06/12/2025
Athol Williams Appointed to Academic Director for Oxford University’s Advanced Management and Leadership Programme
Mitchells Plain’s Athol Williams is quite possibly the most educated person in South Africa. In 2017, he received a distinction for his masters thesis in Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility from Oxford University, becoming the first person to earn 5 Masters degrees from five of the top universities in the world.
In addition to his science degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, he received an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, a Science Masters in Finance from the London Business School, a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University and a Science Masters in Corporate Responsibility, Social Justice from The London School of Economics and Political Science. It was in 2023 that he completed and received his PhD in Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility from the University of Oxford.
This year, after having worked as a Research Associate Lecturer since 2022, the University of Oxford decided to promote him to the role of Academic Director in charge of the Advanced Management and Leadership Programme. Not only is Oxford rated the No.1 university in the word, but the management programme caters to top executives with at least ten years of senior leadership experience from around the world and aims to advance their leadership capabilities on a global scale.
Athol has a work history as diverse as his masters. He’s been a Business Development Executive for Rio Tinto, the Director for Group Strategy at Old Mutual, a partner at Bain and Company, the Chairman of Shalamuka Capital and a Board Member of Vumela private equity. His true passion however, had always been education and helping others.
He was a Non-Executive Director for Wits Enterprise, an Advisory Board Member at Wits Business School, an Adjunct Professor also at Wits, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town, a Research Fellow at Stellenbosch University, Chairman of Families South Africa, Chairman of Read to Rise and an advocate for Unite 4 Mzansi.
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