Wiebke (Toussaint) Hutiri: Mechanical Engineer

Name: Wiebke (Toussaint) Hutiri

Role/Occupation: PhD Researcher at the Technology, Policy and Management Faculty at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, Co-Founder of Engineers without Borders - South Africa (EWB-SA)

Country: South Africa

I recently had an opportunity to interview Wiebke Toussaint. Most might know her as the co-founder and previous CEO of Engineers without Borders - South Africa (EWB-SA), but she is much more than that.

What can I call Toussaint, an engineer, a thinker, a creator, an innovator or an adventurista? These terms seem plenty, but are definitely not enough to describe her. She’s an enigma to say the least. Armed with a Mechanical Engineering degree from UCT, a Diplôme de français professionnel Affaires B2 from the Paris Chamber of Commerce, the multilingual (English, Afrikaans, French and German) Toussaint set out to connect people and technology, society and engineering, drawn by the risk, responsibility and complexity of the problems posed by modern society.

Toussaint cofounded EWB-SA in early 2013, whilst she was still a junior engineer at Hatch Goba. Hatch Goba, later nominated her as one of the young African leaders to join the Kumvana Program (leadership development and cultural exchange expertise program). In 2014, she was recognised for her business acumen, by the prestigious Standard Bank Rising Star awards, under the Service: Public and Private sector. She has also worked as a business analyst at an e-commerce company and later as a data scientist in energy research.

Toussaint is driven by her belief that if the new generation of technically skilled people are nurtured correctly, then South Africa and the African continent will flourish; she aptly refers to herself as an African dreamer.

But if you think that Toussaint is all work and no play, then you’re wrong. She is known to be able to balance 8 spoons on her face and continues to practise balancing more spoons, in her attempt to beat the world record. Her three great loves are people, nature and energy.

She strongly feels that “we all have the ability to make time for things that we are passionate about and an eight hour work day actually isn’t that much, is not that long. I think there’s an hour or two that all of us can give every day to make a difference, to create the future that you want to create, cause that is what gives meaning to life and that is what makes a normal day worth living.”

Clearly she’s a woman who wears many hats and follows her heart. Still, I cannot fully describe her, the closest I can get is that her speciality lies in making things happen, so I guess we better watch the space!

Enjoy the complete interview below in celebration of one of our founding mothers.

Wiebke Toussaint was interviewed by Dhruti Dheda, the founder of the African Steminist on behalf of Engineers without Borders- South Africa. The full interview can be found here.