About Me

I’m a husband, father, and offensive cybersecurity consultant who believes in hard work, integrity, and lifelong learning.

I was born and raised in South Africa during a time of significant hardship. My mother was unemployed and made handcrafted items to put food on the table. I learned to appreciate what little you had and not to compromise on your morals and values. Despite difficult challenges, my childhood taught me resilience, creativity, and gratitude for even the smallest opportunities.

At school, I excelled academically and was the top male student in my grade throughout my entire school career. I never missed a single day — not once — because I genuinely loved learning and wanted to understand how things worked. Unfortunately, when I finished school, university wasn’t an option. My family simply couldn’t afford it, and at the time, opportunities were limited to others.

So, I entered the workforce.

My first job was as a Finance Clerk at a large South African arms manufacturer. It was a temporary position, and less than a year later, the holding company shut down the head office. I then joined a major corporate in the Energy sector, where I worked my way up from handling IT Services accounting to becoming the Group IT Administrator.

Over the years, I took responsibility for major infrastructure and cybersecurity initiatives — including networking, firewalls, VLAN segmentation, and server security, as well as virtualisation, backups, anti-virus, and email protection.

Two of the most significant projects I led were the design and construction of a new server room and the planning, implementation, and administration of all IT infrastructure and systems at the company’s new head office. These projects required deep technical expertise, careful coordination with contractors, and a strong focus on reliability, security, and scalability.

I also led and mentored a small team of IT technicians, advised business unit IT Managers on all IT-related topics, and regularly sent educational emails to staff on cybersecurity — especially on spotting and handling suspicious emails.

I was heavily involved in the company’s bi-annual internal IT audits. I compiled the audit documentation for the Head Office and conducted audits at other business units, assessing compliance with IT policies and procedures. Vulnerability assessments were run during these audits and beyond, ensuring systems were patched and securely configured. I provided input to IT policies and authored several key IT procedures, including documentation for virtualisation environments and Windows Active Directory servers, where Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) were central to the design.

I believed that hard work and dedication would speak for themselves, but despite consistently delivering results, career progression was no longer based on merit. That’s when I decided to move on — not out of frustration, but out of a desire to grow in a space where effort and capability still mattered.

While working in IT within the Energy sector, I finally achieved one of my lifelong goals — earning my Bachelor of Commerce in Business Informatics (Cum Laude) from the University of South Africa, studying part-time while working full-time. That achievement reignited my passion for learning and set me on the path to specialise in cybersecurity.

I began with CompTIA Security+ and CompTIA Pentest+, which gave me a solid theoretical foundation. But theory alone wasn’t enough — I wanted hands-on experience. That’s when I discovered Hack The Box, particularly their Academy platform. Through it, I completed numerous practical cybersecurity modules and earned the Certified Web Exploitation Specialist (CWES) and Certified Penetration Testing Specialist (CPTS) certifications. I later took on the challenge of the Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP) — and completed the course and its notoriously difficult practical exam.

Today, I continue to advance my skills in the offensive side of cybersecurity, focusing on penetration testing and red team exercises through real-world CTF challenges and labs. My goal is simple: to stay curious, keep learning, and use my knowledge to help strengthen digital security from the attacker’s perspective.

Outside of cybersecurity, I enjoy reading, computer gaming, relaxing with my family over a good movie or TV series or working in the garden. These moments keep me balanced and grounded.

I’m always open to local or remote international opportunities where I can apply my offensive cybersecurity expertise.

View my CV or contact me.