Interview

Standard Bank FD Arno Daehnke discusses African countries' buzz, innovation and work ethic.

Need to fly a couple of executives into Lesotho to visit one of Premier's bakery operations? No need to book a commercial flight - CFO Kobus Gertenbach has achieved his lifelong dream of getting his pilot's licence and owning a light aircraft and is more than equal to the task.

The Nkangala TVET CFO knows how devastating the impact of financial challenges can be on students.

The Metropolitan Trading Company acting CFO's superpower is his ability to combine brains and heartfelt values.

The young CFO says engaged staff who have clarity about the company's goals are motivated to excel.

Alexander Forbes Group CFO Bruce Bydawell recently took a sabbatical to spend time working on European farms. As soon as he was appointed CFO on his return, he started planning for his succession by a black South African. He has singular view on his own role as CFO, and on life in general, which he shared with Georgina Guedes.

One year after she was appointed as Group CFO of Sasfin, Angela Pillay chatted to Georgina Guedes about being part of CEO Michael Sassoon's new vision for the bank, and being able to deliver an excellent set of results in her first year.

The Global Alliance Seguros SA CFO discusses the challenges of her role - which include cyclones.

Verimark's Bryan Groome discusses the risks he took to open up opportunities for personal growth.

Afrocentric Health CFO Hannes Boonzaaier is simple about his approach to helping the company to achieve a Level 1 rating: "You just look at what's got to be done and you do it."

At the CFO Awards on 15 May 2019, Umar Banda walked away with the Young CFO of the Year Award, in recognition of the exceptional work he's doing at the City of Tshwane. He has addressed the City's illiquid position by finding innovative ways for the city to generate income, and he is excited about the establishment of a CA programme, which will bring much-needed skills to the field of public finance.

Ralph says his curious mind has served him well as he's shifted industries twice in his career.

Leslie says he hopes to use his international expertise to benefit South Africa in the years to come.

The CFO of the DPSA says that he needs to safeguard the departments' limited budget.

Grindrod's CFO believes in dynamic and diverse finance teams, which is aligned to the group's strategy.

Senele says CFOs will continue to be asked to do more with less until the economy grows.

Storme McDonald is the CFO of Corporate Banking at RMB. She is a passionate advocate of digital transformation and a lover of dogs, she tells CFO.co.za.

Clinix Health Group CFO Elisa Mkhize thinks deeply about her role and her place in the world. She shares her mantras, professional vision and personal commitments with CFO South Africa.

Sheldon tells Kate Ferreira about his stresses, stress-relieving activities and his long-term aspirations.

The Premier FMCG CFO has the mantra of "build something, make it bigger, make it better."

On 8 March, International Women's Day, Investec South Africa launched its "Women on the Rise" campaign, highlighting its relationship with women in business, education and sport. As part of the launch, Investec introduced the public to its newly appointed Specialist Bank CFO Marlé van der Walt. CFO South Africa spoke to her about her finance leadership experiences.

"Never say die" is Nampak CFO Glenn Fullerton's approach to life. It served him well when he was told he would never return to work after a debilitating cycling accident in 2013. But this indomitable professional rose again to head up the finances of Africa's largest packaging company. Georgina Guedes chatted to him about how he got there and what he has learnt along the way.

Sibanye-Stillwater is concluding its all-share bid for Lonmin. Charl is navigating the challenges.

The VP Finance Africa at Unilever seizes every opportunity with both hands, lands and delivers.

Gideon is always up for a challenge, and speaks about personal growth and empowering others.

Great CFOs must be entrepreneurial, says Kantar's Inacio dos Santos, CFO Africa & the Middle East

Tryphosa reveals how she sets the financial strategy for a pan-African business with challenges at home.

CFOs must be agile, adaptable and hands-on, says Ravi Singh, CFO of Liberty Africa Insurance.

Roxane Leita joined Investec Life only four months after the insurer was launched.

"CFO Clean Audit" reveals how at a smaller agency, she can expand her breadth of focus.

The FD is completing Stanford's Emerging CFO course, to support his focus on staying relevant.

CFO South Africa introduced the two CFOs to clear up who's who in the Jaco Maritz zoo.

Six years down the line, Barry reflects on his first challenging year as Didata's CFO.

The Telkom CFO says: "You need to act beyond reproach, never compromise your integrity."

Whether she's running Nedbank Group finance or a marathon, Raisibe Morathi gets the job done.

The FD tells how she joined Comair to simplify her life, then her career took off.

AstraZeneca's Osman Mia is expanding his skills set and industry understanding in the UK.

Jaco Maritz has 18 years of mining experience, but he's proudest of the people he's developing.

Delivering a stronger finance team, ensuring a succession path and enjoying the fine local gins…

Jaco Maritz, Syspro CFO, believes that South Africa does not lag behind its global tech counterparts.

The CFO Award winner says to treat people respectfully, be interested, and not make assumptions.

CFO South Africa asked the insurance CFO about his role driving the group's FinTech revolution.

Sasol's CFO explains what any good CFO can learn from American football: defence and offence.

The finance boss reveals how the schooling group is growing from 3 to 80 schools in just 11 years.

The CFO believes servant leadership creates purpose for people, empowering them to innovate at work.

The pharmacy group CFO must feel comfortable he's delivering to the best of his abilities.

Capitec CFO André du Plessis talks about loan desirability, motorbikes and the bank as his baby.

Otsile Matheba believes the new exchange will overcome the challenge of competing with a monopoly.

Leaders must be conscious of the impact they have on other people, says Afrox FD.

Growth in the mining industry will benefit all of South Africa, says DRDGOLD LTD CFO Riaan Davel.

Thabo Phokane, Servest CFO, has big plans, including continuing to drive the company's transformation journey.

Award-winning eThekwini CFO Krish Kumar says he has no sympathy for those who get caught.

Recently appointed Afgri CFO says that she's working hard to learn the ropes of the agriculture industry.

AngloGold Ashanti CFO and winner of four CFO Awards discusses work, women, ethical leadership and family this Women's Month.

"I believe in the mantra: in year one you learn, in year two you deliver your best, in year three you make sure you have a successor in place before you target a more challenging opportunity and elevated role."

"Finance needs to position itself to make sense of all of these new disruptors and technological developments."

"This adds perspective on a short-term, day-to-day basis when decision-makers within organisations are faced with choices," says Philip Nottingham, a.b.e. Construction Chemicals CFO.

"We forward-hedge where we can but need to carefully manage our budgets and allow for exchange rate volatility."

Sean Capazorio's Finance Transformation Award winner speaks to us about the global success of Aspen Pharmacare, the role of finance and how he managed to turn the numbers from cold figures into good stories.

"More and more companies are looking at how they can exploit technology to increase their competitive edge."

"The bulk of my team is female. If I reflect on how well the finance function operates, I think this has a lot to do with their diverse views."

"You have to be able to see a future that others can't, and you need to deconstruct that into steps others can take to get there."

"The beauty of entrepreneurship is the ability to learn from any experience and use it to better equip yourself."

"It is a very fine balance between high level and detail, because you can't be high level without understanding the detail first."

FD of Supply Chain Management, Thobeka says business must stop being superficial about risk management.

GWK's Group FD talks about leaving Afgri after 22 years, his new role in agri, and moving to a small NC town.

4AX's Lindiwe Ndlela sees an opportunity for cleansing after the recent scandals that rocked the finance profession.

Bongani Manzi, Westfalia Fruit's GM of Finance, says he has a future CFO role in his sights.

CFO of the Year 2017 Till Streichert talks about competing in the gruelling Cape Epic.

Where we've come from and where we are now makes me proud, says Glen Pearce, Sappi CFO

Jasco Group's finance head Warren Prinsloo talks about taking your business to the next level.

Mike Buckham shares the story of his unusual and unexpected ascent to Sygnia FD.

Kumba Iron Ore CFO Bothwell Mazarura talks mining, Marikana and technology.

CFO award-winning Takeda FD Debbie Ransby talks about her success in Africa.

Today's trying times require us to be the absolute best that we can be, says TWK Agri's Eddie Fivaz.

Public servants can positively impact people's lives, says Umar Banda, City of Tshwane CFO.

Imperial Holdings CFO Mohammed Akoojee says 2018 must be the year where "it all comes together".

KFC Africa CFO Sharon Naidoo is firmly focused on today's agility and tomorrow's leadership.

"Do the basics brilliantly. If you do that, you will get most things right," says Andrew McMaster.

"It's been a hectic few months," says Deloitte's new CFO Africa, Jen McDonald

Get the basics right to see continued success, says Torre Industries CFO Shivan Mansingh

Motus Corporation CFO Ockert Janse van Rensburg is extremely ambitious - literally - having climbed some of the world's highest mountains

Sola David-Borha moved from Nigeria to Joburg earlier this year to become Standard Bank's CEO for all African regions outside SA.

"My pet hate word for 2017 is 'disruptive' - but dare I say it, that's exactly what we are."

Show your team how much you value them and they'll go above and beyond, the finance head says.

We talk to Lushen Pather, who recently announced a move to SARB, about his time as Sasfin CFO.

“Ever since I can remember, I’ve had a strong drive to succeed. My father also taught me something at a very young age: ‘Don’t do something unless you’re intending to do it exceptionally well’. I still live by this,” says Liaan Kretzschmar, CFO/FD of Jaguar Land Rover South Africa and Sub-Sahara Africa.

A 2016 SAICA Top 35-under-35 finalist, Chantelle Loots, CFO of Bombela Concession Company, says she feels fortunate to be a part of a young group of "fantastic CAs" in South Africa who are leading the way to the future.

“High return on equity is one thing but with R2 trillion of assets, the bank can really make a difference in people’s lives and the economies in which we operate,” says Standard Bank FD Arno Daehnke.

Earlier this year, Ramasela Ganda won the Public Sector CFO of the Year Award for her incredible accomplishments at Ekurhuleni Municipality. She dedicated the prize to “all public servants that serve us diligently and with honesty” and referred specifically to public sector CFOs who have “lost their lives because they said no to corruption”. Long eschewing a CFO role in the private sector, she left Ekurhuleni at the end of last year and started as CFO: rental and corporate service at Barloworld, which had been courting her for quite a while.

Nishlan Samujh, CFO of Investec, is one of those quiet CFOs that everybody who matters in the South African business world seems to know. He says winning the Governance & Compliance Award at this year’s CFO Awards was a huge surprise, and adds that his team is extremely proud of the accomplishment. In this conversation, Nishlan talks with verve about his humble beginnings, also revealing how to be an effective finance leader in a world full of entrepreneurs and “big people”. The most passion, however, he reserves for the prospects of South Africa’s youth. “Why can’t our kids be like those in India or Silicon Valley? We have a whole new generation coming and, as a country, we need to find out what our next big thing is. How do we get youth and education behind a common goal? Instead of talking about yesteryear, we need to fly out of it. These things are easy to say, but I do wish we could think in a truly, truly radical way.”

After transforming the chemical behemoth’s information technology and business systems, award-winning CFO Wayne Koonin is now stimulating Omnia’s growing appetite for acquisitions. “Omnia is an incredibly complex business with a lot of depth and an unlimited number of challenges, which suits my personality.”

Nonkululeko Dlamini, chief financial officer at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), believes that CFOs have a duty to uplift and empower younger employees. “CFOs should be the most approachable people in the business,” she says.

The industry in which Telkom operates is competitive; the environment fluid and prone to frequent change, says Deon Fredericks, the company’s group chief financial officer. Because of this, it considered BCX (then known as Business Connexion) twice, the smaller company first catching the eye of the telecoms behemoth in 2006/2007, and then again in 2012/2013. Eventually, the deal proved too good to be ignored: Telkom required an ICT company to provide end-to-end solutions to corporate customers and BCX was a complementary fit. Deon sat down with CFO South Africa to talk about the acquisition – a deal with a R2.7 billion price tag. “We are very focused on what we want to achieve with BCX in the market. We are starting to see some good wins through the venture.”

Five siblings, five exceptional professionals. This is the remarkable story of the Kathan family: one medical doctor, one Deloitte executive, and no less than three CFOs. We sat down with Veran, Christine, Justine, Mark, and Sunita to talk about the forces that shaped their lives, what motivates them, and their hopes for their children.

It didn’t take Till Streichert long to turn Vodacom’s finance team into a successful intelligence unit that keeps raising the bar globally. It is thus little wonder the German executive was named South Africa’s 2017 CFO of the Year, also walking away with the Strategy Execution and the Finance Transformation Awards. In this exclusive interview, Till tells us about the successful team transformation. “It was a stunning turnaround and an astonishing achievement for the finance team.”

“Change is the only constant in these times. In that situation of volatility and uncertainty, we always try to stay adaptable to change. Being a more agile and adaptable organisation is critical in enabling us to survive and thrive,” says Nyasha Dzumbunu, CFO of Shanduka Black Umbrellas (SBU), one of the leading enterprises in supplier development organisations in South Africa. While she may be a powerhouse CFO Monday to Friday, in her downtime, Nyasha likes to design women’s clothing – a passion she hopes might one day blossom into a full line of corporate and casual wear. “It’s about power dressing – helping women look and feel spectacular – and I’m very passionate about this. I feel it’s important to express one’s femininity even when you’re in a power role.”

RMB CFO Markos Davias harbours a passion for young accounting talent, promoting diversity and embracing cutting-edge technology.

“The time has come for the CFO to become an important executive member who pushes for value creation other than the normal traditional financial role,” says Musa Magongo, CFO of the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA). “The CFO is expected to have a better understanding of the impact of each process, whether commercial or operational, and be able to provide the necessary advice and guidance to the technical team.” In his role, Musa oversees all of the financial management issues of SWACAA, from budget preparation and implementation to monitoring, treasury and reporting. While this includes a focus on both finance and strategy, he says the nature of the role means he spends a greater proportion of his time on strategy, and ensuring that the organisation’s overall strategy is implemented.

Airlines are a notoriously difficult business, with narrow profit margins and stiff competition. They are also prey to the volatility of oil prices, as well as fickle exchange rates. But for Kirsten King, a self-proclaimed Benoni girl who entered the “grey-suited” world of accountancy, this is a place not only for the day-to-day administration of finance but also for networking, learning, and a few strong cups of tea.

Pulling off big projects is exhilarating, exponentially growing your profits is awesome, but are you achieving the GREAT thing? Are you building a better future? We spoke with Stan Slap, the world’s foremost thought leader on culture and leadership, who will be opening the Finance Indaba Africa on 12 October 2017, made possible by Clarkhouse Human Capital.

Nishant Saxena successfully took Cipla’s sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) entity from a struggling, low-margin organisation to one of the most profitable pharma players in South Africa. The success yielded double success at the CFO Awards in May 2017 for the Indian expat, who played a key role in shifting the strategy and improving the finance team. “Finance is like an internal venture capitalist responsible for ensuring the right returns on investment, and as Cipla’s largest acquisition ever, all eyes were on South Africa’s performance.”

“It has been tricky to get politicians, our people and other stakeholders to understand that we can’t keep throwing capital at our problems. We need to focus on operational efficiencies,” says Transnet CFO, Garry Pita, winner of the Transformation & Empowerment Award at this year’s CFO Awards. Garry took over as Group CFO in February last year, replacing Anoj Singh, who was seconded to Eskom.

For his work as CFO of SANParks, Rajesh Mahabeer, now Head of Public Sector Finance and Deal Origination at Garuda Capital (Pty) Ltd, was nominated for the CFO Awards 2017. We chatted to Rajesh about his tenure at SANParks and how he turned the finance team around, setting a new strategic direction for the entity in doing so, as well as his new role in the M&A and corporate finance space.

Jason Wright, CFO of Cape Union Mart, took an unusual route to get where he is today. Having finished matric, Jason went into gainful employment in the IT space before going on to study information systems, also gaining experience in web development and project management. It was only in his mid-twenties that the commerce bug really bit.

“As a leader, you should create an environment that allows for growth in the team and for people to feel passionate about the work that they do,” says Fabian Naidoo, divisional CFO of non-profit organisation (NPO), Right to Care (Rtc). Fabian is currently also acting as finance director of the RtC Group. Fabian says his philosophy about work can be summed up by this quote from Steve Jobs, ‘The only way to do great work is to love what you do’.

“You only have one chance for a first impression. I am always respectful but I never confuse respect with blindly following others,” says National Treasury CFO, Silindile Kubheka. We have tried to unpack the remarkable metamorphosis of the National Treasury CFO from a shy, quiet serial student to a leadership powerhouse with strong views on boardroom dynamics, youth development and ways to professionalise government.

“I joined the company at a time when it was struggling, so I’ve had to be innovative and creative,” says Mampe Gololo, CFO of Great North Transport, a public entity focused on commuter transport in Limpopo. “The company has been loss-making for the last five consecutive years, so issues of turnaround are key. We’ve got to get the company back on its feet.”

“I am operationally focused and have good attention to detail and follow up. If there is a problem I determine immediately what the issue is and address and follow up with management and hold them accountable,” says Melanie Chong, FD of Oakbay Resources and Energy Limited, a company in the business of mining and exploration of energy-related resources. Oakbay mines coal for the local market and owns one of the largest uranium resources in the world. It also mines gold as a by-product at its uranium mine. We caught up with Melanie to talk about her role at Oakbay.

Philile Nxumalo, GM: Finance, Central Bank of Swaziland, wanted to study Fine Arts, though her father persuaded her to rather pursue a BCom, like her twin brother. Good thing he did, as she’s enjoyed a successful career in finance and finds herself constantly challenged by the fast pace and rapidly changing landscape. “I like the aspects of my job where I have to formulate strategy for the department and translate this into executable plans. It’s a particular strength of mine. I love the thrill of achieving and seeing the results, the execution of strategy – it’s very tangible for me.”

For his executive role in ensuring ongoing success at telecoms behemoth Vodacom, CFO Till Streichert received three awards at this year’s CFO Awards, held on 11 May at Summer Place, Johannesburg. Till walked away with the most coveted award – CFO of the Year – as well as the Strategy Execution and Finance Transformation Awards.

“I want people to think logically about the business and pose questions to effect change. People must be challenged and held accountable to achieve the business’s objectives,” says Mike Benfield, Group CFO of Macsteel Service Centres South Africa.” Benfield, who has been in his post for 18 months, has enjoyed a successful and diverse career that has seen him occupy finance roles for companies including Metorex, Bateman Engineering, Norse Air, Super Group, Investec and Ster-Kinekor, after completing articles at Arthur Andersen. Having made a choice to study finance over engineering, he says he has no regrets, and believes it is those aspects of his personality that are interested in engineering and the challenges that it presents, that help him to be a better finance person: ‘It helps me move across the corridor to the operational side, and gives me more of an interest in the other areas of the business. I would be unable to add value from a finance perspective without a good operational understanding of what makes the business work.”

AFGRI CFO Johan Geel sees massive potential on the continent for the food industry, as long as the approach is correct. He says: “Find trustworthy people, work with the correct information, do proper research, go there and make sure of things yourself – don’t stay away. Johan has been nominated for the CFO Awards in both 2016 and 2017, an impressive double-whammy that less than a handful other CFOs can boast about. We chatted to him about the past, present and future for AFGRI.

"In the early days of the Group IT transformation it became clear that, unless the finance team transformed as well, we would become irrelevant. As a result, we needed to radically relook at how we run our staff engagement and processes," says Sean Berrington, CFO for Group IT at Standard Bank. Sean has been the finance boss of a “billion-dollar IT organisation” since mid-2016. Add to this his intimate experience of agile ways of working and he might just be the ideal person to talk to about the crossroads of threats and opportunities that technology and finance bring to banks and finance professionals.

“I believe in four aspects of a leader: commitment, appreciation, respect, and trust. If you put the first letter of each of those words together it spells CART. A cart has four wheels and those form part of the carriage of a company and a team going forward. If I have those four aspects to my team, I believe we’ll be successful together,” says Hiten Keshave, CFO of PRP Solutions, a company in the business of people resource planning and which provides a management-by-exception workforce-based management system that operates in the cloud.

Originally, from Bangalore, India, Wipro Technologies’ Kiran Kumar, has been living in South Africa for close to five years, initially sent here to reinvent the company’s processes and controls. He was elevated to head of finance towards the second half of last year, though he still shoulders the responsibilities of his previous role as finance controller. “I enjoy the visibility of the entire business. I don’t think anybody other than the finance team has such visibly of a company; it’s all encompassing.”

Alvin Liew, Acting CFO of Monash South Africa, grew up and was educated in Malaysia, completing his articles in Australia. He came to South Africa on an assignment with Laureate Education, the largest private network of higher education providers in the world, which has a global network of more than 70 higher education institutions in 25 countries. Monash South Africa is the first partnership that Laureate Education has embarked on in Sub-Saharan Africa. “South Africa is a great country. It has its quirks and eccentricities, but I enjoy this,” he says. Alvin has worked for Monash South Africa for three years and says that when it comes to reaching economic transformation goals, nothing can have as big an impact as education: “I believe the greatest enabler of economic transformation is education – no other factors come close to the importance of education when it comes to radically transforming a country.”

“We need to be careful that we don’t make the mistake when going into the rest of Africa of thinking that we have better skills and expertise than others on the continent. This superiority complex will set us up for failure. The fundamental thing is, if you try to exploit the other African jurisdictions to the benefit of South Africa, you’ll come unstuck,” says Damain Matroos, CFO of SacOil, a South African-based independent African oil and gas company. We chatted to Damain about the challenges he faces as a CFO in the oil and gas sector, what opportunities exist, and what it’s like to do business in Africa.

Four powerful women – a mother, a grandmother, an accounting teacher and a career mentor – helped Refilwe Nkabinde to become BCX CFO at age 37. She spoke to CFO South Africa about her remarkable journey. “I feel equipped with all the tools I need to be a CFO.”

“What makes me able to do this job is a strong understanding of the business, its operations and risk, as well as fundamentally accepting the need to grow the business,” says Frencel Gillion, CFO of Kagiso Tiso Holdings (KTH). “I think a CFO should have a strong grasp of the numbers but also be able to intuit what is happening within the business and be able to communicate this to the stakeholders through the financials. It’s not just about regurgitating numbers.”