Lihle Mbele is CFO at Ascendis Health

Ang Lloyd 10 December 2024

After being interim CFO, Lihle Mbele is now permanent, and also appointed executive director of the health company.

Ascendis Health announced the appointment of Lihle Mbele as CFO, effective 2 December 2024.

Lihle has served as acting CFO since July 2024. Commenting at the time on her appointment she said: “I consider my role [as acting CFO] extending beyond finances to help shape business decisions going forward. Ascendis has a great opportunity to cement its position in the healthcare market, and I couldn’t be more eager for what’s to come.”

Along with the now permanent CFO role, Ascendis announced that Lihle has been appointed executive director of the global health company. These new roles follow her appointment as group head of finance in 2023.

A chartered accountant with over 15 years’ professional experience, Lihle’s career began in 2009 as an articled clerk at PwC. She later joined Barloworld Equipment, taking on the role of management accountant, before joining Ascendis Health in 2016 as a divisional finance manager. She was then promoted to head of finance for the company’s consumer brands division, where she oversaw five companies.

Ang Lloyd

Ang is a senior writer for CIO South Africa, CHRO South Africa and CFO South Africa. She's been working with words since completing her BA in journalism from Rhodes University in 2004, and she has experience in the B2B and consumer magazine spaces, digital marketing, and writing for the C-Suite. She has a special interest in technology and how it impacts humans, but most of all, she just loves telling people’s stories (she's won awards for some of them). In 2020, she felt like she needed another piece of paper so she completed her honours in journalism at Wits University.

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