Anthony Leslie Odendaal

Curriculum Vitae

Tony qualified initially as a Health Inspector in 1971 working in a remote rural area of Zimbabwe gaining extensive experience in the health sector and learning to be self reliant. By 1981 he had progressed to being Head of Health Services of one of the four cities in Zimbabwe being not only responsible for preventive health but also the logistics, finances and personnel of three municipal hospitals and multiple clinics and district nursing services. In 1981 he emigrated to South Africa to work initially as a Health Inspector with the Military Medical Service as a Captain.  He accepted the challenge to assist in setting up a logistical branch independent of the other arms of the Defence Force. This entailed not only retraining himself but also providing logistics training to his own personnel. His effort earned him the prized Chief of the Defence Force Commendation Medal.  He developed an interest in computerized logistic support systems and received extensive systems training resulting in being appointed logistic systems manager at military Surgeon General Headquarters. In 1991 he left the military as a Lt Col. and joined the Department of Health as Systems Manager for a yet to be defined Warehouse accounting system. He assisted with the business analysis, design, development monitoring, implementation, training and maintenance of this system and later a data warehousing system.  At the end of 2003 Tony made another career change and formed a consulting partnership with a pharmacist colleague. This has given him extensive experience and skills in working in donor funded projects (WHO, DIFID, JSI, SCMS and USAID) as well as report writing for such projects.