Deloitte's Sihlalo Jordan says each of the CFO Awards winners' forward-looking stances is very positive.
On 15 May, CFO South Africa hosted the CFO Awards in partnership with Deloitte. South Africa’s top CFOs gathered in the marquee for the events of the evening.
Read more: As it happened: South Africa’s top CFOs honoured at the spectacular 2019 CFO Awards
Deloitte Africa deputy CEO Sihlalo Jordan said that “the ‘Oscars of finance’ is an apt description for the event. It really was spectacular.”
“More important,” he said, “was the interaction around relationships, and meeting new and old friends.”
He said that the opportunity to network with “finance captains” was one of the highlights of the evening.
“I just want to congratulate Joël and the CFO team,” he said. “I spoke to a lot of CFOs over the course of the evening and they all had positive input.”
Furthermore, he thanked the CFO brand for the support they have given to Deloitte on making an impact on the lives of CFOs across the country.
“The other highlight was Cory. I have an avid interest in astronomy myself, so I found that very interesting. I can only read a couple of star lines in telescopes, but that’s about it. Being able to look through his telescopes and see the surface of Saturn was a personal favourite.”
Read more: You are quite literally a star, says Cory Schmitz at CFO Awards 2019
He congratulated the winners, saying they were all very deserving and that they should take pride in the fact that they emerged between such a high-calibre of nominees.
He pointed out that what we need to remember when looking at the CFO of tomorrow, is that it is no longer just about the traditional finance-management capabilities of stewardship and operations. Their role now stretches beyond finance to strategic and catalyst activities including M&A and strategy development. He pointed out that these qualities are attributable to the winner of Strategy Execution, High-Performance Team, Finance Transformation and CFO of the Year Ralph Mupita.
“Each of the award winners that I had the chance to speak to held a very positive forward-looking stance, not just from a social-political economy perspective but also for the future of the CFO.”
Lastly, Sihlalo added:
“For Deloitte, it’s good to see the dedicated focus of each of the CFOs had in their groups. I am excited and encouraged for the future prospects of our economy and our country.”
