thuthuka students in the top 10 in the qualifying examination in the country.”

Prof Koornhof also initiated a Faculty Advisory Board to create a platform for input from industry and the public sector in terms of relevance and quality assurance, and to build a fundraising network in economic and management sciences. And by starting the Dean’s list in the faculty, which honours the top-performing students in each undergraduate year, she helped acknowledge student achievement beyond awards for individual subjects.

One of the most distinctive features of Prof Koornhof’s 13 years on the Executive is how her role expanded, at the request of Vice-Chancellors, to include Enterprises University of Pretoria; the Gordon Institute of Business Science (as a board member); TuksSport; the High Performance Centre; and other sports companies. She has also had three temporary portfolios. At one stage it was student administration “from recruitment all the way to graduation and administrative processes, including exams, registrations and graduations”. More recently, she managed research and postgraduate students for several months too.

She also had some unforgettable experiences during #FeesMustFall, when students’ concerns took centre stage nationally, as it coincided with her stint as the Executive member responsible for student affairs from April 2016 to June 2017.

“It was a very important time for our students to make their voices heard,” Prof Koornhof says. “I learnt a lot about dealing with very emotional students.”

During that time, she planned ahead by arranging an online platform for the next election of the Student Representative Council (SRC), which was no simple matter.

“The students didn’t believe in the transparency and reliability of technology,” Prof Koornhof recalls. “So I had to develop an online voting system with auditors and legal counsel that was independent, at arm’s length and transparent. It worked extremely smoothly, and UP has not looked back. All our SRC elections are now online.”

Ironically, Prof Koornhof’s least-known contribution to the University is very public. It lies in the many artworks dotted around its campuses. She is Chair of UP’s Art Committee – a detail that is undocumented on her CV, yet it is a role that she tackles with the same passion and strategic foresight as if it were the University’s pension funds that she chairs, or UP’s financial statements and budgets. She has encouraged investment in female artists for the University’s collection and has promoted purchasing pieces by UP staff, often by commissioning them to create works of art.

Despite this multifaceted contribution to UP, and her numerous awards, Prof Koornhof is not preoccupied with her accomplishments. She devotes a lot of time to supporting TuksSports’s Instagram page, but has almost no personal profile on social media.

“I’m so busy doing what I’m passionate about that I’m the last person to blow my own horn. It’s not important to me; it’s far more important to help. I read somewhere that true leadership is about leaving the University in stronger and better hands than how you found it.

“It's not my thing to tell people about myself. Although I tell all the youngsters I mentor about how important self-branding is,” says Prof Koornhof with a laugh, forever focused on reaching out to educate and uplift others.