David Altschuler is not one for the limelight. He reluctantly agrees to meet the FM after some negotiation. But eventually we sit down in a coffee shop just below his office off Piccadilly in London. And the soft-spoken, jeans-wearing Altschuler unveils his passion to make a difference in his country of birth, SA.
His role as social entrepreneur - tackling the problems of Aids and poverty in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world - has become a second, all-consuming career. It comes after a highly successful career in finance - one that began in Cape Town, where he was born in 1949 - with a business science degree from the University of Cape Town (UCT).
After qualifying as a chartered accountant, Altschuler joined Woolworths as its company secretary. But in 1977 he and his wife decided to leave SA. "It was true of many South Africans who left at the time - I didn't see any hope of a different SA emerging. I left with a sense of guilt - at Woolworths I had a staff of more than 100, mostly non white. I felt guilty about leaving them."
They considered settling in Israel or the US but eventually cho se the UK after an offer to become treasurer at Marks & Spencer, with which he had formed links at Woolworths.
Altschuler thrived as treasurer, setting up Marks & Spencer's asset financing business - a way to deploy its excess capital for better returns - and built it up into the largest non bank lease financier in the UK. But three-and-a-half years later he left to jointly found National Leasing & Financing Company in London to put together large asset financing deals. That saw him arranging the finance on manufacturing plants, ships, aero planes and even a few movies.
Along the way he also dabbled in property finance, including the first office building to be built in Docklands - now the hottest office area in London.
Later, he got into biotechnology, investing in partnership businesses with University College London. One of those ventures - Arrow Therapeutics - is now involved in respiratory syncytial and hepatitis C research and has been sold to global pharmaceutical Astra Zeneca.
But as SA began emerging from the apartheid fugue, Altschuler saw the opportunity to do something to contribute to the new SA. "We made contact with the ANC and the economic development team at Shell House. We worked with Tito Mboweni and Trevor Manuel."
Altschuler's idea was to set up a science & technology park modelled on one he had been involved in south England. The park was to be tied to a foundation that would foster science & technology training. That vision has evolved into the Capricorn Business Park outside Cape Town, though it has less of a science ethos than initially intended. An educational NGO benefits from the park. But the development brought Altschuler into contact with the Vrygrond community living on the bo rder of the park. That has now become a major project for him: he has been involved in building a creche, library and a primary school due to open next month. "Being exposed to Vrygrond, I was exposed to the HIV/Aids issues in SA," he says. Though education is a priority for the country, in Altschuler's view you can't make a big dent in it until Aids has been dealt with.
One project Altschuler helped fund was crucial in changing government's attitude to anti retrovirals (ARVs). In 2001 he met Dr Paul Roux at Groote Schuur. "We brain stormed and came up with the idea of setting up a pilot ARV project with UCT."
The project, which benefited more than 250 children, delivered incontrovertible proof that ARVs do have an effect on Aids sufferers. The results were submitted to government and some credit the UCT project for changing government's attitude towards ARVs.
That project was part of Altschuler's One to One Children's Fund, a charity he founded with Rita Eker in 2000. It supports projects in many developing countries, including the Middle East and Kosovo. It is supported by donors and funds raised by "treks" - groups raise sponsorships to undertake treks and visit the charity's works around the world.
Altschuler is now working on a vision to bring together a network of clinics across Africa to tackle HIV/Aids. He talks excitedly of an idea to organise a march down the continent to arrive in SA for the 2010 soccer World Cup, promoting counselling, testing and treatment as they go. "Breaking down the stigma, getting more people into treatment and promoting disclosure," he explains.
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