Adam Kethro
About Adam
Adam Kethro was born in Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, in 1956. He attended St. Helena Primary School and matriculated from Durban Boys High School in 1973 but rewrote matric at Damelin College in 1974. Following his military conscription, Adam was offered a job in logistics through a family connection.
With no formal post-school business qualifications, Adam started his own freight company in 1980 and spent 25 years building, running and growing his company, Bridge Shipping, and today it is the biggest logistics company in Southern Africa.
Under Adam’s leadership and direction, it grew into one of Southern Africa’s leading logistics companies, boasting more than 750 employees when he retired as executive chairman in 2005. At the time, he left behind 45 millionaires, many of whom still work at the company.
He currently lives in Cape Town with his wife, Cathy, and although now semi-retired, he owns and is actively involved in four diverse enterprises, including a bridging finance company, a computer firm, a cargo salvage business, and a horse pre-training farm in the Natal Midlands.
This evergreen entrepreneur aspires to spend half of his time exploring the world and pursuing his various hobbies, which include collecting music, art, books and war memorabilia.
Adam’s motto – we are each responsible for the quality of our own lives – are words he has lived by his entire life.
About Pleasures of the Harbour
Adam Askew, a young man in a hurry, always wanted to be financially independent. Armed with guts, determination and a cocky self-assurance, he sets up a shipping company with a view to take on the world, one ton of cargo at a time.
Fed up with the cliquey set-up in Durban, he takes a gutsy gamble – the biggest risk of his life – one that will ultimately make or break him. He heads for the big city lights of swanky 80s Joburg and is soon wining and dining at the Top of the Carlton, sipping the best champagne in London and making some enemies along the way.
Set in the closing decades of the 20th century in sanction-wracked South Africa, Pleasures of the Harbour navigates a world of dodgy business partners, dubious deals and a few failed attempts at love before Adam can finally, and honestly, say he’s made it.
Part adventure, part action, and lots of wheeling and dealing means readers are in for a rollicking ride in this highly entertaining novel that traverses the high seas and low roads of Southern Africa, while opening boardroom and a few bedroom doors along the way.