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ABOUT US

Building your vision

Acumen builds technology for leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs who are improving the world.

Our Story

At Acumen, we believe that often, the best way to build something new is to start by re-using and sharing what already exists.

We’ve been working with leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs for more than 20 years, and we have learnt that leveraging knowledge and experience can produce far more than incremental gains in operational efficiency. That’s why our high-performing teams exist in co-creative, collaborative ecosystems where each person engages in a purposeful cycle of attention, intention, and action to build systems that have deeper meaning and greater value creation potential.

Our internal disciplines and processes drive connection, mindfulness and alignment that ensure actions and contributions aren’t isolated—they can benefit other ecosystems.

Our values are guided by: Courage: To challenge what we think we know; Curiosity: To explore beyond things we do know; Reciprocity: To contribute in equitable and meaningful ways

CEO

Mark Morris

Mark’s formative years as a Marketing Analyst and Consumer Goods Marketing Manager looking after International Brands helped to hone skills in the art and science of retail sales and marketing, before becoming a technology entrepreneur.

Mark has since gained extensive experience building and managing high-performing technology teams to deliver remarkable successes.

Initially co-founding tech incubator “Jam Warehouse”, and subsequently directing an extensive range of technology projects and ventures from conception to fruition, has generated invaluable experience in building and managing high-performing technology teams.

CIO

Alex van den Bosch

Alex is a visionary individual who thrives on pushing boundaries and staying at the forefront of technological advancements. Not only does he excel in developing cutting-edge technologies, but he also possesses a knack for devising revolutionary approaches to designing solutions, whether they involve cloud-based systems or Internet of Things (IoT) devices on the factory floor.

In addition to accomplishing numerous personal milestones in technology development, Alex has successfully ventured into the realm of commercial achievements. As a co-founder of Acumen and various other start-ups, he ensures that the businesses have access to technology that not only supports them during the exhilarating and tumultuous early stages but also scales reliably, eliminating the risk of failure during rapid growth and even hyper-growth phases.

Customer Success

Justin Vellacott

Justin’s passion is to get stuff done!

If 10,000 hours makes an expert, then a double-century spent gathering, understanding, interpreting and delivering customer requirements for technology solutions means you get 4X your investment back from Justin.

Making sense of complexity and easily bring ing it together simply, is a rare talent Justin possesses.

Working with solution-oriented customers with shared value systems is what motivates and keeps him going under the inevitable pressures of technology development.

COO

Cobus van Deventer

Cobus is the “organiser”, the “structurer”, the calm that avoids the storm.

A Masters Degree in Project Management, well-earned in beautiful Stellenbosch is being well-used in a tech development arena such as Acumen where everything begins with chaos and must end in elegance.

Cobus also has a creative side that is exposed in preparation of concepts, strategy, value propositions and business modelling that precedes execution and its in the adding of purpose and meaning to the execution that Cobus is investing and adding to an already impressive skills set.

Executive Director

Lauren Drake

When Lauren isn’t working on a bucket-list of personal adventures, she’s dreaming about better and faster way for entrepreneurs to build profitable new business ventures and getting to scale without risking their savings and investments, and making ventures more investable and less risky for investors.

An obsession with value-creation in all aspects of life drives Lauren and her team to be disruptive, inventive, creative and at the same time, compelling with new business models, conceptualized ideas and customer experiences.

Giving meaning, life, expression and value to ideas is what work-life is all about.

Business Intelligence

Claire Bester

Data is Claire’s thing.

In fact, we often catch her talking to her data. She counters that the data is to blame because it started talking to her first!

No surprise then, that helping data tell its
stories is a passion for Claire, by collecting, organizing and visualizing data, Claire gives insights and intelligence that would otherwise be impossible to see or know.

Building modern data estates and making it easier, faster and simpler for people to work with and use their data to drive value creation is Claire’s team’s passion.

Cloud Solutions Architect

Micah Frank

Micah has his head in the Clouds

Being concerned with Storage, Optimised Processing, Performance, Costs, Security, Reliability and Compliance as well as Applications, SLA’s and End User Experiences literally, keeps him awake at night.

Today’s Cloud-Based Solution environments provide an enormous number of options and almost unlimited configuration scenarios but also cost, complexity and risk. It’s a double-edged sword.

Being knowledgeable and current is almost a full-time job on its own, being able to execute accurately requires structure discipline, focus and rigor. Micah brings it all.

Analysis

Chris Ackermann

Chris is an adventurer.  His passion for travel and exploration off the beaten path applies equally to the business world – he loves delving into new business ideas and working out how they can be made to work.

His analytical side however compels him to ensure a solid foundation through research, and asking questions to test assumptions and conventions.  Having a sharp eye for detail helps him bring rigour to the process – translating ideas into principles and creating systemic foundations for businesses.  Underpinning that with data and financial modelling helps ensure risks are quantified and provides a framework to guide new ventures on the path to success – which gives Chris his fix.

Our Values

CURIOSITY

To explore beyond what is known

and identify with something larger than ourselves

COURAGE

To challenge what we think we know

and have strong convictions, that are loosely held. constantly challenged by fearless self-examination and willingness to let go of limiting beliefs

RECIPROCITY

To contribute in meaningful ways

as it sets the stage for abundance, as we flow again, grow and reinforce.

EMPATHY

To facilitate impactful intention and actions

so that our efforts are aligned to a higher purpose

We build technology to blaze new trails by working with leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs who have visionary ideas and big dreams.

MARK MORRIS

CEO / Founder, Acumen