Pie-Pacifique

Pie-Pacifique Kabalira-Uwase (21 August 1980) is a Rwandan national living in South Africa since 2001. He is currently the Head of the FPD Business School, a Consulting Partner at WRP, Consulting Associate at IDG and a Board Member of the Jesuit Refugee Services - Southern Africa. He is also an International Motivational Speaker.

When Pie-Pacifique was still an infant, his father was arrested and spent a number of years in and out of detention withouthaving been charged or trailed for political reasons, he later passed on in 1989 when Pie-Pacifique was just 9 years old. In 1994, the increasing political tensions resulted in the Rwandan genocide which Pie-Pacifique and his family lived through, narrowly surviving several attempts to kill them.

Following the imprisonment of his mother in a military camp in Kigali (Rwanda's capital city) at age 14 Pie-Pacifique became his family's bread-winner. Pie-Pacifique found his way back to school where he realized his talent and passion for science. Notwithstanding the challenges, some of which include the massacres that ended the lives of some of his relatives including his only brother in 1998; Pie-Pacifique completed his A-levels with distinction.

In 2001, Pie-Pacifique left his country for exile and ended up in South Africa where he started off as a car guard in the bustling streets of Durban's Beachfront. Against the odds, he managed to enroll at the then University of Natal, where he finished his Physics Degree in 2006, whilst he was also an active member of student leadership organizations. He was twice nominated for the Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship Award (in 2008 & 2009), he has also received several Honours, including being voted one of 2005 Brightest Young Minds for the BYM conference, and in 2006 he was a Mandela Rhodes Scholar. His 2007 essay titled "Youth, Democracy and Citizenship" was one of the winning essays in a global contest headed by the Centre for International and Private Enterprise based in Washington D.C. In 2010 he was featured in the Mail and Guardian as one of 200 "Top South African's".

In his free time, Pie-Pacifique works on several initiatives that work at enhancing the lives of refugees in South Africa, especially women and young people. He is also a motivational speaker, and has worked at ABSA's Procurement Division in the Business Performance Management Team for three years. He also worked he works as an Account Executive at Avocado Vision, a prime training and enterprise development company which provides corporate training programs and manages projects which take important life skills to disadvantaged communities and small businesses across South Africa. In June 2012, he was named Trainer Candidate by the Trainer Body of the Kairos More-to-Life Foundation, an organization which offers highly acclaimed life skills training programs in a number of countries throughout the globe.

Today, Pie-Pacifique resides in Johannesburg, South Africa where he works as the Head of the Business School of the Foundation for Professional Development, as well as Business Consulting with Whitten and Roy Partnership and the Inspirational Development Group. He also sits on the Council or the Jesuit Refugee Services - Southern Africa.