Cape Town engineer Deon Fabel shares his recipe for longevity in the industry

What makes his story inspiring is the stability of his lifelong journey with one company. The fact that you can somehow make the right choice the first time around is almost unheard of.His wider family does have its fair share of doctors, lawyers, etc but he did not grow up in a strictly intellectual environment so much as it was entrepreneurial. “I grew up in the rural northern suburbs of Pretoria on a small holdingy. My dad was an apprentice at a small aircraft services company at Wonderboom airport and my mom was a housewife. Thinking back to those days and especially my early years up to about 10, we were seen as lower middle class, but as a child, I never felt that we “needed” anything. I have two siblings and as kids, we really had a carefree childhood in a household with a hardworking dad and a mom that was always there for us.

Growing older, my dad and a colleague eventually founded their own aircraft servicing company at Wonderboom airport, and their big breakthrough was in fact brought about by the worldwide sanctions against South Africa during the time of the global protest against apartheid. As a result of the sanctions, there was a great shortage of small aircraft in South Africa, as international companies halted all exports to the country. My dad and his partner saw the gap and they would often visit the US, buy a second-hand aircraft, take it apart, crate it, ship it to South Africa and put it back together at Wonderboom airport.”

Deon always wanted to become a doctor when he grew up and can recall having bookshelves full of medical books and magazines, even from primary school days – he still has them. As a Teen he was convinced by the school system, and his father, that his destiny was engineering and as a compromise at the time, he started off studying Chemical Engineering for two years before he decided to switch to Civil Engineering.

The story of Bigen

“You see – it is here where my future, and that of Bigen became entangled and to explain, I have to make a detour by telling the story of Bigen.

Francois Swart was a Civil Engineer with a company that was called Eksteen van der Walt and Nissen founded in 1971 in Polokwane. This company owned a few Cessna’s and Francois used to fly them to my dad’s company for their scheduled inspections and services as required by the CAA. My dad and Francois became friends and eventually, when Eksteen van der Walt and Nissen asked Francois to open an office in Pretoria, he rented a small prefab building from my dad at Wonderboom airport as his first premises.

Getting first-hand information through my dad, and realizing what it is that Civil Engineers do, was enough for me to swop my lab coat of Chemical Engineering for the hard hat of Civil Engineering. “After a year I became the first bursary student of Eksteen van der Walt and Nissen and I joined them as a graduate Engineer in 1990. Over the years the name changed to Bigenand I am still around after 31 years.”

At the top of my list of people that influenced my life decisions is my mom and dad, Mr Francois Swart, who later became the CEO of Bigen, and one of my long serving colleagues, Ian Bettesworth.”

Deon is a self-proclaimed perfectionist and believes that it led him to be a bit of a control freak and a bad delegator. He realized through the years that it was almost impossible to lead without delegation and consciously transformed his leadership style and opt for being a “closet” perfectionist instead. He learned to trust in the ability of the team to deliver results.

“Experience has taught me that you grow by uplifting others and not only in respect of employees but also in the communities Bigen work, and where our projects are implemented.”

The most important thing for Deon Fabel is his family and he admits that it is difficult to separate your home life from your work. “Work is part of you, and part of what you do for most of your productive life. It is more important to get the right balance in integrating your work life, with that of your “home” life and I found that over the years I did get better at integrating the important things in life and, on occasion, at keeping them apart when required.

I love the outdoors and maybe it is the “closet perfectionist” in me, but I have an absolute passion for precision rifle shooting. In my free time I would spend many hours developing the perfect load to achieve that five shot, one hole grouping, that maybe only a golfer pursuing a hole in one, will understand. Mother Theresa once said: “It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts.” This is my motto in life and in work.

Deon only regrets Procrastination and not always trusting his own instincts and judgement. Luckily for him, he is surrounded by positive colleagues at Bigen and that made it easy to deal with adversity and doubt through the years. He never hesitates to consult with and ask the advice of his fellow executives and managers. Might this be the perfect recipe for longevity in his career?