At the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, 100 Women in Finance Amanda Pullinger Rings the Bell to Mark 100WF’s New Location in South Africa! Read all about it!
Throughout the evening, attendees had the invaluable opportunity to network with colleagues. They were able to establish new connections, meet like-minded people, recognize the power of peer networks, and generate positive energy to advance 100WF’s mission to reach the Vision 30/40 goal. This was an inaugural event that represented how 100WF connects its members globally across five continents.
As the evening commenced, Inal Henry, Head of Structuring at Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) and member of 100WF South Africa Committee opened with a warm welcome and introductory remarks encouraging all to embrace the call to action and continue building better professionals, work environments and communities. Master of Ceremonies and South African television celebrity, Maps Maponyane – a philanthropist and business entrepreneur in his own right – provided smooth transitions of events throughout the night.
The opening keynote speaker – 100WF’s CEO – Amanda Pullinger gave a motivational presentation and stated it was Dr. Dambisa Moyo who inspired her in 2020 to explore African locations. South Africa was the 30th location she’s had the pleasure to formally launch on 100WF’s fifth continent. Amanda explained that she wanted to connect South African individuals and firms to other parts of the world through corporate sponsorship of memberships, participation in global education events, and highlighting the incredible female talent that exists in South Africa. Amanda emphasized the 100WF Mission and Vision 30/40, and the 100WF commitment to help empower women globally in the broad finance industry and inspiring the next generation of pre-career women to look at investing and/or finance as a career. She noted how excited individual members (men and women) and industry firms are to partner with 100WF because they recognize that complex global problems require diverse thinking. She reiterated that women in the industry need to be supported at each career stage and with their industry counterparts globally. Finally, Amanda reinforced the importance of the role of volunteers to 100WF members and organizations – whether as an individual or encouraging one’s firm to host an event.
Following Amanda, CEO Designate of the event’s main sponsor, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), Emrie Brown shared her passion for bringing diversity and inclusion in financial services by growing the number of females in managerial positions in the bank. The Bank started the journey a number of years ago through its flagship Gender Equality Initiative Athena and has made significant strides in female representation at middle management, senior management and on its decision making Boards.
Due to illness, First Lady of South Africa and Patron of the Early Care Foundation (ECF), Dr. Tshepo Motsepe, was not able to attend the inaugural event. However she was represented by Anthea Gardner, Chair of The Early Care Foundation and a member of 100WF’s South Africa Committee, who read the First Lady’s remarks. ECF highlights the importance of women’s roles in South African society and trains unskilled women (and a few men) in the areas of early childcare, education, and nutrition as well as business skills to help empower the women to run successful creches (childcares). Proper childcare and education will lead to children growing up to become financially self-sufficient, contributing adult members of society. Dr. Tshepo was hopeful that, like the 100WF program “Investing in the Next Generation”, many of the organizations present at dinner will employ some of the children educated through the Early Care Foundation.
Finally, Pascale Wazen-Palpied, Vice President, Director for the Middle East and Africa at FactSet, provided insight into how to implement initiatives in people development as well as creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. Pascale highlighted her passion for gender equity development through both her personal and professional journeys. In addition, she explained how being co-chair of the EMEA Women’s Business resource Group (WBRG) at FactSet broadens the equality of women in the finance industry.
As dinner was coming to a close, Janice Johnston, Partner at Identity Fund Managers and 100WF South Africa Committee Chair, thanked the main sponsor RMB as well as the JSE, FactSet and Easy Equities for their generous sponsorship and support. She also thanked James Formby (current RMB CEO) and Emrie Brown for their dedicated leadership in the area of advancing women in the workplace. In addition, she acknowledged the 100WF South Africa Committee – with special recognition to Anthea Gardner, Raeesa Arbee, Nabeela Bemat, Thato Mashigo and Inal Henry for organizing the launch. This event was achieved through a powerful collaboration between a global organization and local team. In closing, she encouraged all to consider potential collaborations and partnerships to grow 100WF membership in South Africa to look for upcoming educational and informational events.
100WF provides dozens of educational and peer-engagement events throughout your financial career stages on a wide variety of topics. Discover events that can help expand your networking relationships, learn more about financial strategies and/or investments, and elevate women’s voices in the finance industry. Learn more about these global events.
Don’t miss upcoming South African events:
20 July 2022 (Johannesburg)
Panel Discussion: Climate Change Investing: Financing the Just Transition (Sponsored by Investec)
Daniel Mminele, Head of the Presidency’s Climate Change Task Team, and Tanya dos Santos, Head of Sustainability, Investec
Every year, in August, South Africa marks Women’s Month, where we pay tribute to the more than 20 000 women who marched to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956 in protest against the extension of Pass Laws to women.
2 August 2022 (Johannesburg)
Fireside Chat with Margaret Nienaber, Chief Executive, Client Solutions, Standard Bank (Sponsored by Melville Douglas)
4 August 2022 (Cape Town)
Women’s Month and Inaugural Session in Cape Town (Sponsored by Investec)
October 2022 (Cape Town)
Personal finance discussion with Candice Paine and Barbara Vintcent
We invite members of all genders, university to graduate students, those in the early stages of their careers, and all the way up to the most experienced, senior levels of investment and executive leadership. Members can access in-person and virtual events in all our global locations. Don’t miss invitations for these and other 100WF events around the world. Join 100WF today to be part of our global-networking finance community.