admin
Elliot Ziwira Senior Writer
Kenneth Sharpe’s paternal great-great-grandfather was a Rear Admiral of the Northern Fleet for the British Navy.
Smitten by love, his great-grandfather, a son to the Admiral, eloped to South Africa with his sweetheart Hilda, daughter to an English physicist and chemist, who beat Thomas Edison to the light bulb with his earlier version and also invented the dry photographic plate.
The great-grandfather had met Hilda on a skiing escapade.
That is how Sharpe claims the great inventor as his great-great-grandfather.
When he was 17, Sharpe saw himself alone in the United Kingdom, with only $100 as pocket money.
Thus began a journey that would see him becoming an entrepreneur with business tentacles across the SADC region and beyond, culminating in him receiving the Forbes Best of Africa Awards’ Innovative CEO of the Year Award recently.
The first Zimbabwean to receive the prestigious award, the West Properties executive chairman says Africa has vast untapped opportunities, yet the continent is only beamed across the world through negative lenses.
Held annually, the awards ceremony coincides with the Best of Africa Event in New York, United States of America during the United Nations General Award (UNGA) meetings in recognition of businesspeople with a record of creating and building global businesses that have made influential and positive contributions to Africa’s development.
Sharpe, the leading CEO, takes The Herald on Saturday along his excursion to the podium.
“The reason we ended up in Africa was that Captain Sharpe, my great-grandfather, and son of Admiral Robert Sharpe, met Hilda Swan, daughter of Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, my other great-great-grandfather, who invented the light bulb before Thomas Edison, on a ski trip and eloped with her to start a new life in South Africa,” reveals Sharpe.
Property has always been his dream, as in 1994, when he was 21, the visionary young Sharpe told his newly wedded bride, Joanna, that he would own five properties in five different countries, as cushioning nests for retirement.
He would go beyond that supposed fantasy to acquire 10 properties in over 10 countries.
Having fallen many times along the way, the entrepreneur believes that Divine Providence has been on his side from the word go.
It has not been a smooth glide in the snow, though, he recalls.
“My journey has been an arduous and tumultuous one, filled with adversity and challenges about which I hope to write a book,” he reveals.
It had been a tale of tenacity, determination, resilience, perseverance and intuition in which God and the trust in Him won over adversity.
It is an inspirational story awash with false starts, near tragic incidents and nuggets of willpower, mostly read in story books.
Despite being born to a middle class couple, Sharpe started off from humble beginnings.
When he was born on January 27, 1973 in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), his parents’ home was a basic thatched hut.
“My mother would cook on an open fire,” Sharpe recalls.
“Where there is a will, there is always a way. Therefore, never despise humble beginnings, because from small and simple things, great happenings are fashioned.”
Since his father owned a gold mine in Mazowe near Christon Bank, and another one just outside Bulawayo, Sharpe’s early years were spent on mine compounds.
In 1978, when he was five, his family moved to Bulawayo where he started his primary education at Khumalo Junior School.
His father would later buy Trio Mine in Shamva on the foot of Tafuna Mountain. It was around this period (1978) that the Sharpe family moved to Harare (then Salisbury), and his parents divorced, which saw him leaving the colonised country for South Africa.
He would later return in 1980 when Zimbabwe gained Independence from the colonial power, Britain.
The year 1990 saw the young Sharpe setting off to the United Kingdom in pursuit of studies.
“When I was 17, my father sent me on a one-way ticket to the UK for school with only $100 in my pocket, and without any other support. I was on my own, and had to take care of myself in all ways,” Sharpe reflects.
Two years later, his great-aunt died, so he had to come back home for her funeral; hence starting a roller coaster of events that would shape the formative years of his business acumen.
Over a span of 30 years, Sharpe would rapidly build a business empire encompassing food and beverage distribution, technology, manufacturing, agricultural-inputs and property under a holding company, West Group.
These trading divisions, making up the group, traverse the SADC region, including operations in Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa.
He also established operations in Ukraine and Europe.
Sharpe’s Twizza brand manufactured under InterAfrica Franchise Bottlers (IFB), was one of the most effective mechanisms in creating a competitive edge over other players in the industry.
Through the business, he created mini bottling units, which IFB sold as complete turnkey projects under a franchise scheme, using IFB brands and other raw materials he created.
However, in 2003, the reigning Forbes Best of Africa Awards’ Innovative CEO of the Year, sold his interests in the firm.
By 2006, with his personal ambition satiated, Sharpe set his sights on property.
He partnered Oleksandr Sheremet, and the duo started investing and buying property in Zimbabwe, leading to several acquisitions and partnerships, including a public, private partnership (PPP) with the City of Harare.
Formed in 2007, the West Property Group is a behemoth in property development, with a land bank that Sharpe avows will outlive him, and several future generations of his kin.
Though 2007 could probably be the businessman’s turning point in property development, it started on a rather bad note; an omen to disaster, really.
On January 16 of that year, the young entrepreneur suffered a life-threatening ski accident while on vacation to Whistler, Canada, when he hit his head into a tree without a helmet.
With doctors giving him a two percent chance of survival and close to 100 percent prediction that should he make it out of comatose, he would permanently lose memory and become a vegetable (inactive or dull person).
Defying logic, Sharpe miraculously woke up from the coma after five days; ironically on his daughter Tatiana’s 11th birthday.
The miracle was not just to be alive, and out of the coma, but his brain working perfectly afterwards. Upon recovering consciousness, he could immediately remember everything up to the moment he passed out.
As he recalls, it was like “the pause button was pressed and played when I woke up, like nothing had happened.”
With his star shining ever brightly, Sharpe would later team up with JW Oliver to form his first tech company, Global BP Solutions, an outsourcing company that links up businesses with the best virtual teams.
A private family man, Sharpe has been married to Joanna since 1993, and the couple has a daughter, Tatiana, whom they have raised in Zimbabwe despite options of living abroad.
They also have a foster son, Denzel.
“My family is my number one priority, and main source of hope, inspiration and love,” he says.
After family, his other passions are traveling, cycling, theatre, skiing, adventure sports, his faith and philanthropy; or simply just relaxing with friends and family, enjoying a good meal.
A devout foodie, the leading CEO loves to cook.
Turning to his passion to see young people making it in business, Sharpe says he is committed to providing jobs to Zimbabweans and showcasing their ability, talent and capabilities to the rest of the world.
A devout Christian, the businessman and JW Oliver have given majority ownership of their company to God’s work, with philanthropy and charity being beneficiaries of first priority.
Committed to assist in rebuilding Zimbabwe, as envisioned in national Vision 2030, Sharpe says his focus is to drive poverty alleviation, create jobs and push for responsible transformational development through FDI (foreign direct investment).
Hence, his first involvement in the World Economic Forum, Young Presidents Organisation (YPO) as the “Doing Business in Africa” and the “Family Philanthropy Network” chair.
Since February 2005, Sharpe has been an active member of the Harare YPO Chapter, serving as the Chapter Forum Chair, Education Chair and youngest Chapter Chairman in 2008.
He resigned in 2015.
Looking forward, Sharpe says he envisages to consolidate his property assets into the most prominent real estate development company in Zimbabwe, with high-quality prestigious properties making an impact, not only in the Harare skyline, but also in the overall social-economic growth of the country.
Online Reporter