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It took an unfamiliar medical reaction to the sight and smell of hospital drips and blood for Lyle Malander to rethink his ambition of becoming a doctor.
Many years later, the encounter seems to have been a blessing in disguise for the chartered accountant.
Malander is not a household name. In fact, outside the accounting industry, very few people know about his exploits as one of the best young talented accountants in the country.
City Press met up with the winner of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants Top 35 under 35 award at his Sandton offices last week for a chat and it became clear why he is considered the bright star among his peers in the sector.
Cape Town-born and bred and the younger of two siblings, Malander started school at St Mary’s Primary School in Gardens and did his secondary schooling at Fairmont High School in Durbanville before heading off to Stellenbosch University to pursue a bachelor of accounting degree, having heard of the chartered accounting profession from his mother.
Though born in Fairways near Athlone, his family moved to Kuils River and later to Bellville.
With his father an entrepreneur and his mother a human resources clerk at a major clothing retailer, Malander was more academically inclined in his younger years and the entrepreneurship bug only bit him when he started his accounting firm, the Malander Group.
“In my community, a doctor is always someone you look up to. He drives a fancy car and is well off. That changed for me when I went to visit my aunt at Groote Schuur Hospital when I was in grade 10. I just saw blood and passed out.
“I didn’t make much of it at the time but it happened in a hospital for the second time when I was in matric and had to write my exams with a heart monitor because they didn’t know what was wrong with me.
“It turned out I have a reaction to a certain smell in hospitals, so that decided for me that I couldn’t be a doctor,” he said.
At Stellenbosch University he struggled with the Afrikaans, but adapted fairly well as he was with friends he had been to school with and was closer to his home in Bellville.
Though he grew up in an Afrikaans-speaking coloured community, his family speaks English.
After graduating, he went on to pursue his honours degree. Then he faced another challenge when he almost didn’t make the grade to qualify to write examinations.
“The honours year was a very tough one because I was active at university as a house committee member. I played soccer and I had a part-time job, so my studies took a knock a bit. I barely made it into the examination with an average of 40%, which is the minimum,” he said.
Fortunately, he passed the examinations and was recruited by Deloitte as a trainee.
He was initially recruited for the Cape Town office but was immediately posted to Johannesburg. There he gained valuable experience that eventually earned him respect from his peers.
He was also seconded to the company’s offices in Chicago in the US for three months before returning to join the accounting and advisory division at Deloitte South Africa.
During his stint at the company, he worked on various clients, including the Aveng construction and engineering group, where he assisted in raising a R2 billion convertible bond.
It was also at Deloitte that he amassed experience in advisory work for both government and private sector clients.
In 2015, he jumped ship and started Malander Group with a former colleague, mostly doing advisory work.
“I always wanted to make a difference. I wanted to write my own rules. I wanted to be at a point where I do things not because someone said it is how it is done.
“I’ve learnt from my father in business and I have learnt from his mistakes. I have learnt from my brother who is also in business. I was 28 and had no major responsibilities so there was no better time to take the risk,” he said
Like any start-up, he needed money to begin and, fortunately for him, he had some money saved up.
The company expanded impressively; after two years it opened shop in London, a move Malander said was a step in the right direction for where the company wanted to be in future.
“We want to be a multinational company and operating in all the developed economies,” he added.
The group has three subsidiaries: advisory, placements as well as digital.
Malander said the decision to place the services offered under different companies, instead of mere divisions, was also in line with their expansion plans. The company employs 30 people, including those in the London office.
Malander said that although the company was on a growth path, cash flow remained the biggest challenge.
“That is the one thing I look at every day,” he said.
He said another challenge facing the sector was with regard to ethics and the knock the profession had taken in recent years.
Malander pointed out that being in one of the most untransformed sectors presented an opportunity to contribute to the development of future finance professionals at grassroots level.
“I didn’t know what a chartered accountant did before I went to university. I would like to contribute to kids in school being exposed to such a profession at a much younger age,” he said.
To play its part, the company has an organisation called Malander for Change.
Though he does not have much spare time, he loves being with family and is a huge soccer fan. “I am a Manchester United and Kaizer Chiefs fan, even though things are not going well at the moment for both teams,” he said.
Without hesitation, he counts his mother as his utmost role model, and the need to be an agent for change is his biggest motivator for waking up in the morning.
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