Product marketing manager: Google

Ever since he turned his chest of drawers into a makeshift cascade at a young age, Craig Wing seemed destined to be an engineer. After finishing his engineering degree at Wits University in 2002 he got involved with the Wits innovation and entrepreneurship office, helping students to understand the basics of entrepreneurship while looking for commercial opportunities for the resulting projects. This experience was translated into Wing’s first company, which sought to commercialise the software he developed for partially sighted students. After a stint overseas to do his MBA, he returned to South Africa and is now the driving force behind Google’s Woza Online project — a service that provides free websites to small businesses, with the aim of getting all South African businesses online. And with more than15 000 businesses already using the service after only three months, Wing seems to be cementing his role as champion of the fledgling entrepreneur.

— Ben Kelly

Twitter: @wingnuts123