Hugo Tempelman graduated as a Medical Doctor in 1990 at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands and left to further his career to South Africa. He has been working in the field of rural South African health care provision for the last 25 years, initially in a government hospital as a Chief Medical Officer and as Head of Paramedical Services for four years at the KwaNdebele Department of Health, South Africa.

In 1994 he initiated a rural healthcare facility in Elandsdoorn Moutse, Limpopo, South Africa. Ndlovu Medical Centre grew from a general practice to a NGO, Ndlovu Care Group, which supports District Health Service delivery, Child Care & Youth Development Programs, WASH Programs and Infrastructure Development and a Research Department. Currently, Ndlovu Care Group employs over 160 people.

Over the past ten years, he has increasingly devoted himself to research into the subjects of HIV–infection and rural healthcare. He held a position as visiting professor in Education and Health Care in Resource Poor Settings at the Utrecht University (The Netherlands, period 2007–2012), obtained a Master’s Degree in Change Management (2007 SIOO, UU)and has initiated the Ndlovu Research Consortium, a scientific collaboration between Utrecht University, University Medical Center Utrecht, and the University of Witwatersrand Reproductive Health Institute (Johannesburg, South Africa). Since 2018 he is a Joint Researcher in the School of Clinical Medicine, WITS Reproductive Health and HIV Institute. At this stage he is involved in several international collaborative randomized clinical trials and academic studys in the field of HIV prevention and treatment.

Hugo, and his wife Liesje, were both knighted in the Order House of the Orange in 2007 for their outstanding work in Africa.