Yet another South African that has excelled in the USA, becoming one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley and involved in companies like YouTube, PayPal and Google - technology entrepreneur Roelof Botha recently visited his birth country to receive an honorary PhD from Stellenbosch University. He is the son of the economist Dr Roelof Botha and the grandson of former Minister Pik Botha. The musician Piet Botha is his uncle. Together with Elon Musk, Roelof founded PayPal, where he was Financial Director at the age of 28. He was one of the first investors in YouTube. Today he is a partner at Sequoia Capital, the most important venture capital company in Silicon Valley. He selects new technology companies in which to invest and his investments have led to the rise of companies like YouTube en LinkedIn. About 20% of the market capitalisation on the Nasdaq stock market in New York represents companies in which Sequoia has invested. Sequoia recently invested in two South African companies, Nimbula and Clickatell.
He has succeeded in whatever he has done - top Western Cape matriculant at Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck; the highest average for a BSc in actuarial science, economics and statistics at the University of Cape Town; and at age 22, the youngest person in South Africa to qualify as an actuary. After spending two years at McKinsey & Co. in Johannesburg, he left for an MBA at Stanford, where he was the top student.
He is married to Huifen Chan, from Singapore. They met at Stanford and have two children, a six year old daughter and a four year old son. Roelof makes his own biltong and still supports the Blue Bulls. He was in his high school's rugby first team, and also represented Stanford's MBA rugby team.
