PROFILE

Collen Gura

Founder and Executive Chairman of CAG Holdings (Pvt) Ltd

My name is Collen Gura, a qualified Chartered Accountant, a farmer and an aspiring Robotics Systems Engineer. I am based in the farming Community of Chakari, Zimbabwe.

I love farming, finance and software development. My passion for robotics is rekindled by projects and activities of ROS Agriculture and industry giants such as John Deere, Sabanto, among others.

From a business perspective, it is the essence of pushing the objective of producing food for more people, with less people and less land, using autonomous technology. Through robotics projects, I seek to be more skilled and more involved in computer vision, robotics and artificial intelligence.

After 34 years of gainful employment in functional roles in accounting, general management, finance, executive management (chief executive officer and board chairman) in the corporate world, I retired from full-time employment in July, 2011, to concentrate on my family businesses and pursue interests in software enginering and computer science, with emphasis on robotics and farm vehicle automation. In this profile, I intend to focus on my journey in software engineering and computer science. Curious about my corporate life and experience? Read on.

I love learning and continued learning of new technologies, particulary as it affects agriculture, engineering and mining sectors of the economy. I am not particular about University grades or certificates, but hope that they help boost my confidence and underpin my passion. I am gaining more experience as I lead software development projects in my business and prefer to work mainly in Java, Python, JavaScript and Node.js. Of late, through C++ based projects, C++ has grabbed my attenition and keeps me glued to the screen and my debugging tools.

My Robotics and Software Engineering Journey

Dsiclaimer: This is not a CV circulated for employment purposes, but as mark of my starting base for my software engineering journey whose sole purpose is to participate in the provision of farm tecnologial solutions to feed more people with more food from less land and less capital.

Education

Masters in Business Administration (MBA), University of Zimbabwe
Honours Bachelor of Accounting Science (Hons B.Compt), University of South Africa
Bachelor of Accounting Science (B.Compt), University of South Africa
Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) BSc Computer Science, University of London (current studies)

Professional Qualifications - Accounting & Finance

Chartered Accountant - FCA(Z)
Chartered Management Accountant - FCMA
Chartered Certified Accountant - FCCA
Chartered Secretary - FCIS

Programming Certificates Attained & Current Studies

Acomplishments

Introduction to Computer Science and Programming with Python - Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) (awarded via EDx)
Python For Everybody - Michigan University (awarded via Coursera)
Python Data Structures - Michigan University (awarded via Coursera)
Learn Java - CodeCademy

Current Studies

Bachelor of Science Computer Science (BSc CS) - University of London

includes: C++, Python,JavaScript, SQL, JSON, HTML 5/CSS 3 & Programming Projects
includes: Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning & Neural Networks, IOT

ROS For Beginners - The Construct's Robot Ignite Academy

includes: ROS Basics (Python, C++), URDF for Robot Modeling, TF ROS 101
includes: ROS Control, Creating First Robot with ROS(Project)
includes: ROS Beginners Exam

Introduction to Self-Driving Cars - Udacity

includes: 6 Projects, ROS, SQL, C++ and Python
includes: Machine Learning & Computer Vision, TensorFlow, Keras,

C++ Programming - including Projects - Udacity
Java Programming - including Projects - Udacity
Machine Learning and Neural Networks - IBM(via Coursera)

My Programming Projects

Business Profile

CAG Holdings has investments in wholy-owned subsidiaries spanning over farming, engineering, locomotive manufacturiring and properties.

Career Milestones & Work Experience

Positions held in my career history, in chronological order, that is, first appointment at the top:

Estate Accountant - Forestry Commission, Chimanimani, Zimbabwe
Company Accountant, - Echo Car Hire, Harare, Zimbabwe
Group Accountant - Abercal Holdings Limited, Harare
Group Accountant - Apex Corporation, Harare, Zimbabwe
General Manager - Apex Corporation, Harare, Zimbabwe
Finance Manager - National Printing & Packaging (former Mardon Printers), Harare, Zimbabwe
Finanace Manager/Company Secretary - Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Harare, Zimbabwe
Articles of Clerkship - Ernst & Young, Chartered Accountants, Harare, Zimbabwe
Finance Manager - Manica, Harare, Zimbabwe
Group Finance Manager - Independence Gold Mining (Lonmin) Harare, Zimbabwe
Group Finance Director - Independence Gold Mining (Lonmin), Harare, Zimbabwe
Group Deputy Chief Executive - Metallon Gold, Harare, Zimbabwe
Group Chief Executive Officer - Metallon Gold, Harare, Zimbabwe
Group Executive Chairman - Metallon Gold, Harare, Zimbabwe
Group Chief Eecutive - Metallon Corporation Plc, Johannesburg, South Africa
Founder & Group Executive Chairman (leading group software dev projects) - CAG Holdings, Harare, Zimbabwe

To read details of the rest of my track record, read more on LinkedIn

Programming Work Experience

Dates	Organization	Work
2019 - Current	{CAG} Farmtech Solutions	BSc CS Module Projects. CAG Farms Website, Nutrient Management and Yield Monitoring Software Projects (on-going)
2015 - 2018	{CAG} Farmtech Soultions	Setting up Company. CAG Farm Database Management System, Payroll and Inventory Management Systems Software Projects

Programming Skills

Python	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
JavaScript	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Java	⭐⭐⭐⭐
HTML(5)	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
CSS(3)	⭐⭐⭐⭐
C++	⭐⭐

Object Oriented Programming	⭐⭐⭐⭐
JQuery	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bootstrap Framework	⭐⭐⭐
JSON	⭐⭐⭐
XML	⭐⭐⭐
MySQL	⭐⭐⭐