Director for refurbished Denis Hurley Centre

THE Denis Hurley Centre Trust is delighted to announce the appointment of Raymond Perrier as director of the newly-completed Denis Hurley Centre at Emmanuel Cathedral in Durban.

Perrier will take up this position on 1 February. Situated in one of the most challenging neighbourhoods of downtown Durban, the Denis Hurley Centre has three major focus areas: provision of care for vulnerable and marginalised groups through a refugee office, clinic, and a nutritious food programme; religious education and job-related training; and community building in a highly diverse urban environment.

For the past five years Perrier has been director of the Jesuit Institute of South Africa, an organisation developing links between faith and wider society and stimulating critical reflection, research and dialogue. His commitment to working in partnership is shown through the work the Jesuit Institute has done with Wits Business School, the Gordon Institute of Business Science, the Origins Centre and Mail & Guardian. He has given courses on leadership formation to religious leaders, principals of public and private schools, government officials and business executives. He also helped initiate a group of inter-faith monitors for the 2014 general election.

The work of the Jesuit Institute in theological training and spiritual formation has been ecumenical, engaging with leadership of the Anglican and Methodist communities. Within the Catholic community Perrier created a network of 50 Catholic organisations to collaborate on a national education programme, known as 'Hope and Joy'.

Before coming to South Africa, Perrier was a senior staff member of the leading British NGO, Cafod (Catholic Fund for Overseas Development), helping to raise about $70-million per year for development and emergency relief. For six years prior he was a trainee Jesuit, two of which were spent living in a refugee camp in Uganda as project director for the Jesuit Refugee Service and providing pastoral support and education for 60 000 Sudanese refugees.

Perrier’s original professional formation was in marketing, working for Interbrand, one of the world’s leading branding consultancies, with clients such as SAB, ABSA, Tiger Foods, American Express, Shell and Hewlett-Packard. He was managing director of the New York office of Interbrand with a staff of 160.

Perrier holds an MA in Philosophy and Theology from New College, Oxford, an MA in Philosophy from the University of London, and an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics.