Dewald obtained a master's degree in theoretical physics and a master's degree in mathematics at the University of Potchefstroom. He completed his education by obtaining a PhD at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands in 1968. His first position was as a scientist at the then Atomic Energy Board, where he was responsible for scientific programming. In 1971 he was appointed as professor in the newly formed Department of Computer Science at Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg.

In 1979 he left the University to take up a position with Sperry UNIVAC as Marketing Manager: Education and Research Systems, and in 1981 was appointed as the first Executive Director of the Computer Users Council of South Africa, where he was responsible for the development and implementation of the first national standards for education and training for the South African Computer Industry. In 1983 he founded, with two colleagues, the Management Advisory firm Haasbroek, Roode and Venter. The firm provided a wide range of consultancy services, and Dewald was responsible for Computer and Information Management services. In September 1985 the firm joined forces with the audit firm Theron Van der Poel to form Theron Van der Poel Management Services, which became Theron Du Toit Management Services in November 1986. Dewald was responsible for the Sections Information Advisory Services, and Product Development and Marketing.

In 1988 Dewald decided to return to academic work while retaining a firm footing in consultancy, and accepted a position as Head of the new Department of Informatics at the University of Pretoria. He consolidated his business interests in a new company INBEKON, an information management consultancy firm, of which he was and still is the owner. He continued to act as managing director of INBEKON until 1992, when René Lamberts took over from him to enable him to devote more time to his academic duties. In 1995 Dewald was appointed Director: Information Technology at the University of Pretoria, but continued to act as Head of the Department of Informatics. In 1998 he was appointed as the first Director of the new School of Information Technology at the University - a position he retained until his early retirement at the end of 2001.

Since 1983 Dewald has been involved in and managed more than 100 consultancy projects that covered a wide spectrum of problems in the information technology world. He has published a large number of articles in International Journals, and regularly contributes papers to International Conferences. He has been a member of the programme committee of the European Conference on Information Systems and is a member of the Steering Committee of the IFIP’s World Information Technology Forum.

MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Major contributions made by Dewald during his career in the Information Technology Industry include:

• Establishment of the first standards for training in the South African Computer Industry, and development of CUC (Computer Users’ Council) qualifications.
• Co-developer of a computerized model to determine the cost-effectiveness of system alternatives, and the application of the instrument in a variety of organizational decision-making problems.
• Involved in, and responsible for, a number of organizational restructuring assignments that included major redesign of computer services.
• Project Leader for two National South African Surveys: for the Human Sciences Research Council on the training of computer literates and experts, and for the Department of Trade and Industry's Standing Committee on Electronics on Technology Supported Education and Training.
• Establishment of the Department of Informatics at the University of Pretoria as an internationally recognized department.
• Establishment in 1992 of a research programme in the use of ICT for socio-economic development and development of a framework for sustainable development through ICT.
• Promoter of twenty two completed doctoral theses and supervisor of a large number of master's theses and dissertations.
• Honorary professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pretoria during the period 1981 - 1988.
• First director of the new School of Information Technology at the University of Pretoria.
• Establishment, in 1999, of the first Master's degree in Information Technology at the University of Pretoria.
• Member of SAQA’s Standards Generating Body for Information Technology.
• Chairman of Technical Committee 8 on Information Systems of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).
• Fellow and past vice-president of the SA Computer Society, member of the SA Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists, member of the SA Operations Research Society, member of the Association for Information Systems.
• Professor Emeritus and Professor Extraordinary in the Department of Informatics of the University of Pretoria since 2002.
• Visiting Professor in the Department of Information Systems of the University of Cape Town since 2003.
• Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Business Informatics of the Cape Technikon since 2004.
• Full-time involvement in the business of INBEKON Management Institute; Chairman of the Boards of INBEKON, INBEKON Management Institute and Xantium Trading 85 since 2002.
• Programme Chair of the 2005 World Information Technology Forum.