Alf Pain is the Managing Director of Keystone Project Recruitment (KPR), a technical recruitment
company servicing the Mining, Metallurgical, Petrochemical, Oil, Gas and Construction industries.
Alf began his Mechanical Engineering career in 1971 in the design office of an industrial equipment manufacturing company, followed by several years at Bateman Engineering as a Design Engineer. His passion for Material Handling Systems led to him being appointed as a Consultant with WJM Projects in 1982.
The position entailed Alf bringing in his own full team of staff to execute a wide range of Civil, Structural and Mechanical Engineering projects. KPR’s forerunner, known as Exclusive Technical Personnel (ETP) was established as a temporary employment service provider to recruit the specialized personal required on these projects.
The success of this venture resulted in the opportunity being identified to offer fixed-price, lump-sum turnkey projects to clients in the Material Handling industry. This led to the establishment, in 1985, of Exclusive Technical Services (ETS) as the Project House to execute these projects.
ETS evolved into a single-source, multi-disciplined design, project management, and construction management company, specializing in the provision of Bulk-Material Handling Systems and communition plants. The company achieved enormous success and completed more than 100 projects and studies for clients throughout Africa and the Middle East.
Alf’s core areas of expertise range from Project Management, Engineering, Design, Construction Management, Technical Recruitment, and Executive Business Leadership Coaching which has made a major contribution to KPR becoming one of South Africa’s leading comprehensive recruitment organizations for Project Management, Engineering, and Construction personnel. Alf’s warm and gregarious nature has meant that he has always gone out of his way to get to know the individuals with whom he works, both within his companies and his wide range of suppliers and clients.
His personal focus on relationship-building has become a cornerstone of the companies under his management. Alf believes that what differentiated ETS from its competitors was a strong collaborative ethic and focus on relationship-building. Inherent in ETS’s business model was its collaborative approach to Project Management which ensured the alignment of all stakeholders and engendered strong relationships with its clients and key business partners, proof of which resulted in ETS receiving repeat business from its client’s over the following 20 years.
He is passionate about training and coaching as a tool to enable people to release their hidden capabilities, increase their self-awareness and become effective members of the workforce. This has been the driving force behind KPR’s participation in the establishment of Keystone Female Youth Development Funding (KFYDF) as a way of contributing to the growth of capabilities and opportunities available to young women and men.
It is Alf’s great hope for KFYDF that the company becomes a vehicle KEYSTONE FEMALE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT FUNDING NPC to raise the level of consciousness and skills of young people thus enabling them to be become gainfully employed and achieve success in their professional and personal lives. Sport has played a significant role in Alf’s life. He completed 17 Comrades Marathons, captained the SA Triathlon team at the Triathlon World Championships held in Muncie, USA.
Alf is a man of tremendous empathy and integrity, who is continuously striving to increase his self-awareness. He practices yoga and meditation daily and attributes his commitment to this regime as being the source of his sense of personal wellbeing, contentment and acceptance of himself and others.
Alf began his Mechanical Engineering career in 1971 in the design office of an industrial equipment manufacturing company, followed by several years at Bateman Engineering as a Design Engineer. His passion for Material Handling Systems led to him being appointed as a Consultant with WJM Projects in 1982.
The position entailed Alf bringing in his own full team of staff to execute a wide range of Civil, Structural and Mechanical Engineering projects. KPR’s forerunner, known as Exclusive Technical Personnel (ETP) was established as a temporary employment service provider to recruit the specialised personal required on these projects.
The success of this venture resulted in the opportunity being identified to offer fixed-price, lump sum turnkey projects to clients in the Material Handling industry. This led to the establishment, in 1985, of Exclusive Technical Services (ETS) as the Project House to execute these projects
ETS evolved into a single-source, multi-disciplined design, project management, and construction management company, specializing in the provision of Bulk-Material Handling Systems and communition plants. The company achieved enormous success and completed more than 100 projects and studies for clients throughout Africa and the Middle East.
Alf’s core areas of expertise range from Project Management, Engineering, Design, Construction Management, Technical Recruitment, and Executive Business Leadership Coaching which has made a major contribution to KPR becoming one of South Africa’s leading comprehensive recruitment organizations for Project Management, Engineering, and Construction personnel. Alf’s warm and gregarious nature has meant that he has always gone out of his way to get to know the individuals with whom he works, both within his companies and his wide range of suppliers and clients.
His personal focus on relationship-building has become a cornerstone of the companies under his management. Alf believes that what differentiated ETS from its competitors was a strong collaborative ethic and focus on relationship-building. Inherent in ETS’s business model was its collaborative approach to Project Management which ensured the alignment of all stakeholders and engendered strong relationships with its clients and key business partners, proof of which resulted in ETS receiving repeat business from its client’s over the following 20 years.
He is passionate about training and coaching as a tool to enable people to release their hidden capabilities, increase their self-awareness and become effective members of the workforce. This has been the driving force behind KPR’s participation in the establishment of Keystone Female Youth Development Funding (KFYDF) as a way of contributing to the growth of capabilities and opportunities available to young women and men.
It is Alf’s great hope for KFYDF that the company becomes a vehicle KEYSTONE FEMALE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT FUNDING NPC to raise the level of consciousness and skills of young people thus enabling them to be become gainfully employed and achieve success in their professional and personal lives. Sport has played a significant role in Alf’s life. He completed 17 Comrades Marathons, captained the SA Triathlon team at the Triathlon World Championships held in Muncie, USA.
Alf is a man of tremendous empathy and integrity, who is continuously striving to increase his self-awareness. He practices yoga and meditation daily and attributes his commitment to this regime as being the source of his sense of personal wellbeing, contentment and acceptance of himself and others.
