18
February 2019
Pretoria, South Africa
Rain slashed the windows of the DeVere chairman’s private penthouse suite. Low clouds obscured the Magaliesberg Mountains. Pieter Haas half listened to the long discussion about the search for a productive diamond pipe located in northern New Mexico. The man delivering the report had briefed DeVere’s CEO days earlier. Haas already knew the decision the Mining Group would make—continue buying as much property in the area as they could. But he was interested in much more than the diamonds.
Haas’s narrow and ascetic face belied his many passions and multifaceted worldview. In business he believed capitalism was the only vehicle for unleashing the creative power of the individual. Yet he practiced gaining every competitive advantage, legal or illegal
