BOARD MASTERCLASS SERIES

This year saw the completion of Cohorts 5 to 7 with Cohort 10 starting in October. To date 86 women have completed the series with another 40 currently going through.

Collaboration with two organisations has keen key to the continued success of the series. Cohort 7 was undertaken with the Women’s Property Network. Business Engage sponsored 20 young leaders in Cohort 10 as a collaboration with the International Women’s Forum of South Africa. Cohort 11 starts in March 2023.

We are always grateful for the time that our presenters give to the series. Many have been with us from the start. Others have joined us on the way.

Congratulations to Nonhlanhla Mayisela from Cohort 1, who in November 2022, was appointed as Non-executive Director of JSE-Listed Liberty 2 Degrees.

During 2022 Colleen authored the book The Board Masterclass Series – A journey to holistically mastering corporate decision making, compliance and strategy at board level.

This 246 page collaboration took twenty-five of the topics covered in the series and wove them together into a reference book that is a must read for aspiring board members. Each chapter is written by a different presenter based on their The book seeks to act as a guide as to what board members should be aware of. Just like the Board MasterClass Series itself it is intended to open pathways rather than being a destination. The knowledge and wisdom of the presenters is to be

To order a copy of the book, email colleen@businessengage.co.za

In June 2022 UN Women entered into a contract to “Amplify” the Women Empowerment Principles. This involved a number of aspects;

Increase the number of WEPs members

Develop a Badging System

Administer the WEPs CoP meetings

Organise a C.E.O.’s dinner based on Principle 5

Grow the WEPs Awards and WEPs Youth Challenge

Increase social media awareness of WEPs

During the year a number of blue-chip companies signed up for the WEP’s. As at the end of the year South Africa has 117 signatories. South Africa is currently sitting in the 13th position globally with a number of signatories in process. These will almost certainly allow South Africa to overtake the UK and France in Q1 2023. A concept document for the Badging System was submitted and will be rolled out in 2023.

What Are The Un Women 7 Empowerment Principles

Business Engage has formed two new teams on MS Teams. CoP Committee and CoP Members. All documentation is stored on the files of these teams. Attendance at the CoP monthly meetings is starting to rise again. i.e. in August there were 24 attendees with 4 apologies. There is also better attendance from blue-chip companies.

Business Engage compiles the agenda and the minutes for both the CoP Committee meetings and the CoP members meetings. Business Engage has tidied up and updated the WEPs database.

Members Meeting Dates; The WEPs CoP members met on the following dates in 2022; 15 February, 15 March, 19 April, 17 May, 21 June, 19 July, 16 August, 20 September, 25 October 22 November. Members Cummins, Aspen and Nedbank presented on various WEPs topics, as did Advocate Gumede. In addition, the CoP committee met every month one week prior to the members meeting. The CoP Terms of Reference has been sent to all members for review and will discussed at

CEO’S EVENT - TWO EVENTS TOOK PLACE IN THIS REGARD.

Principle 5 Workshop

This took place on 18th October 2022 at the PwC building Waterfall Midrand. 30 WEPs representatives attended the event. The majority of the attendees were from blue-chip companies. This event was designed as a precursor to the CEO Dinner.

CEO’s Dinner

This was held at Absa Equinox in Sandton. 50 Blue chip company CEOs (or their high-level representatives) were invited to attend. A few invited guests, who were not signatories yet, were invited with the aim of introducing them to WEPs and securing their involvement. The keynote speaker was Allon Raiz from Raizcorp (a WEPs signatory).

Aleta