There is something about Nashua Mobile’s new CEO Andy Baker that instantly puts the people around him at ease. It’s a talent that has worked in his favour throughout his career, he tells me in his spacious office at the company’s Midrand head office.

Though he has a sharp sense of humour and an easygoing manner, there is also a hint of timidity when he asks if some of his best memories will be relevant for this piece.

If there is one thing that characterises Baker’s story, it’s a tenaciousness that comes from working hard for his place in the world. “You can have all the right qualifications and all the experience in the world, but if you don’t have enthusiasm and excitement for what you do, you won’t be successful,” he says.

It’s a principle he applies when choosing people to work for him.

Baker was born in Portsmouth in the UK on Valentine’s Day in 1965 and started school at the tender age of four. He first came to SA in 1971 when his father was transferred to Fish Hoek in Cape Town on a naval exchange programme. He was schooled here for five years before returning to England.

“Unfortunately, my parents could not afford to let me do A-levels or go to university, so I started looking for my first job at 16. I was a little upset that I couldn’t finish my studies, but I understood that it wasn’t my parents’ fault,” he says. He’d only get to study further much later in life.

Baker’s first job was on a construction site, driving a forklift. Three years later, he was given a job as a management trainee at one of the UK’s biggest transport businesses, the National Freight Consortium and, at 21, he was appointed as branch manager, overseeing people much older than him.

“I wondered what the employees would think of this kid managing them, but they really walked to the end of the earth and back to support me.”

He remembers one truck driver saying: “Son, you let us know what you need and we will help you.”

Another three years later, and Baker decided he wanted to return to SA. He got a job at then-listed Laser Transport, the company that owned Pickfords and Stuttaford Van Lines, and then joined international logistics business DHL, where he was again promoted quickly through the ranks.

He joined DHL as a regional GM, and in 1996 was appointed to the board of directors. In 2000 he took over as the CEO for the Southern African region.

In spite of this success, Baker says he felt he needed to achieve more. But having missed out on tertiary education, he realised that he had hit a glass ceiling in his career. Proving that it’s never too late to be a student, he enrolled at university for an MBA on a bursary paid for by DHL.

Baker chose Cranfield University in the UK. But first he had to do an entrance exam because he had no previous degree. “I love learning,” he says. “Education is like peeling away a blindfold and clearing your vision.”

He says he was “terrified” he wouldn’t pass the exam. “I remember the night before my wife was drilling me on algebra.”

At first, Baker battled with the MBA. “When it came to the second module, the case studies, I hit my stride. Having worked in management gave me insight that others didn’t have.”

It was a short hop from DHL to JSE-listed technology group Altech, where he was chief operating officer — and finally to Nashua Mobile.

Some of his best memories are of his family, and the time they spent in Istanbul in Turkey, where he was stationed for a while by DHL. “The weather in Turkey can go from 35 degrees to minus 15, and the first winter we spent there I remember my girls armpit-deep in snow. Oh, they loved that,” he says.

At the time, his two daughters were just four and five; his eldest is now 10.

Baker is also something of a fitness fanatic — he runs at least two half marathons a year “just to keep in shape”.

He enjoys martial arts and, not too long ago, even played in the Hamilton’s Rugby Club’s Tens tournament. “I love rugby and when England isn’t playing I am an ardent supporter of the Springboks,” he says. — Candice Jones, TechCentral