Gian Visser (born 1975) is a South African entrepreneur and innovator in the internet services sector of South Africa. Visser is the current CEO and co-founder of

Afrihost Afrihost is a South African internet service provider (ISP), providing a number of services, including fiber internet, fixed wireless, mobile services, VoIP, and web hosting. History The company was established in 2000 by CEO Gian Visser, ...

and has won several awards for his work in the telecommunications sector.

Early life

Visser was born in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, Gauteng on 27 February 1975. His parents were born and met in Carltonville, from mining families. His father was a police officer in the

South African Police Service The South African Police Service (SAPS) is the national police force of the Republic of South Africa. Its 1,154 police stations in South Africa are divided according to the Provinces of South Africa, provincial borders, and a Provincial Commis ...

and his mother was a bookkeeper. He also has a younger sister. Visser's family moved to

, where he attended school at

King Edward VII School (Johannesburg) King Edward VII School (KES) is a public English medium high school for boys situated within the city of Johannesburg in South Africa's Gauteng Province, one of the historically significant Milner Schools. The school is a public school, wit ...

Houghton Estate Houghton Estate, often simply called Houghton, is an affluent suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, north-east of the city centre. The area was designated for white residents as part of the Group Areas Act during the apartheid era and became kno ...

, alongside his future business partners, Brendan Armstrong and Peter Meintjies. Visser registered to study

Actuarial Science Actuarial science is the discipline that applies mathematics, mathematical and statistics, statistical methods to Risk assessment, assess risk in insurance, pension, finance, investment and other industries and professions. Actuary, Actuaries a ...

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

but later changed to complete a BCom. After completing his studies, he worked briefly as a maths teacher before deciding to devote his time to entrepreneurship.

Business career

Visser began a number of small businesses while still studying. His first full-time business pursuit was in the IT sector, alongside his long time friend, Brendan Armstrong. They formed a company called VSphereNet (or VSN), which was later bought by a larger IT firm. Visser and Armstrong were appointed as Directors of the company, but later chose to leave to follow independent business ventures. Visser and Armstrong, along with schoolfriend Peter Meintjies, formed

in September 2000. The company started in his mother's home (in his bedroom) and gradually began to grow to the point where the company's operations took over the entire house. The company eventually moved to rented premises in Rivonia, and finally to their permanent residence in Rivonia, where the company currently employs approximately 350 people. Visser was later joined by Greg Payne, former COO of

Internet Solutions Internet Solutions (IS) is an Internet services provider for public and private sector organisations. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dimension Data Group and part of NTT. Headquartered in South Africa, IS has operating offices in Moz ...

, and Angus McRobert, former CEO of

and

Vox Telecom Vox is a FTTH, LTE and satellite Internet service provider in South Africa. Vox began as @lantic Telecom and traded locally since 1996 and grew into one of the largest independent service providers in South Africa with a customer base of over ...

. Visser was instrumental in launching the company's presence in broadband connectivity, which facilitated the company's rapid growth. He was also central to the company's sale of shares to

MTN (South Africa) MTN Group Limited (formerly M-Cell) is a South African multinational corporation and mobile telecommunications provider. Its head office is in Johannesburg. MTN is among the largest mobile network operators in the world, and the largest in ...

and their subsequent buy-back of the company's shares. Visser is an avid reader, particularly of non-fiction books related to marketing and behavioural psychology. He often employs viral marketing methods learned from

Seth Godin Seth W. Godin, also known under his pen name as "F. X. Nine" (born 1960), is an American author, marketing expert, entrepreneur, and a former dot-com business executive. Early life and education Seth W. Godin graduated from Williamsville East H ...

Chip Heath Chip Heath (born July 19, 1963) is an American academic. He is the Thrive Foundation for Youth Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the co-author of several books. Early life Heath graduated from T ...

Dan Heath Dan Heath is an American bestselling author, speaker and fellow at Duke University's CASE center. He, along with his brother Chip Heath, has co-authored four books, '' Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die'' (2007), '' Switch: How ...

Jonah Berger Jonah Berger (born c. 1981) is an American professor and author. He serves as a Marketing Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Biography Born in Washington, D.C., Berger was raised in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and at ...

and Rohit Bhargava. He also cites

Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published eight books. He is also the host of the podcast ''Revisionist ...

and

Tony Hsieh Anthony Hsieh ( ; December 12, 1973November 27, 2020) was an American internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He retired as the CEO of the online shoe and clothing company Zappos in August 2020 after 21 years. Prior to joining Zappos, Hsi ...

as being major influences in formulating the company's approach to customer service and the company culture. Visser is well known for his personal approach to customers, often sending emails to customers directly in favour of branded messaging, also being available on social media.

Achievements

Visser has won the prestigious MyBroadband IT Personality of the Year Award three times, in 2013, 2014 and 2016. He was also awarded the IT Personality of the Year for 2014 by the IITPSA."Visser, Ramuthaga win IT Personality, Visionary CIO"
ITWeb, 6 November 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Visser, Gian Living people 1975 births University of the Witwatersrand alumni Alumni of King Edward VII School (Johannesburg) South African businesspeople

Early life

Business career

Achievements

See also

References