Portia Heynes is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the UCT Graduate School of Business and founder of Upliftment Inspired Consulting.  As a pracademic, she partners with organisations across diverse sectors in Africa and globally, focused on unlocking human and organisational potential through systems thinking. She holds a Doctor of Management in Technology and Innovation and developed a Systemic Employability Framework that reframes the narrative from employment to employability.

A multipotentialite with diverse interests, she has collaborated with local and global organisations across industries, spanning government, the private sector, academia and civilsociety. These include telecommunications, banking, retail, insurance, health, mining, agriculture, energy, contact centres, and the tourism, hospitality and gaming sectors.

As a “pracademic,” she integrates academic insight with real-world application in her facilitation and consulting work. Her work centres on co-creating future-ready capabilities through systems and design thinking, and on creating engaging learning experiences through innovative pedagogical practices.

She holds a Doctor of Management in Technology and Innovation, an Executive MBA, and a BCom, and has completed executive study at INSEAD. Her research developed a Systemic Employability Framework to shift the narrative from employment to employability, recognising that current discourse remains tethered to traditional notions of jobs.