Douglas Reed (50)
Group Managing Director

Doug Reed (50) is a serial entrepreneur whose biggest passion is starting up and growing successful businesses - especially when other people think it's impossible. He joined DataPro nine years ago after being approached by Control Instruments Ltd to turn the company into an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Since then he has seen DataPro's value grow 300-fold, from R1.2m in the mid-1990s to a current market capitalisation of R350m - and made several millionaires among the staff in the process.

Before taking the lead at DataPro, Douglas started up and led Mica Distributors for the Mica Hardware Group. In tune with his belief that an entrepreneur should be able to better the results anyone else thinks is possible with given resources, he did it on a shoestring budget of R150,000. As managing director of Mica Distributors and later a board member of the Mica Hardware group, Douglas led the group's merchandising strategy.

Douglas began his entrepreneurial career in his early 20s when he bought a stake in Sandton City Hardware, following two years' conscription in the army and a year-long stint as a roustabout on Scottish oil rigs. He sold the hardware business in 1991 after ten years, following which he spent three years starting a publishing company and then a stationery manufacturing company before joining Mica in 1994.

Douglas has found a natural home in the telecommunications industry where, as he says, "the moment you think of an idea you're already behind". He prizes DataPro Group's achievements in helping to reduce South Africa's inflated telecoms costs and has taken great pleasure in growing three times faster than the opposition on more limited resources. The company is well on track to achieving his goal of being the leading, independent alternative telecommunications service provider in South Africa.