23rd Women in Business Conference

Director / Dean | UCT Graduate School of Business

Catherine Duggan is Director (Dean) of the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (GSB). Before joining the UCT GSB she was Vice Dean and Professor of Management and Political Economy at the African Leadership University School of Business (ALUSB) in Rwanda. At ALUSB she was the founding Vice Dean and the business school's first faculty member and helped to design the school's blended MBA curriculum. She also created and taught the popular Politics, Economics, and the Context of African Business (PECAB) course and led the school's executive education programs, including the school's collaboration with INSEAD on an Africa-focused executive education program. She was previously a professor at Harvard Business School (HBS) in the Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE) Unit, where she taught leadership and political economy in MBA and executive education programs for nearly a decade. At HBS she was the first woman in the school’s history to win the Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Required Curriculum two years in a row. She also received the Charles M. Williams Award for Excellence in Teaching and was named the Berol Corporation Fellow. Dr Duggan has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School (SBS), where she taught the Doing Business in Africa course in the MBA and EMBA as well as Africa sessions in several executive education programs. She has taught courses and sessions on leadership, political economy, and doing business in Africa at various business schools in the United States, Europe, and Africa. Dr Duggan's academic work is on the political economy of development in Africa, with a particular focus on institutional development and financial sector regulation. She has worked on the continent for more than twenty years and gained experience in nearly two dozen African countries. She is the author of a number of case studies on African firms and countries, including cases on South Africa, Nigeria, DRC, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and others. She regularly leads strategy and leadership workshops for corporations and has advised a number of governments and public sector agencies on the continent and beyond. She earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University, where she was the G.J. Lieberman Fellow for the Social Sciences, and received a B.A. with honors in Political Science from Brown University.

Chief Executive Officer | Deloitte Africa

Ruwayda most recently served as the Chair of the Deloitte Africa Board. She started her career as a Trainee in the Durban office in 1997. After experiencing a New York secondment, she returned to Durban as a manager and was appointed a partner in 2004. She was promoted to lead the Audit Practice of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) region in 2010, serving some of the region’s most prestigious clients. During this time, Ruwayda also chaired the Global Young Partners’ Advisory Council reporting to the global CEO. Ruwayda was appointed to the Deloitte Southern Africa Board and Remuneration Committee in 2011. In 2012, Ruwayda decided to take up a Chief Financial Officer role at a global commodity trading business for a three-year period, and gained invaluable experience, serving as a Board member on a number of the group’s companies. She returned to Deloitte in 2015 as the Office Managing Partner for the KZN region and managed the Risk Advisory business for the Eastern Seaboard. Ruwayda was appointed to the Deloitte Africa Board in 2016 and has chaired the firm’s Remuneration Committee as well as serving as a member of the Performance, Reward, Succession & Nominations Committee. Having spent time both in the profession and in commerce and industry, Ruwayda brings to the role an outsider’s view. She is also known for her ability to form and nurture strong relationships and networks, her strength in a crisis and her ability to make tough, bold decisions. She has proven herself to be a very capable and strong leader. Ruwayda graduated from University of Natal and is a qualified CA(SA). Ruwayda also serves on the Deloitte Global Board of Directors.

Unilever Southern Africa Customer Development Finance Director | Keynote Topic: The Butterfly Effect | How small action can make a big difference! !

Rorisang Lebethe is a young dynamic leader from the village of Bethanie, North-West. Armed with a CA (SA) and ACMA qualification she has pioneered throughout various Finance leadership roles within the FMCG industry in Southern Africa. Her signature being that of a legacy of excellence and impactful leadership. At the age of 28, she was the youngest member to be appointed onto the Board of Distell Botswana where she served for a period of 4years. Rorisang believes in the power of education as a stimulus for socio-economical emancipation. As such, she has fulfilled various roles within the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) governance structures since 2014, most recently being that of Ministerial appointee to the Council of the University. By extending herself whether as a coach, mentor or education and literacy advocate in her community, Rorisang aims to ensure that more young, black women are exposed to incredible opportunities that afford them the best chance to succeed.

Bidvest Financial Services Chief Executive Officer. | Keynote Topic: Disruption and Innovation | Spotting the opportunities that will change how the world works

Hannah Sadiki was appointed as the CEO of Bidvest Financial Services and Managing Director of Bidvest Bank effective, 01 November 2020. Prior to taking up this role, she was Head of Personal and Business Banking for Standard Bank Angola. A Medical Technologist by training, Hannah branched into the financial services industry and during her 33year long career at Standard Bank, she has, amongst others, occupied the following roles: Head Customer Channels, Gauteng Provincial Executive, Director Eastern Cape Province and Head Internet Banking. Hannah has served as an executive board member for the Port Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce (PERCCI), Business Woman’s Association (BWA) with a portfolio of strategic alliances and advisory board member for the Department of Agriculture in the Eastern Cape Province; Municipal Business Development Agency(MBDA), and Standen South Africa (subsidiary of EISS International) Hospitality management. Currently she serves as an advisory board member of Educations well as Arepp, Theatre for Life which focuses on developing resilient youth. She is a former Corporate Business Woman of the year awardee from the BWA (Business Woman’s Association) Eastern Cape Province, Port Elizabeth. She was also previously nominated for the Pick N Pay / Algoa FM Business Person of the year. Hannah has studied Management, Executive Leadership and Coaching.

Accenture Managing Director - Technology & Strategy | Keynote Topic : Let there be Change! Redesigning our present. Reimagining our future.

JENIFFER RAMNATH joined Accenture in 2021 as Managing Director for Technology Strategy and Advisory in Accenture Strategy and Consulting in Africa. She leads Accenture Africa's Technology Strategy and Advisory practice. She is passionate about bringing more women into the tech industry and devotes her time to mentoring young women. She is an executive technology strategist with 24 years of experience in operations, technology, sales, transformational change, strategy, planning, and execution for multinational organisations. Jeniffer has an unrelenting passion for delivering results through strong analytical, organisational, decision-making, and problem-solving. Jeniffer is currently completing her MSc in Technology and Innovation. She also holds a CRM diploma and is Six Sigma Black belt accredited. She is credited with leading one of the most extensive global technology separation programmes in one of South Africa's largest banking groups. It was a separation involving several countries incorporating highly complex systems, people, business processes, and suppliers for decoupling. Outside of work, Jenifer's hobbies include boxing and other fitness activities.

Rand Merchant Bank - Head Digital Interactions | Keynote Topic: Girl geek in a world of guys

Born and bred in Joburg but a farm girl at heart. Yolande Steyn specialises in “out the box” thinking, strategy and execution in digital and innovation. With 20 years of experience in Financial Services and Telecoms, Yolande combines a deep love for technology and business with creativity, to implement practical, human-friendly digital innovation. As Head of Digital Interactions at RMB, she oversees RMB’s digital channel evolution. She played an integral role as part of the original pioneering team that created FNB’s cellphone banking service and later she was responsible for creating and building the bank’s widely used eWallet. After a spell running digital channels for a large SA telecoms company, she rejoined FirstRand in the FNB commercial team before joining RMB. She has 3 dogs, 4 horses, 2 parrots, 2 goats, 2 ducks, 20 chickens, 1 child and a husband. She loves travelling and I have been to 6 of the 7 continents (have yet to go see the koalas but Antarctica has been ticked off) and is very excited to be back here at the GSB where Yolande got her MBA as part of the 2008/2009 modular class.

General Manager and Head of Wellness at Vitality South Africa. | Keynote Topic: Universal healthcare interventions that improve the health and wellbeing of a Nation

Mosima is a General Manager and Head of Wellness at Vitality South Africa. Vitality is a science based behavior change programme that rewards its members for making healthy lifestyle choices. In her role as General Manager for Wellness, she works with cross-functional teams – to apply clinical, actuarial and behavioral science-to create interventions that improve the health and wellbeing of Vitality members. Mosima has extensive experience in the public and private healthcare sectors spanning multiple countries including South Africa, the United Kingdom and several countries on the African continent. She also has significant experience from her time working for leading global management consulting firms, McKinsey, and Accenture. It is this exposure that adds depth/diversity to her experience and makes her a leading voice on wellness. She is passionate about health inclusion and Universal Health Care, and strongly believes that programmes such as Vitality play a key role in making UHC a reality. Her role includes tackling the challenge of non-communicable diseases, smoking cessation, researching insights into mental health and physical activity and the importance of nutrition in managing wellness. Most recently, she has led a team who delivered globally-published research focused on COVID-19 and physical activity. She also sits on the board of Population Services International, The Ridge School and is the Chairperson for Population Services International South Africa. Mosima is passionate about creating healthy and thriving societies and an advocate of the business’ message to inspire everyone to #LiveLifewithVitality

CEO Liquid Thought

As Founder & CEO of Liquid Thought, Zulfiq has led the company since its inception in 2001, to become a leading digital innovation agency for the exponential economy. Liquid Thought is made up of 2 business units: 1. Liquid Studio drives Digital Transformation for corporate clients; and 2. Liquid Labs, a Digital Innovation enabler for venture-backed start-ups. In 2009, he co-founded a disruptive FinTech start-up, Moneysmart, one of South Africa’s first online Personal Finance Management (PFM) platforms, enabling users to take control of their finances through a secure, easy to use online interface. Today, he continues to work and partner with leading brands and disruptive innovators as a venture builder and enabler of digital business.

CEO of Thando Kinetics | Keynote Topic: Grit and Professionalism

Laura Lebang Mutambu is the CEO of Thando Kinetics, a manufacturing and supply chain management company based in Polokwane, South Africa with head offices in Johannesburg. She serves on the board of Enviro Plastic Africa, a waste management company where she developed ESG solutions by applying emerging technologies and innovative solutions to improve a plastic recycling process. As a seasoned business executive having worked over 15 years, she has successfully managed supply chain transactions in the following industries: manufacturing, mining, construction, logistics and agricultural chemicals. With operations management under her belt, gained from managing a plant that meets international best practices she has made a name for herself and Thando Kinetics in the SADC region. Laura is a wife and a mother. She is passionate about women empowerment in the manufacturing and logistics industries. Laura also serves on the institutional development committee at her local church.

Chief Marketing Officer, Liquid Thought | Panel Topic: Women in Leadership

Digital Gladiator. Marketing Solutionist. Fitness Enthusiast. In 2015, Simmy joined Liquid Thought as a Content Marketer, but quickly rose up the ranks to build and nurture the marketing division. Since then, she has led this division of the company, both growing and expanding its footprint in SA and beyond. She is a guiding force behind our digital mission and drives both our current narrative and future stories. Today, as the Chief Marketing and Client Service Officer at Liquid thought, she leads the team that develops, implements and rolls out the digital marketing strategies for leading brands that delivers results in an exponential age. Currently reading towards her eMBA at the GSB, Simmy is constantly immersed in the latest trends and knowledge shaping our industry leaders and our offering to the market, ensuring our Clients remain relevant.

Exponential Growth Leader, Futureworld | Panel Topic: Entrepreneurship

Caitlin brings 10+ years experience implementing strategy and growth initiatives for companies of all sizes – from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Caitlin is a builder, with experience implementing global mergers and acquisitions, business strategy re -design, and digital behaviour change, with a focus on global tech and media companies. Caitlin is originally from the US with experience working across North America and Sub -Saharan Africa. Caitlin is best known for her creative thinking, speed to insight, and ability to push others to think differently.

Social Psychologist | Workshop Topic: Setting healthy boundaries with confidence

Dr. Kinga Mnich is an award-winning international social psychologist, educator, and speaker,? specializing in emotions, positive psychology, bio-hacking, and gender. Her work solves the myths of emotions by breaking down the complexity of social & cultural concepts tied up inside emotions. Through her extraordinary research, she brings new ways of understanding how we can use emotions to be who we want to be, create impact and flourish in life (and business). With over 12 years of experience and hundreds of clients, she has developed The Ziva Way method. This method combines social and positive psychology with strategy and mindfulness techniques to help clients create the life and career they desire. In her private practice, Dr. Mnich helps women high-achievers & leaders transform their minds & surroundings by leveraging the power of emotion through neuroscience & positive psychology. As the founder of Ziva Voices - HerStory in the Making she is amplifying women’s voices through media. https://www.instagram.com/dr.kingamnich/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkingamnich/ https://www.facebook.com/Dr.KingaMnich https://www.pinterest.com/DrKingaMnich/ www.kingamnich.com www.zivavoices.com

Senior Stakeholder Engagement and Partnerships Expert, UN | Panel Topic: Women as change agents for the Green Economy

Petro de Wet holds the position as Senior Stakeholder Engagement and Partnerships Expert for the energy and low-carbon work of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in South Africa, as part of UNIDO’s Energy Department Energy Systems and Infrastructure?Division. She has extensive experience of marketing, communications and project management in a corporate environment, including at various business units at the CSIR, the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC-SA) and the National Business Initiative (NBI). She joined UNIDO in South Africa in 2016, contributing to various multi-party projects such as the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme, the international award winning Industrial Energy Efficiency Project, and more recently also the new SA Industry Adaptation project and the regional Energy Efficient Lighting and Appliances project. Gender mainstreaming is a key component of all UNIDO projects, and also forms an important part of her portfolio.

Founder of Boardvisory (Pty) Ltd

Joy-Marie Lawrence – Founder of Boardvisory (Pty) Ltd Chartered Director (SA) Executive MBA(with distinction) LLM, LLB, BA Professional Certified Coach (International Coaching Federation) A son has an opportunity to be interviewed for a job at a large stock broking company and his father picks him up at the airport to drive him to the interview. Just as they enter the parking area of the company, the son’s phone rings, the caller is the stock broking company’s CEO who says “ Good luck son, you’ve got this”. The son ends the calls and then looks at his father who is still next to him in the car. How is this possible? This is the Mindspace riddle to explore the human mind. It is a useful illustration of why women in business and women in the boardroom remain a critical conversation. As a Chartered Director and accredited Professional Coach, I use my corporate experience and academic training in unlocking exceptional board performance with boards, non-executive directors, executive directors and leaders. If you are curious about actionable ways of being a better director go to www.boardvisory.com. See my LinkedIn bio https://www.linkedin.com/in/joymarielawrence/ If you're still wondering about the afore mentioned riddle, here is a link to the full riddle - Is gender equality in the workplace still an issue? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kFC7669quE

Current MBA Mod Student and Scholarship Recipient

A learner at heart, mother of two humans and two fur babies and a recipient of a partial MBA scholarship, Precious has paid that forward by co-chairing the UCT GSB Women in Business Society 2021/2022. Precious’s personal purpose is to keep learning, sharing and utilising her knowledge, skills and expertise, to connect people and ideas whilst creating meaningful relationships to bring social impact in an effort to improve the lives of future generations. She has overseen the corporatisation of traditional communities, engaged with key stakeholders to develop and implement strategies for development within rural communities. Her experience encompasses strategic planning, stakeholder management, financial accounting and taxation, financial data analysis, financial statement preparation, and financial projection. She enjoys travelling, “dad jokes”, board games, solving puzzles, and reading a good book because life is too short to spend time on a bad one.

Managing Partner | Lockstep (Pty) Ltd| Masterclass Topic: Building Leadership Resilience

“I believe in the power of unleashing the potential that lies at the core of every individual, every team and every business.” A seasoned strategic planner and consultant, Anne’s career trajectory has been the result of multifaceted leadership prowess, limitless curiosity and purpose-driven ambition. She has steered the Lockstep Leadership Consultancy since 2013. Lockstep works with leaders for businesses that matter. At its essence Lockstep bring holistic, relational, dynamic and most importantly, impactful systemic leadership to life. As an advisor to CEO’s and working with Executive Teams, Anne is committed to driving business performance bringing technical operational experience to her consulting role at Lockstep, as well as an instinctive understanding of human behaviour in the workplace gained through years of observation and formal studies. Anne is the proudest Mom of two children Chris and Emma and lives in Cape Town with her husband Brendan. She relaxes by spending time with her family and friends, getting out into nature and testing her grit with trail running.

Senior Lecturer | UCT Graduate School of Business

Dr Camille Meyer is a senior lecturer at the UCT GSB, his research lies at the intersection of three domains –entrepreneurship, organisation theory and sustainability– to explore managerial and organizational issues at the intersection of business and society. His perspective considers entrepreneurial processes to preserve and create shared value for businesses and communities in both developing and developed countries. He is particularly interested in investigating new approaches to business such as developing new models, social innovations, collaborative management and stakeholder partnerships. All his published and current ongoing projects adopt an interdisciplinary perspective to shed light on important entrepreneurial and ethical processes involved in social entrepreneurial activities and the management of commons. He studies these phenomena at various levels of analysis (from macro to micro), using both qualitative and quantitative methods. His PhD dissertation won several awards, including the 2017 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award (category Management and Governance), and the 2017 FIR-PRI Finance and Sustainability Best PhD Thesis Award.

UCT Graduate School of Business

Professor Mikael Samuelsson has been involved in award winning research, consultancy work and training of entrepreneurs since 1998. His research is used in both education and in governmental programmes for entrepreneurs. He is involved in development programmes in the US, Europe, Sweden, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique Namibia and Botswana. Samuelsson is the founder of three business incubators/accelerators and has extensive experience from technology transfer and tech start-ups, as a founder, CEO and investor. Between 1997 and 2014 he served as the CEO for SSE business labs, with prominent start-ups such as Klarna a so-called Unicorn, valued at over USD 1 billion. His start-up experience ranges from life science companies such as Spatial Transcriptomics to fast moving consumer goods. In addition, Samuelsson has been part of the development processes for the Swedish governmental programmes in entrepreneurship since 2004. He has studied over 1000 new venture projects from birth and over a period of fifteen years. His current research interests include start-up funding, with an emphasis on the long-term effects of different types of funding; business incubation/acceleration in developed and developing countries; effectuation and systematic search and its long-term consequences on firm performance; paradox theory and its application in entrepreneurship research. He is a two time winner of the National Federation of Independent Business annual award for best general paper at Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference.

Novelist Playwright | Workshop Topic: EVERY STORY MATTERS : Reimagining a more inclusive future in our Institutions

As a student of English Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Cape Town in the 1990s, Kagiso Lesego Molope was living in a country emerging into a new democracy in the years after the end of the apartheid regime. She had come from a home in Atteridgeville, in the townships north of Pretoria, where her parents had worked hard and risked their lives for the day Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and into the presidency of South Africa. But while others were still celebrating their new freedoms, Kagiso was seeking the right to be herself fully. Her personal quest made her interested in other similar stories. She was at university in the 1990s. She grew up in a township and went to historically white schools. Because she come from so many different cultures in South Africa, she got to know all of South Africa. She got to understand that the lines that were drawn under apartheid were blurred when it came to some communities. She was really interested in exploring how these lines were blurred, particularly how the gay black community survived in that environment. She wrote a paper on these places that were somewhat desegregated under apartheid. She left South Africa at 21 because she did not feel South Africa was safe or comfortable for her as she was in relationship with a woman and she wasn’t able to come to terms with the violence towards women’s bodies.She needed to feel safe and emigrated to Canada because it was far away from her home and relatively safe. She’s been there now for 21 years. These days in addition to writing, she is in grad school at Carleton University working on a Masters in Film Studies. She does go home occasionally to visit her mother.

Director | Luminary Advisory and Consulting

Fortune has 15 years experience in Organisational Development, Strategy, Organisational Design, Leadership Development, Change Management and Facilitation. She has vast experience in designing customised corporate learning and development initiatives. Having previously worked for Toyota Tsusho Africa, a large international automotive organisation; Fortune comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience in Strategy, Organisation Design and Development, Leadership Development, Performance Management (Using the Balanced Scorecard as a framework) and Change Management. Some key projects include a Multiple Career Path Strategy program for the South African Reserve Bank where she was the Lead Orchestrator which covered the top 350 leaders of the bank including the Governor and his deputies from 2014 to 2017. Another is working with a Pan African Bank that changed their operating model and she was part of the team that worked on the formulation of the Leadership Identity with the Top 400 to support this new Operating Model. Another is working with a Global internet group on the development of their Executive Leadership Pool, and worked with this client, in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.

Feenix | CEO

Leana de Beer is the CEO of Public Benefit Organisation, Feenix, a crowdfunding and bursary management platform for tertiary education students, disbursing funds to 26 public universities in South Africa. She is also the Founder and Director of WaFunda, an social impact enterprise focusing on democratising education and catalysing change in the education technology landscape. Her focus on social innovation led her to an MBA in social entrepreneurship in 2016 at the University of Cape Town. She is also trained in impact investment and human centred design thinking. Leana has previously been a Non-Executive Board member at Real Pay Solutions and Nava Capital and she currently serves on the board of WaFunda as an Executive Director. She has won a number of awards including the Design Indaba Grand Prix Construction New Media Award and was the recipient of the Carolina Nyberg-Steiser Bursary in 2018. Most recently she was recognised as being amongst the top 200 most influential young people in South Africa by the Mail & Guardian. In the last year she has led her organisations to numerous successes including winning the Nedbank Private Wealth Innovation Award and a Prism Award for their response to the Covid-19 pandemic. To date Feenix has impacted the lives of over 2700 students and has disbursed over R120 million towards tertiary education. WaFunda has delivered a first of its kind, Financial Literacy product for African youth, launched an innovative and ethical education financing tool in partnership with Chancen International and is designing an Pan-African refugee education financing platform in collaboration with the UNHCR. Leana is a passionate social entrepreneur and innovator. She believes in social innovation’s ability to foster job creation, societal well-being and community collaboration. She is an advocate for changing the “me” mentality to a “we” mentality, because if “WE” thrive, so will our communities.

Women in Business Executive Member and Emcee

Helene is currently a modular MBA candidate who after 8 years in the film and creative industry, is pivoting back into the world of business. A former project manager at international design agencies, she also did a short stint in the non-profit world in Cape Town. Here she got a clear view of the many realities facing those living in her home province. She has a keen interest in the development of people, the enabling of teams and business to grow and be sustainable, and, well, keeping things entertaining along the way.

Women In Business Chair and Marketing Director

Derusha is an investment services professional at Allan Gray and social media influencer. After receiving a ‘Women in Business’ scholarship to pursue her MBA at UCT GSB, Derusha was inspired to take on a leadership role within the ‘Women in Business’ society. Born in Durban and having lived in various parts of South Africa, she is passionate about leveraging social media to connect and collaborate with people across the country (and world!). Her purpose is to build ethical brands that create high-value customer experiences and positively impact the communities in which they operate. She enjoys listening and dancing to afrobeats, going on adventures with her dogs and generating memes.