Richard Vries is the group chief executive officer at GIBB. He has over 23 years' experience leading high level infrastructure projects across the African continent and contributing positively to the development of the engineering industry in South Africa.
Vries began his career at GIBB in 1992 as a student and technician, and attained his National Diploma in Civil Engineering from the Free State University of Technology in 1996. He continued with his studies and received a Bachelor of Engineering Degree from the University of Cape Town in 1998 and was soon promoted to project manager and engineer. He then attained his Diploma in Project Management from Damelin Management School in 2000 and a Higher Diploma in Business Management in 2003.
Vries took on the position of director of GIBB in 2004 until 2006 when he became the chief executive officer. He currently serves as a company director on the board of GIBB Holdings, GIBB (PTY), GIBB International Holdings (GIH), Arcus GIBB Nigeria and SVA International.
Under his leadership, GIBB has grown from a staff complement of 220 to approximately 900 professionals working on projects in South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Djibouti, DRC, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Senergal, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
GIBB, under Vries's leadership has also grown into one of the largest black-owned engineering consulting companies in SA, and has been on numerous occasions awarded the accolade of the leading consulting engineering company in SA.
