SA's high-flying businesswomen
2 July 2004
Recent statistics show that the number of small and medium-sized companies owned by women in South Africa grew to 39.5% in 2003 and that SA women now occupy 17% of senior executive management, 25% of senior management, 24% of middle management, and 28% of junior management positions.
And according to a survey by accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton,
South Africa has the third-highest proportion worldwide of companies employing women as senior managers, and the eighth-highest proportion of women in senior management posts.
But who are some of the key woman movers and shakers in the SA business world?
Nicky Newton-King
Deputy chief executive officer, JSE Securities Exchange
Nicky Newton-King was the winner of South Africa's Businesswoman of the Year award in 2003. She has been
deputy chief executive officer of the JSE Securities Exchange since December 2002.
As the world's 14th largest exchange, trading over R1.3-billion a day, the JSE faces a constant challenge to develop strategies that ensure that it remains globally and locally relevant.
In 2001 Newton-King was one of the main architects of the revolutionary arrangement signed between the JSE and the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The logistics that allow for the JSE and LSE to be connected went live in May 2002, and the platform was recognised as one of the top five technological innovations of 2002 by the Wall Street Journal, Europe.
Besides other initiatives and achievements, Newton-King is currently driving the JSE's introduction of a Socially Responsible Investment Index, and was one of the primary drafters of the Insider Trading Act, a world leader of its kind.
Newton-King was one of three South Africans selected to be one of the World Economic Forum's 100 Global Leaders
for Tomorrow for 2003.
Kim McFarland
Chief operating officer, Investec Asset Management, London
Kim McFarland was appointed to her position as chief operating officer of the global asset management business in 2000. Her role also includes that of chief financial officer, a position she has held since 1993.
A chartered accountant and MBA from the University of Cape Town, McFarland is one of the core team who grew the business from a company with assets under management of R1-billion in the early 1990s to one that now manages R263-billion globally.
McFarland was South Africa's 2002 Businesswoman of the Year.
 Maria Ramos
Transnet chief executive
Maria Ramos took up the position of Transnet chief executive in January 2004. She was South Africa's Businesswoman of the Year in 2001, while
director-general of the National Treasury.
Ramos has been described as a "gem" in the financial sector, and is one of the most sought-after financial gurus in the world. Together with Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, Ramos is credited locally and globally with nursing the South African economy back to health, reducing borrowings and instilling fiscal discipline.
As head of the National Treasury, she was responsible for state debt management, which included both domestic and foreign debt (with a debt portfolio totalling R410.8-billion by 2002); cash and asset management; and macroeconomic and fiscal planning, among other portfolios.
Ramos's rise to the post of director-general began when she joined the ANC's economic planning department in 1990. She is described by colleagues as meticulous and tenacious - a reputation she won through her ability to focus on issues that really count.
Dr Yvonne Dladla
Executive director, National Productivity Institute
Yvonne Dladla has been executive director of the National Productivity Institute (NPI) - a body tasked with developing the productive capacity of South Africans through consultation, education and implementation - since July 1999.
Working with the support of government, business and labour, Dladla has overseen the development of various NPI programmes, aimed at meeting the productivity and sustainability challenges of South African businesses.
Through Dladla's leadership, special attention has been paid to small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), rural communities, entrepreneurs with disabilities, women, young people and education - areas of South African business that have traditionally been bypassed by the economic mainstream, but which are critical for the economic growth of South Africa.
With Dladla at the helm, the NPI has also
contributed to a better understanding of what it will take for South Africa to translate black economic empowerment principles into reality, and has worked with local government to ensure better service delivery for all.
Sue Garret
Managing director, Flight Centre South Africa
Sue Garret has headed up Flight Centre South Africa - a division of Australia and New Zealand's largest travel retail group - since July 2002.
Flight Centre South Africa has grown, within seven years of operating in South Africa, into a chain of 83 stores across the country.
As managing director, Garret is responsible for reporting monthly and yearly results to the Australian board of directors, for ensuring that the company's long-term goals are achieved in accordance with global standards, and for overseeing the growth of the Flight Centre market share.
At the time of Garret's promotion, Flight Centre South Africa boasted a
R19-million pre-tax profit, with a turnover of R700-million and 236 staff members.
Cathie Markus
Director of corporate affairs, Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd
Cathie Markus was appointed director of corporate affairs at Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd in 1998. In this role at one of the largest platinum companies in the world, Markus has been witness and party to a number of significant changes in the company and the platinum industry.
Her responsibilities encompass management and control of legal issues in the group, including corporate governance, as well as local and global investor relations, among other portfolios.
One of Markus's recent major achievements was her involvement in the successful negotiation of a settlement of the long-standing dispute with the Royal Bafokeng Nation over mineral rights. Her intervention resulted in the Royal Bafokeng Nation achieving security of tenure over the mineral rights mined by
Impala Platinum, as well as acquiring an equity stake in Implats.
Nunu Ntshingila
Executive chairperson, Ogilvy & Mather RSTM
Nunu Ntshingila is considered the most senior black woman in South African advertising, a significant milestone in an industry that has often been accused of not embracing change and diversity.
She forms a key component of a new management structure at Ogilvy & Mather, which was brought in to improve the creative stock of the company and to reconfigure the profile of the people who filled key positions in one of the country's largest and oldest advertising firms.
Ntshingila has been instrumental in successfully transforming the black economic empowerment structure at Ogilvy & Mather, including the sale of a 20% stake in the company to a black empowerment firm.
Anne
Cointreau-Huchon
Chief executive officer, La Tour Investments
La Tour Investments is the controlling company of the award-winning Morgenhof Wine Estate and Relais and Chateaux member Clearwater Lodges.
Cointreau-Huchon moved to South Africa from her native France in 1992. As a director of several companies, both here and in France, she has helped to develop various brands, mainly in the Cognac industry.
Cointreau-Huchon is a member of the Cape Town French Chamber of Commerce, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the South African Institute of International Affairs, and the Women Leadership Board of the JF Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
She was one of the Star Group 2001 40 Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World, and was awarded the Republique de France "Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Merite" by the French Ambassador to South Africa.
Sebiletso
Mokone-Matabane
Chief executive officer, Sentech
Mokone-Matabane is actively involved in the telecommunications sector and, under her leadership, Sentech has played an active role in policy formulation in the industry.
Her professional background is in education and broadcasting, as well as women's issues, specifically in the workplace. She has received numerous awards for her contributions in these areas.
Mokone-Matabane serves on several committees concerned with broadcasting and information technology, women's issues and economic development and empowerment.
Mokone-Matabane has a BA degree in political science and a MS in science in television and radio from Syracuse University, New York. She also has a Ph.D in educational administration from the University of Austin, Texas.
Siza Mzimela
Chief executive, SA Express
Siza Mzimela took up the position as chief executive of SA
Express in October 2003. Prior to that she was the executive vice-president of global sales and Voyager at South African Airways (SAA).
In charge of SAA's core business, Mzimela was responsible for SAA's overall sales functions. She was involved in setting overall strategic direction for the sales and Voyager team and in actively managing and reducing costs. She was also responsible for positioning SAA as the carrier of choice in its market and maximising alliance relationships.
Mzimela achieved her success in an industry which is traditionally dominated by men, and was the first black women to be appointed to SAA's leadership team.
Monica Singer
Chief executive officer, South African Central Securities Depository (STRATE)
Monica Singer was instrumental in achieving the implementation of full electronic clearing, settlement and depository services for equities and other financial instruments, as well as the creation
of the public company STRATE. She has grown STRATE to a 51-employee company with an annual budget in excess of R100-million.
Over the years, Singer has helped to raise South Africa's profile as a leading member of the global trading community. She has made high-profile presentations to foreign investors in London, Boston, New York and Paris on the milestones achieved in the implementation of STRATE in South Africa.
Singer is a chartered accountant and member of the Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board.
Almorie Maule
Managing director and chief executive officer, Engen Ltd
Almorie Maule first entered senior management at the Eastern Cape division of South African Breweries where she was in marketing and then strategic planning. She then moved to Impala Platinum and Gencor, where she worked in minerals intelligence, strategic planning and intelligence and business strategy.
Maule entered the oil industry in 1992
at Engen, initially in corporate planning and development. Her promotion to CEO in 1999 made her the first woman to lead South Africa's largest oil company.
Her election in 2000 as chairman of the SA Petroleum Industry Association was another first.
Felicia Mabuza-Suttle
Businesswoman, former talk-show host
Felicia Mabuza-Suttle is the former talk-show host of etv's award-winning show "Felicia". She is also managing director of FMS Productions, which produced the show.
Mabuza-Suttle was honoured as one of the Leading Business Women Entrepreneurs of the World 2001 by the Star Group in America.
Less well known by the public at large is her role in the launch of Pamodzi Investments, an investment consortium that began with seed capital of R3-million, but has grown into a fund worth more than R100-million.
Mabuza-Suttle recently launched her own ranges of Felicia eyewear, shoes and clothing, and has
fulfilled her life-long dream by starting a restaurant, Back O Moon, at Gold Reef City in Gauteng.
Mabuza-Suttle was born in Sophiatown and grew up in Soweto, where she started a cultural centre for youth. She "dared to dream" (the title of her recent autobiography) and broke free of the apartheid-era townships.
Her motto: "It's not where you come from that matters, but where you are going."
Nolulamo (Lulu) Gwagwa
Chief executive officer, Independent Development Trust
Since joining the Independent Development Trust (IDT) in November 1998, Gwagwa has led a fundamental restructuring process, turning an organisation that was founded in 1991 as a grant-making agency into a development implementation management agency.
Today the IDT has a capital base of R1.2-billion invested in the market while the programme budget for 1999-2000 reached R650-million.
Gwagwa was previously deputy director-general at the
National Department of Public Works where she championed construction industry transformation and started the Emerging Contractor Development Programme.
In 1993-1995, she served on the Commission for Regional Demarcation and Delineation - which resulted in the current boundaries of South Africa's nine provinces.
Source: Businesswomen's Association
| 
