In 2002 Dawie completed his Masters Degree in Engineering and was awarded the Sasol Award for the best post-graduate student. His thesis titled: Technology to Business Model for the Development of Emerging Markets using Emerging Technologies, appropriately summarizes both his 23 years of business experience as well as his academic qualifications and post graduate research experience.

In March 2005 Q-KON SA was established and Tjaart accepted the position as Managing Director to focus exclusively on the South African market and spearhead Q-KON’s growth in the South African market. Tjaart holds a B.Ing degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pretoria. Prior to joining Q-KON, Tjaart worked with Altech.

In 2006, Dirk completed his Masters Degree in International Management with the specific focus on the prospects of counter-trade in Sub-Saharan Africa. His dissertation was based on using Eastern Europe as an example for the application of counter-trade in Sub-Saharan Africa. This model was applied to Sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of countries were and still are subjected to civil war, shortage of foreign currency and foreign markets that are difficult to enter. With the abundance of natural resources throughout Africa there is ample opportunity to counter-trade.