Dean Villet

Dean leads the foundation’s South Africa based efforts to transform the lives of children living in poverty through improved education and work readiness. In his role, Dean helps to manage and develop the South African portfolio of initiatives to improve learning outcomes in schools serving children from low income communities; to catalyze a systemic shift towards a data driven decision making approach in South Africa’s public education structures; to improve graduation and employment rates of first generation university students from poor families; and to catalyze sustainable models that help youth gain and stay in meaningful employment.

Dean joins the foundation having served as the Director of Professional Services at Itron Inc., a global technology and services company in the energy sector. He also served on the board of Ipay (Pty) Ltd, a software and services startup based in Cape Town South Africa. Prior to joining Itron, Dean spent fourteen years in various roles and functions at Eskom, the largest Electrical utility in Africa, finishing off his career there as the Portfolio Manager of Distribution Strategic Projects. Dean holds a B.Eng. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pretoria.