Julian Hewitt is the outgoing CEO of the Jakes Gerwel Fellowship (JGF), which
creates high-impact teachers who will go on to tackle the biggest obstacles to
education in South Africa. An entrepreneur and changemaker, his leadership has
been recognised as a recipient of the Clinton Democracy Fellowship, Chinese
Government Scholarship and Global Award for Individual Leadership through
AIESEC. He previously served as National President of AIESEC - the world's largest student‐run organisation, providing a platform for youth leadership development, 21st-century skills and global citizenship.

Hewitt is an entrepreneur. He has served as director of the Allan Gray Fellowship
and has been a founding member of three social enterprises: Twenty30, Brightest Young Minds and Ungana Afrika.

In 2017, he became one of the founders and CEO of the JGF, an independent and
aspirational initiative born from Allan Gray Orbis Foundation’s Endowment. JGF
selects newly qualified and novice teachers with gateway, scarce subject, or phase specialisations, and who demonstrate a passion for teaching and entrepreneurial leadership competencies. Through a two-year professional teacher induction programme, JGF supports the advancement, expertise, and resilience of these teachers to retain them in the education system and ensure their continued impact on schooling.

The organisation works across all provinces in South Africa, in urban and increasingly in rural settings with a focus on tackling geographical disparities and inequities. The Fellowship provides holistic support for those teachers to enter and flourish in schools, especially those serving under-resourced communities so that they can improve learning outcomes over time.

The Jakes Gerwel Fellowship recognises that the quality of teachers is a crucial
factor in unlocking the full potential of individuals and plays a fundamental role in the success of South Africa’s democracy. Its mission is to make teaching an aspirational profession.

Fellows – 250 to date – have shown to be highly sought after in schools, with 80% of them finding employment within three months of qualification.

Even as a CEO who has travelled to more than 60 countries, and worked in multi-discipline environments from Shanghai to Soweto, Hewitt’s commitment to the
cause has seen him re-skill as a teacher himself. He is finishing his own PGCE
studies to fully understand and identify with teachers at the coalface, and make his own mark within the classroom. As he ends his chapter at the helm of JGF, Hewitt is focused on entering the classroom as a novice teacher within the next year once he graduates; a move that will see him take all JGF has identified as crucial support fornovice teachers and put it into practice in his own classroom.