“Where Change Takes Root”

Retha van der Schyf on identity, courage, and building futures worth belonging to

It wasn’t meant to be a life abroad.

Just a two-year working holiday after finishing law school in Stellenbosch – or so Retha van der Schyf told herself in early 1997, when she left for London, passport in hand and a barrister’s registration still fresh.

But life had other plans.

In the concrete jungle of London, where Michelin-starred restaurants and fintech giants jostle for space, a proudly South African entrepreneur has carved out not one but two thriving empires. Meet James Dawson — the dynamic force behind Humble Grape and Humble Technology, and CEO of the growing Humble Group. His journey from Bethlehem in the Free State to building world-class businesses in the UK is a tale of grit, graft, and a generous dash of lekker South African spirit.

A chance conversation with a financial services executive set off a chain of unexpected doors opening.

Within weeks, she was sponsored by Barclays Capital and thrust onto the runway of the most influential transformation projects of the time: the Year 2000 rollover, the euro transition, new anti-money laundering reforms, even the integration complexities of the Lehman Brothers acquisition during the 2008 crisis.

She moved fast. At 28, she was the youngest ever appointed to Barclays’ Corporate Responsibility Committee. By 37, she was the Head of Strategy and Innovation for Africa. The path was meteoric – but traditional corporate life wasn’t quite the destination. “I’d made myself a promise,” she says. “I wanted to leave before 40 and use what I’d learned to serve something bigger, beyond the margins of just profit.”

A Placemaker with Purpose

And she did. Today, Retha is a placemaker – a term that sounds modest for the scale of what she actually does. Her London-based firm, Salients, works across sectors and continents to help reimagine the resilience of towns, economies, and ecosystems. From complex ecosystems in the UK and US to Namibian mining towns and new regional renewable energy corridors, she helps to steer strategies that balance opportunity with identity and long-term resilience.

In Salients’ language, resilience means the ability to renew. In practice, this means working alongside public or private sector leaders to bring to life more future-fit ecosystems – socially, economically, environmentally, and practically.

“But at the heart of it,” she adds, “it’s about aligning the outer architecture of a place – policies, projects, partnerships – with the inner shifts that people, cultures, and systems need to make to let go of the old and adapt to the new.

“Yes, my work is technical, but it’s also psychological. At Salients, we work simultaneously on the ‘I,’ the ‘We,’ and the ‘Us.’ It’s about aligning development strategies with shifts in mindset, culture, and collective habits.”

Soil, Soul, and Skin in the Game

Retha doesn’t just talk transformation – she lives it. In 2015, she co-founded a small nectarine farm in rural Greece. The goal wasn’t just to grow fruit.

It was to uplift local farmers from subsistence to high-value international markets – without losing their important cultural values.

It was a test of transformation at close range, with community trust, longstanding mindsets, and personal savings on the line. They imported niche varieties from South Africa and fought to break into the UK’s premium retail markets. Today, their golden nectarines – Suntarines – are sold at Marks & Spencer. But the road was hard, slow, and deeply human.

“I learned a lot about patience, about non-judgment and about holding on too long, and how vital it is to build belief and self-worth – not just capacity,” she reflects. “It gave me the heart and language for what many people and places go through in moments of deep transition.”

From Transactional to Transformational

Out of these experiences came Numendi – a resilience and identity development academy that helps people build the internal capacity for change.

If Salients is the engine room of systems transformation, Numendi is the gym for identity work – helping leaders, organisations, and communities build the muscle needed to evolve without losing themselves.

“My goal is to help people and places become more of who they need to be, without losing the essence of who they are,” she says. “We’re not just transforming systems – we’re helping people rewrite their own stories.” The name is drawn from numen, meaning spirit, and mendi, meaning path, pointing to a deeper truth: the most important journey in systems change is the one we take internally.

Retha also hosts a podcast, Adapt&Able, which explores this “messy middle’’ of identity transformations – the liminal space where the old no longer works and the new hasn’t fully arrived. Guests range from kelp-farming pioneers in Namibia to regenerative leaders across the globe.

“That’s where identity work lives,” she says. “Between endings and beginnings.”

Back to Belonging

Despite being abroad for nearly three decades, Retha remains deeply connected to South Africa – emotionally, intellectually, and in her work. She mentors, partners with, and advises across sectors, often in moments of high-stakes or systemic transition.

“I think a lot of South Africans feel caught between worlds,” she says. “We’ve seen enough to know how broken things can get – but also how fiercely resilient people can be when it counts. I try to work in that spirit.”

If there’s a thread running through all her work – from banking to Greek orchards, from renewable towns to podcast microphones – it’s a quiet belief that places become what people believe is possible for them.

“My role,” she says, “isn’t to sell a vision. It’s to create the conditions where a different story can take root – and people can start living it.”

For those wondering where to start? Retha brings deep, practical experience— not a fixed formula—and extends a simple invitation: “Pay attention to where you’re resisting change. Ask yourself what story you might need to let go of. Then look around and ask: what kind of place, business, or future could grow here – if we had the courage?”