There are two ways to become a mechanic. One is to pursue foundational education, paper theory. The other is apprenticeship, learning under a master mechanic, a Padawan rising through the ranks to become a mechanising Yoda. If you are Geoffrey Monari, the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) CEO, however, another route is to buy a Mercedes-Benz and dedicate Saturdays to the garage. “I spent every Saturday at the garage and realised I was just enriching the mechanics,” he says. “I sold it at a terrible loss.”
That wasn't his first money lesson, just the one he breaks occasionally: a weakness for fine things, which is why you’ll never find him in a menswear shop. He doesn’t resist temptation; he avoids it. Therein was his first lesson, learned under the strict eye of his father, not necessarily bean-counting but future-proofing. It is why, to this day, he says he has never taken a bank loan. It’s dry irony, when you consider he is the CEO of Helb.
