Biography  Mar,n  Blignaut  

Martin Blignaut, is the z System Software Sales Manager for the IBM Corporation in South Africa.

Enablement, coaching and the mentoring of individuals while building successful teams has been a key theme throughout Martin’s personal journey.

A commerce graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand - economics, commercial law with a post grad in education, Martin started his career as a high school educator, moving swiftly into the infrormation technology (IT) industry, gaining experience in technical IT solutions design, sales and the building a pan african software sales business for IBM.

As a director of a “soft skills” enablement startup he focused on the coaching and growing of young graduates entering the business world and the development of managerial skills in executives. In effect he built, sold and facilitated programs to enable and unleash the individual and corporate potential while working with a number of charities assisting, coaching and preparing underprivilaged youth to enter the corporate world. As the owner of his own software sales training business, contracting to IBM, he revolutionised the way the corporate took sales enablement to Africa, the Middle East and other growth markets – many of his innovations having become “standard practice” across the world.

His passion and drive have brought him full ciricle where as a coach and leader of the IBM z Systems software business, he brings his background skill to focus on growing the IBM mainframe business across South Africa and into the African continent.