Women in Finance: South Africa

With over 20 years of experience in the international development sector, Aguil is a passionate and strategic leader who designs and manages impactful philanthropic programs and partnerships in Africa. Through her experience both at HQ and field offices, she has overseen multimillion-dollar portfolio of initiatives that support media, environment, data, health, the arts, and education globally.

Aguil leads programs that enhance the skills and knowledge of health and development professionals, journalists, academics, and business leaders. Through her work, Aguil has facilitated the delivery of high-quality training, fellowships, grants, and events to thousands of participants. She has a strong background in capacity development, grants management, public relations, strategy and business development, and working with diverse stakeholders, including governments, philanthropies, NGOs, and private sector partners in the United States, Africa, and Europe.

Ronell has built a diverse career across audit, ethics, and governance, and now leads sustainability strategies spanning the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) pillars. She is passionate about advancing sustainability best practices, driven by a deep sense of responsibility to co-create operational processes that turn strategy into impactful action. Beyond her professional work, Ronell is committed to empowering girls and young women, inspiring them to realize their full potential.

Genevieve has over 20 years’ experience in the property industry and started her career at Nedbank in the graduate programme. She returned to Nedbank after honing her skills at Standard Bank CIB where she was Executive Head: Real Estate Credit Risk for South Africa and Rest of Africa. In this position, she was also responsible for the Project Management and Commercial Property Valuations divisions, building Valuation and Project Management platforms across geographies in Africa. Her experience spans SA and other African countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique. She has a BSc (Hons) in quantity surveying from the University of Natal and a BCom in risk management from UNISA. She also has completed executive leadership courses through GIBS and  INSEAD and most recently completed the Buildings, Energy and Resource Efficiency prgramme through RENAC.

A qualified Quantity Surveyor, she served on the market advisory SA Board of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and was SA national chairperson of the Women’s Property Network in 2015-2016, an organisation focused on developing and transforming the Property Industry in SA. In this role, her key objectives were providing bursaries for female students pursuing property related degrees as well as acknowledging outstanding women in Property through the Women in Property Awards.

She returned to Nedbank in 2018 to setup the Property Finance Africa division and then moved to her current role where she is now is responsible for Valuations, Project Management and Sustainability for Property Finance. Her key focus is on efficiency and optimisation through digitisation and using proptech to enhance Client Experience.

More recently Genevieve has focused on Climate Risk impacting property as well as various aspects of Sustainability in the sector.

Anastasia is a (freshly minted) 30 year old who is currently a sub-Saharan African Sales Trader in Global Markets at a large South African bank. She recently completed her MBA at Said Business School in Oxford and also has degrees in Economics and Finance from UCT and UNISA. She is passionate about the inclusion of women in finance as well as the development of African Capital markets. In her down time, she enjoys eating good food and dancing (poorly).

Hema joined Bloomberg in August 2022 as an Account Manager for the Sell Side. She brings a wealth of experience from the financial industry, having built her career across both front and back-office roles in banking.

Prior to Bloomberg, Hema spent 6 years at HSBC South Africa, working in the Coverage team as well as the Product Control team, giving her an in-depth understanding of the banking system from client engagement to P&L reporting and the flow of funds. Before HSBC, she held positions at Barclays Capital in the PCG Credit exotics team and at Bidvest Bank in the Regulatory Risk and FX sales teams.

Hema is passionate about women’s empowerment in the industry.

Punki Modise, was appointed as the chief strategy and sustainability officer at Absa in July 2022. In this role, she is responsible for driving the integration of business strategy and sustainability, which includes overseeing the implementation, mission, and effectiveness of the Group’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda.

Punki is an accomplished executive with extensive experience in banking and finance. She is a member of the ABSA Group Executive Committee and sits on various internal governance structures. Prior to her current position, Punki served as Interim Chief Executive for Retail and Business Bank, as well as Interim Group Financial Director at Absa Group.

She first joined Absa Group in 2008 and has since held various senior roles within the organisation, including as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the Retail Business Bank, Head of Transactional Banking, Chief of Staff in Retail Banking, CFO for Distribution Channels, and CFO for Card and Consumer Finance

Previously, she has held key positions at other top financial institutions including Fedsure, Standard Bank and PWC. In A qualified CA(SA), Punki holds a B. Com from the University of Witwatersrand, a master’s degree in Financial Management from the University of Johannesburg and has completed the Stanford Executive Program (SEP) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business).

In her spare time, one of her favorite hobbies is baking, which she sees as a way of channeling her creative and artistic side.

With a career spanning over 20 years, Vuyo has expertise in fundraising, communications, stakeholder relations and operations. Before joining Radio Workshop, Vuyo was Executive Director, heading up fundraising and stakeholder relations at the Shared Value Africa Initiative, and has previously worked at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust, also in fundraising and communications leadership roles. She also cut her teeth in the media industry working at ELLE, Y Magazine, and various Media24 titles. She is passionate about transforming the continent from within, advancing the African narrative, and with youth at the centre of creating the solutions we seek for a better future.

Bongeka Mjobo is a senior derivatives structurer in the Client Solutions Corporate SA team for 5 years responsible for risk management solutions in Interest Rates, FX and Commodities servicing a broad range of corporate clients including CPF and Diversifieds and Industrials clients.

Bongeka is a culture carrier in CIB with involvement in the CIB EE Forum as Head of Retention Pillar and leads the  Elevate Women’s Networking dinners in Markets. Prior to joining the Bank Bongeka worked in Absa Alternative Asset Management as portfolio manager on derivatives portfolios, and began her career in product development at PPS Investments and Old Mutual.