Woolworths Holdings CFO Reeza Isaacs won the CFO of the Year Award in 2016.
Woolworths Holdings CFO Reeza Isaacs was announced as the CFO of the Year at the CFO Awards on 12 May 2016 at Summer Place in Hyde Park, Johannesburg.
Unfortunately, Reeza was in Australia for board meetings and was unable to receive the award himself, so it was accepted on his behalf by Zaid Manjra, group head of planning & reporting at Woolworths. In accepting the award for Reeza, Zaid said it was “completely and utterly deserved”, and joked that he would very much like to be Reeza at that moment.
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The Woolworths CFO himself heard the news immediately afterwards from Zaid and from his wife and responded swiftly in an SMS to CFO South Africa MD Graham Fehrsen:
"I really appreciate the nomination and am honoured and humbled by the award."
Read more: Meet Reeza Isaacs (Woolworths), CFO of the Year 2016
In an interview with CFO South Africa in 2015, Reeza said that the advice he would give to a young accountant who aims to be a CFO would be:
“Find work that you enjoy, because then you become better at it and you enjoy it even more. But keep challenging yourself and make sure you keep learning. Develop some specialised skills like M&A and corporate finance – to equip you for a bigger role. Choose an organisation that you are comfortable with, where you subscribe to the values and point of view. Find yourself a sounding board or a mentor – this doesn’t have to be formalised or limited to one person..”
Read more: Reeza Isaacs Woolworths
Reeza joined Woolworths in June 2013 as deputy chief financial officer, and was appointed finance director in November 2013. He was previously the senior partner for the Western Cape EY office and a partner from 1999. Reeza has worked across multiple business sectors, including manufacturing, retail, oil, gas, asset management and insurance and with a wide variety of entities, including, listed, private and owner-managed entities. He served as the lead partner for several of EY‘s largest Cape Town clients, including Engen, Coronation, Woolworths, Metropolitan Life, Sanlam and Truworths. He is a member of the Risk and Compliance Committee.
