Riaan has a BSc Forestry, Master of Business Leadership (dissertation incomplete) and is a Certified PPP Professional (Prep Practitioner as endorsed by: ADB, EBRD, IDB, IsDB, PPIA and the World Bank Group). He has been active in the commercial forestry industry for thirty-two years of which the last twenty years in domestic as well as international marketing and trading, in countries such as South Africa, Japan, Korea, China, Philippines, India, Pakistan, UAE, Turkey, USA as well as several African countries.

For the last five years, until he joined CMO, Riaan has been employed in a financial advisory capacity and has been involved in business planning, developing business and financial capacity models, drafting strategies and financial frameworks to attract international investment funds for public infrastructure improvement on a wide range of projects in South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti. Key areas of experience include forest management, local and international marketing, project evaluation and development, logistics and international trade finance.