Item List
Marlene Powell
Eleven years ago, Marlene Powell become ActionCOACH's first woman business coach in South Africa. Marlene says she reached a crossroad in her life. After 27 years of working in the financial sector of the corporate world, she realised she was been hold back from her family and her quality of life was poor, even though she was been taking care of financially
Kim Atkins
KIM ATKINS is the owner and designer of Kim Atkins Jewellers. The company predominantly makes and markets jewellery and has developed into a social enterprise. Kim provides opportunities for students who need work and assistance with their studies and to young jewellers needing experience so that they can become established in their own right
Boni Mchunu
BONI MCHUNU, managing director at East Coast Radio (ECR) - KZN's No.1 Hit Music Station, is passionate about KwaZulu-Natal and its people.
Boni was born and educated in Pietermaritzburg. She is the youngest of five sisters and after her mother died when she was 10 years old, Boni was brought up by a single dad, who she calls her 'Rockstar'.
Cindy Norcott
CINDY NORCOTT is the owner of Pro Appointments and Pro Talent, which are recruitment agencies that she has had for the past 25 years. She is the founder and chairperson of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity that was formed in 2005. Cindy is also a motivational speaker, business coach and the author of the best-selling book, "How to be Unstoppable".
Eleni Kwinana
ELENI KWINANA has notched up an admirable list of top positions. She began climbing the corporate ladder as an 18-year-old student who, after walking into CNA to request a job, within three months was tasked with taking up her first management role. A few years later, she was requested to draft a business plan - without a template, or previous exposure to such a big responsibility - overnight! It gained her boss the new store he wanted, and wet her appetite for bigger and better things in business.
Lisa Forster
As head of the Wealth and Investment Division for Standard Bank KZN, Lisa Forster leads a team of relationship managers and wealth managers, focusing on holistic solutions for high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals. She and her team ensure service excellence in delivering holistic solutions, both domestically and off shore, for their clients
Cheryl Govender
CHERYL GOVENDER is the founder and owner of The Cake House in Pietermaritzburg. She is a qualified chef and professional cake artist. The Cake House has become a leading provider of designer cakes including engineered life-size cakes. Cheryl's exceptional cakes, each a masterpiece, have been featured in magazines and on television, and The Cake House is recognised as a leader in new age sugarcraft.
Carol Reynolds
During this time, Carol yearned to return to her family in KZN. As her mother had owned a Pam Golding franchise, Carol had come to know the Golding family. Fortuitously, Andrew Golding was opening a flagship branch in Durban and needed a manager. "We opened the Durban branch in 2008 as the property market crashed! I was faced with the daunting task of either retrenching colleagues or moving on myself," said Carol. She chose the latter and purchased the Durban North franchise of Pam Golding Properties in 2009.
Sarah Whitaker
On South Africa is a website that links consumers to suppliers across twelve categories, with a dedicated website for each category. "For example," says Sarah, "if you were planning a function, you could go onto the OnSA Celebrate site and find everything you need - caterers, photographers, florists, venues
Brigitte Turner
BRIGITTE TURNER is head of Harvey World Travel Highway. When Brigitte bought Harvey World Travel Highway 18 years ago, she'd never worked in the travel industry. In fact, she'd built a highly successful corporate career in property development and was managing director of a major national property organisation. Despite the demands of her corporate position, Brigitte was a natural entrepreneur and already owned three other companies when a friend mentioned that there might be an interesting opportunity in a small travel business.
Mpume Langa
Being an accomplished business executive, Mpume has had over 20 years' experience in strategy, leadership and portfolio management in the financial services industry. She holds several qualifications in finance, marketing and executive leadership from various universities in South Africa, China and United Kingdom
Honey Mamabolo
Honey serves on the Drakensberg Boys Choir School board and until June 2019, she also served on the boards of Sekelo Oil Trading and Thebe Solar Energy Holdings. Honey is a member of the Durban Chemical Cluster Executive Committee and chairs the Skills and Transformation Desk. She is a member of the Gauteng Innovation Hub Management Company's Investment Committee
Barbara Njapha
The managing director of Performance Solutions Africa (PSA), a consulting firm in Durban that conducts performance enhancement interventions. Best practice programmes are offered to organisations in the private and public sectors, involving the training and coaching of leaders and managers. PSA's major focus currently is delivering school management programmes in the education sector, and to date these have been delivered in over 2000 schools nationally.
Melinda Cookson
Melinda's major role is to drive the business forward and to ensure that standards and customer service continues to be fulfilled and exceeded. "We view ourselves as the experts in our field. We align ourselves with our clients' staffing needs, tailoring our services offerings to meet their diverse operational requirements
Daisy White
DAISY WHITE is the executive director of Magic Moments Trust, which has been established to teach rural people to discover and develop their creativity through learning fabric painting skills. Her aim is to enhance the lives of people, especially women, who are unemployed and from rural areas.
Lindiwe Rakharebe
Lindiwe holds a bachelor's degree in management leadership from the University of the Free State as well as other qualifications in marketing management and management development. Over her 30 years in the corporate environment, Lindiwe has repeatedly proven her ability in strategic management and leading high-performance teams
Kirsty Fonzari
KIRSTY FONZARI heads the marketing team for Expand a Sign International and Uzwelo Bags as well as ExpandaBrand USA and supports several Expand a Sign agencies globally in marketing. Kirsty's energy is never ending, and she will be opening a 360 turnkey agency called The Buro next year. There was a gap in the market to help Expand a Sign customers with various marketing disciplines
Busi Gumede
BUSI GUMEDE is the founder and CEO of Goodlife Foods. The company provides natural kefir products, which offer probiotic and other health benefits, under the 'KePro' brand. Busi oversees the overall functioning of the company, formulates its products, manages production and marketing, and looks after customers
Tanya Bailey
Tanya has a vested interest in SA, which goes beyond building a successful career for herself. The way she conceptualises 'successful' is driven by commitment to inclusivity, evidenced by her business network which mobilises and develops local talent and skills to benefit the broader South African community, including its wildlife
Sharon Butler
Transport and trucking tends to be a male dominated field, but that hasn't stopped Sharon Butler from developing Expressway into a successful logistics company together with the KZN D&H Deliveries, with seven depots and 90 trucks across KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. And as she says, there's no reason why women can't run a successful transport business
Lucrisha Polton
As owner and director of AfriCrafters, Lucrisha Polton says her days are as varied as fingerprints. "I do what whatever it takes to get the job done." Drawing on skills from finance to design, and from sourcing materials to tracking down exceptional rural crafters, Lucrisha is a true all-rounder
Cathie Lewis
"Yes, I do sometimes take minutes," she smiles, "but it's so much more than that." It's Cathie's job to make sure that the board meets their legal and regulatory obligations, but she also has wide-ranging responsibilities. In effect, she is part of the company's conscience when it comes to ensuring corporate integrity matters more than short-term profits.
Melanie Veness
MELANIE VENESS has been the CEO of the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business, now the Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Business (PMCB),since February 2011. She is the treasurer of the KwaZulu-Natal Business Chambers Council and serves on the KZN Economic Council. Previously, Melanie was the director of Pietermaritzburg Tourism.
Thozeka Ntlukwane-Letuka
THOZEKA NTLUKWANE-LETUKA wears many hats and has been described as an eco-warrior, philanthropist and mother to all. During her varied career, she has worked as a domestic worker, market researcher, transcriber, translator, training provider and as a community liaison officer