March is the month that the judges for the CFO Awards 2015 interview most of the nominated CFOs, with the event - a conference and gala dinner - taking place on 14 May. Just in the last three days, the judges have spoken to the finance bosses of a bank, a health insurer, a state-owned company and a logistics business.
Awards judge Delphine Maïdou, CEO of Allianz GCS Africa, was at hand on Monday to interview David Hodnett, the CFO and deputy CEO of Barclays Africa. He chatted about the challenges of merging the strenghts of the South African Absa brand and the internationally renowned Barclays into an African bank that has 'fully global, fully regional and fully local' as guiding principle.
The next two CFOs to be interviewed were repeat nominees from 2014, a testimony to the fact that real quality is permanent. Brett Tromp, CFO of Discovery Health, chatted about the company's move into courier pharmacies and he spoke passionately about inspirational leadership. Transnet CFO Anoj Singh, double award winner last year, dazzled with the billion rand projects that pass his desk every day. He also explained how the state-owned company is dealing with the current economic downturn and about the differences with Eskom and South African Airways.
Today KPMG Partner Craig Steven-Jennings interviewed David Edley, Group Financial Director at Durban-centered international logistics company Santova. Edley has made a move from COO at Investec to CEO of his own company to CFO at a smallish JSE-listed company and - as he says himself - is loving it. It was interesting to note that while many CFOs aspire to be CEOs later in their careers, Edley has made the opposite move and feels he is completely in the right place now.
In February the panel of judges interviewed several other CFOs for the awards, but the interviews are ongoing. Here's a full list of the nominees, the judges and the categories for the CFO Awards 2015.
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