Raymond Perrier: Profile of the new Director of the Jesuit Institute
David Smolira, as Regional Superior of the Jesuits in South Africa, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Raymond Perrier as full-time director of the Jesuit Institute. David will continue to oversee the Institute as President, while Raymond will be responsible for leading the Institute on a day to day basis.
Raymond comes from the UK where he was working for CAFOD, the official development agency of the Catholic Church in England & Wales. CAFOD has grown to be one of the leading UK charities raising around £50 million from the Catholic community for development and emergency relief programmes in 50 countries. His role there was to oversee a department of 75 people in 22 locations around the country working with Catholic communities (dioceses, parishes, schools, youth centres, interfaith groups) to build awareness and solidarity, educate and raise funds. While at CAFOD, he spearheaded a ground-breaking survey about the Catholic community which he was recently privileged to present to the plenary conference of English Bishops.
Raymond first got to know South Africa in the 1990s when he was in the world of business. As a director of Interbrand, one of the world’s leading branding consultancies, he advised organisations on how to optimise their brands through effective investment and marketing strategies. Companies with whom Raymond worked in South Africa included SAB Miller, BP, ABSA and Tiger Foods.
But Raymond also knows the Jesuits well, having been a scholastic (seminarian) for 6 years. While a novice (alongside the parish priest at Braamfontein, Russell Pollitt!) he worked in a L’Arche community providing residential support for adults with learning disabilities and also taught in the Jesuit high school in Scotland. For 2 years he led a project for the Jesuit Refugee Service in Uganda accompanying Southern Sudanese refugees who were moving from the UN camps back to their homes. He has also worked as a fund-raiser for The Passage homeless charity in London, and has been involved in the Strangers into Citizens campaign to persuade the UK Government to regularise undocumented migrants.
Raymond holds a MA in Philosophy and Theology from New College Oxford, an MA in Philosophy from Heythrop College of the University of London and an MSc in human rights from the London School of Economics. He speaks a number of European languages (French, Italian, Spanish, German) as well as British Sign Language. He acquired some basic Juba Arabic while working with the Sudanese and looks forward to learning some isiZulu.
He has published numerous articles in newspapers and journals, and edited a book entitled Brand Valuation (Premier Books, London, 1994).
We welcome Raymond and look forward to his wealth of talent and experience impacting significantly on the work of the Jesuit Institute.
