Mr. Gerald Nyadze Thipe attained a Postgraduate Diploma in Development Economics from the University of East Anglia at Norwich, United Kingdom in 1981. He also has a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) from the University of Botswana and Swaziland which he acquired in 1978. He have attended a number of short courses, conferences, workshops and seminars addressing issues pertaining to project planning, appraisal and management including financial sector management. Mr Thipe has also participated in various forums organized by such bodies as the ECA, World Bank/IMF, The Commonwealth Secretariat dealing with a wide
spectrum of economic and financial issues.
In April 2008, he was assigned by Government to head the Transport HUB as a Coordinator, he was responsible for establishing the Transport HUB office to spearhead the initiative to develop Botswana as a centre of excellence in transport and logistics in the SADC region.
He has served at Directorship level on a number of Boards of parastatals/statutory bodies and private sector entities. These are namely: Air Botswana; Botswana Building Society (representing MFDP), Botswana Power Corporation, the Central Tender Board ( now re-constituted to form the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board), Soda Ash Botswana (Pty) Ltd, and BCL limited.
He currently serves on the BBS Board as a Non - Executive Director, particularly on the BBS Board Committees dealing with Human Resources and Remuneration, Finance and Audit, and Demutualisation matters.
Mr. Thipe has extensive experience in dealing with public sector management issues as he was intimately involved in planning, coordination and implementation of policies and programmes/projects in various sectors of the economy. The knowledge and expertise in this area was acquired by virtue of having served in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning; the then Ministries of Minerals and Water Affairs, and Works and Transport; and the Ministry of Transport and Communications at various stages in his Public Service career spanning a period of 32 years.
He was appointed Permanent Secretary, for the then Ministry of Works and Transport from September 2002 to March 2008. His responsibilities, amongst others, involved the supervision of the Department of Buildings and Engineering Services, Roads, Road Transport and Safety, Civil Aviation, and the Central Transport Organisation. He also supervised two parastatals namely: Air Botswana and Botswana Railways. He had the opportunity to initiate and implement policies and programmes/projects in all these sub-sectors in accordance with the National Development Plans of Government.