Dries graduated from the University of Port Elizabeth (now NMU) and later qualified as a Chartered Accountant (SA) in 2004 after completing his articles with PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. He was appointed CFO and Executive Director of Dawn Limited in 2007. Subsequently, Dries established a business providing niche turnaround, corporate finance advisory and various other C-suite solutions to clients in South Africa and Europe. This included serving as the CFO of Newpark REIT Limited as well as European CFO of a multinational ICT turnaround group. Dries has extensive experience serving as Executive Director in the listed company space. He was appointed as CFO Designate of Astral on 10 January 2022.