Professor Kurt April is the Allan Gray Chair, an Endowed Professorship, and Director of the Allan Gray Centre for Values-Based Leadership, specialising in Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business (South Africa, 1998-present), Adjunct Faculty at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford (UK, 2001-present), and is an Orchestrator and Faculty member of Duke Corporate Education, Duke University (USA, 2008-present). 

Previously, he was a regular Visiting Professor at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (Netherlands, 2001-2013), Research Fellow of Ashridge-Hult Business School (UK, 2004-2016), Visiting Professor at the University of Amsterdam UvA (Netherlands, 2004-2007), Visiting Professor at London Metropolitan University (UK, 2014-2017), was a Board Member of the Unit for Intercultural and Diversity Studies (iNCUDISA, UCT) where he helped foster societal transformation and collaborated with New York and Antioch Universities (USA) and the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), and was the Founding Academic Director of the USA-SA Centre for Leadership and Public Values (CLPV) in conjunction with the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University (USA).

Prior to entering academia, April worked in the financial services, defence, rail transport and energy sectors. 

He holds a PhD in Economics & IT Strategy (PhD), an MBA and an MSc in Electronic Engineering. He has published over 190 academic articles/book chapters/conference papers/op-eds, and written ten books.