Igno van Niekerk’s main achievement was completing pre-primary school. He is grateful that there were no “school-readiness” assessments at the time, as he might never have been allowed to attend pre-primary school, let alone complete his subsequent schooling. After surviving school, he had to complete his compulsory National Service, which he was also glad to survive.

He then attended the University of the Free State where he studied Languages and completed a Higher Education Diploma. His passion for teaching took him back to his alma-mater, Voortrekker High School in Bethlehem. He still wonders why he was appointed, but he believes that he was probably a forgettable student- which worked in his favor. He taught at Voortrekker for five years, whilst studying part time at the University of Stellenbosch, completing his MA degree in Linguistics.

Igno continued pursuing his passion for Education by becoming involved in the directing and producing of educational video’s for the Free State Dept of Education, thoroughly enjoying the creative freedom and learning opportunities he was allowed.

For the past 17 years Igno has been doing training on Leadership/Presentation Skills/Sales/Social Media etc for Liberty Life. During this time, he has completed his MA degree in History as well as completing his exams to qualify as a Certified Financial Planner.  He has been a part time lecturer at the University of the Free State’s Business School (teaching Leadership and Strategy for the BML and MBA courses). Igno is a keen photographer, and his book, Light On Leadership is based on his passion for photography, history and storytelling. He also writes a weekly column for a regional newspaper.

Igno is an Adobe Certified Trainer on Photoshop and Lightroom. He was also the creator of the biggest Afrikaans speaking social network for photographers, fotoskool.

Igno is married to Arne, and they have two children, Benno and Anien. The family has four dogs, two cats and a living-in mother-in-law.