Nerissa Samuel, finance director for South Africa and Southern Africa at Gilead Sciences, believes the CFO role extends far beyond financial stewardship. From navigating complex healthcare environments and embracing AI to mentoring future finance leaders and supporting community initiatives, she sees finance as a platform to create sustainable value, strengthen governance and ultimately make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.
When Mahatma Gandhi said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others,” he could just as easily have been describing Nerissa Samuel.
Today, as finance director for South Africa and Southern Africa at Gilead Sciences, Nerissa is responsible for far more than financial stewardship. She sits at the intersection of strategy, governance, compliance, patient access and commercial decision-making, helping shape business outcomes that ultimately improve lives across the region.
Yet despite leading finance within one of the world’s most innovative biopharmaceutical companies, she remains equally passionate about developing people.
Outside the boardroom, Nerissa dedicates her time to mentoring finance professionals, coaching aspiring chartered accountants and finance leaders and supporting community initiatives through her church.
Returning regularly to her hometown of Darnall on KwaZulu-Natal’s North Coast, where many surrounding communities are rural, she supports initiatives focused on empowering abused women, children and unemployed adults through education, skills development and mentorship.
“Success means very little if you don’t use it to create opportunities for someone else,” she says. “Watching people rebuild their confidence, find employment or continue their education reminds me why leadership is ultimately about service.”
Resilience became her greatest advantage
Leadership wasn’t something Nerissa inherited, it was forged through adversity. After losing her father at a young age, financial realities meant letting go of her childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian. Yet one lesson from him remained constant: Education is the one asset that can never be taken away. He always encouraged his daughters to pursue learning as the key to creating opportunities and building a better future and trusting that with God all things are possible.
Inspired by that belief and her faith, Nerissa entered the workforce while completing her accounting studies through distance learning, balancing full-time work, university and family responsibilities simultaneously.
Rather than becoming a setback, those early years shaped the leadership philosophy she carries today.
“They taught me resilience, discipline and empathy. Every challenge became an opportunity to grow and those lessons continue to influence how I lead people today.”
Her commitment to lifelong learning never stopped. Alongside earning a master’s degree in Accounting Science, completing CIMA and Strategic Project Management qualifications, she is now completing her doctorate in Financial Intelligence.
Building an African finance career
Beginning her career at SAPPI as a finance intern, Nerissa steadily built expertise across cost accounting, supply chain finance, commercial finance and strategic business partnering before expanding her regional responsibilities across Africa.
Leadership roles at Schneider Electric introduced her to pan-African finance, while Diageo provided extensive exposure to commercial finance, manufacturing, supply chain and emerging markets. She later played a key finance role during the complex integration and separation projects associated with Namibian Breweries, Heineken/ Distell and Diageo transactions before joining Bosch as Strategic Controller for Africa.
Across every industry, from manufacturing and FMCG to pharmaceuticals, one theme remained constant.
“I’ve always been drawn to environments undergoing transformation. Finance has a unique opportunity to influence strategy when organisations are evolving.”
Finding purpose in pharmaceuticals
Although her career spans multiple industries, Nerissa describes her move into pharmaceuticals as the defining turning point.
Joining Sandoz/Novartis introduced her to an industry where financial decisions have a direct impact on patient outcomes. Working across Sub-Saharan Africa, she partnered with commercial, medical, regulatory and supply chain teams while gaining extensive exposure to governance, compliance and regional leadership.
Her experience expanded further during her time at Merck (MSD), where she worked at the forefront of finance transformation, digital innovation and governance. As artificial intelligence and advanced analytics became increasingly embedded within business processes, she helped drive the adoption of technology to improve decision-making and financial planning, while ensuring robust compliance, internal controls and ethical governance remained central to implementation.
“Technology should strengthen governance, not replace it. AI provides better insights and greater efficiency, but strong judgement, ethics and accountability remain fundamentally human responsibilities.”
Leading finance beyond the numbers
Today at Gilead Sciences, Nerissa’s role extends well beyond financial reporting and as FD, she provides strategic leadership across finance, compliance, governance, risk management, regulatory engagement and commercial decision support throughout South Africa and Southern Africa.
Operating within one of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical organisations requires navigating complex regulatory environments, engaging with governments and healthcare stakeholders, and ensuring every business decision balances commercial sustainability with patient access.
“In healthcare, finance isn’t simply about protecting shareholder value. Every decision has the potential to influence patient access, affordability and ultimately lives. That responsibility changes how you think.”
One of the defining moments of her career has been contributing to initiatives that expanded access to innovative HIV therapies in South Africa, work she regards as one of her proudest professional achievements.
“When you know the work you're doing contributes to improving healthcare outcomes, finance becomes far more meaningful than reporting numbers.”
AI will reshape finance, but not replace finance leaders
Artificial intelligence continues to dominate conversations within boardrooms, yet Nerissa believes its greatest value lies in augmenting, not replacing. finance professionals.
“AI can analyse data faster than any human and significantly improve forecasting accuracy. But leadership requires judgement, context, ethics and the courage to make difficult decisions. Those are qualities technology cannot replicate.”
She believes the future CFO will increasingly combine financial expertise with digital capability, strategic influence and exceptional communication skills.
However, she also cautions against allowing automation to erode the technical foundations traditionally developed early in finance careers.
“The next generation must remain curious. Technology will do more of the routine work, but future finance leaders still need to understand why the numbers matter before they can advise the business.”
Leadership through service
Whether mentoring young professionals, volunteering with the SPCA, supporting community upliftment initiatives or leading finance teams across Africa, Nerissa views leadership through one consistent lens: service.
Her creative side also offers balance. Outside work she enjoys painting, sketching and arts and crafts, activities she believes encourage patience, perspective and creativity, qualities equally valuable in executive leadership.
“For me, finance has never been solely about balance sheets or profitability and it is also about creating sustainable businesses, strengthening governance, embracing innovation responsibly, developing future leaders and, above all, making a meaningful difference in people’s lives,” she says.
