Andrew Layman is the Chief Executive Officer of the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business, a post which he has occupied since October 1997. Prior to that date, he had a career in school education which spanned thirty years.

Having been educated at Durban High School and the University of Natal (BA UED), he joined the staff of Glenwood High School in Durban where he progressed through the ranks to Head of Department. In 1983, after sixteen years at Glenwood, he moved to Pietermaritzburg where he took up the post of Deputy Principal at Maritzburg College, and in 1986, the post of Headmaster at Alexandra High School. In 1996, he was seconded to the KZN Department of Education, first as a superintendent and then as the person responsible for the right-sizing of the department and the redeployment of educators.

During his teaching career, he was very active in the professional associations, the Natal Teachers Society, of which he had a term as President, and its successor, APEK (Association of Professional Educators in KwaZulu-Natal). He represented these bodies in numerous provincial and national organisations, such as the Natal Education Council, the Council and Senate of Edgewood College and the Education Labour Relations Council in which he was a member of the Executive Committee. Later, he became a negotiator for the employer, having had to ‘cross the floor’.

Since entering the employment of the PCCI, now the PCB, he has joined numerous boards and committees as the Chamber or business representative. Among these is the Provincial Education Council of which he is the Chairman. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and a member of the Council of the Umgungundlovu FET College.

The change in career also necessitated his bringing to an end a lifetime of school cricket coaching and administration. In latter years, he was a Vice President of USSASA (United School Sport Association of SA) from its inception and the President of the national schools cricket organisation, ultimately the USSASA Cricket Board, for 13 years.