Movers: New opportunities for CFOs

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR CFOS

The world has started returning to somewhat normal and CFOs are on the move again, embracing new opportunities.

Sitho Mdlalose

Vodacom South Africa has appointed Refilwe Nkabinde as its new FD. She will be taking over from Sitho Mdlalose on 1 November, who continues on his Vodacom leadership journey as MD of Vodacom Tanzania. Refilwe joined Vodacom in 2018 as managing executive: CBU finance business partner. Dis-Chem CFO Rui Morais has been approved as successor to current CEO Ivan Saltzman. Rui has been the CFO of Dis-Chem Pharmacies since August 2012. Prior to becoming CFO, he served as group financial executive for 18 months.

Christine Ramon has returned to her role as CFO of AngloGold Ashanti following the appointment of a new CEO, Alberto Calderon. Christine has been serving as interim CEO since the resignation of former CEO Kelvin Dushnisky in July 2020. Sasol has appointed Royal Bafokeng Platinum CFO Hanré Rossouw as its new CFO-designate to succeed Paul Victor, who will be stepping down as CFO in June 2022. Hanré will join Sasol on 4 April 2022. Deon Fredericks has been appointed as the new group FD of Famous Brands with effect from 1 December. This follows the resignation of Kelebogile Ntlha, who has been the group FD since July 2016. Deon has previously served as the CFO of Telkom and interim CFO of South African Airways. Takealot Group has appointed CFO Tessa Ackermann as its new group CFO. Tessa has been with the Takealot Group since 2014, most recently serving as the CFO of Superbalist.com.

Jurgen Hanekom will be taking over from Tessa as the Superbalist.com CFO, and Mr D Food CFO Octavius Vermooten has been promoted to the position of Takealot.com CFO.

Rui Morais Christine Ramon

Hanré Rossouw

Yota Baron driving the new Ford South Africa as CFO

Ford South Africa has appointed Yota Baron as its first woman CFO in the company’s 97-year history. Originally from South Africa, Yota takes over as the CFO of the local operations from Joseph Verga, who will be repatriating back to the United States. “I am humbled by my appointment to serve as Ford South Africa’s CFO, having the opportunity to pay forward my learnings and experience while working abroad,” says Yota. “It’s an honour and a privilege, and I look forward to contributing to Ford South Africa’s future success, serving in the communities we work in and being back under the African sun.” Yota returns to South Africa from Dubai, where she played an instrumental role in setting up the regional Ford Dubai finance team for Middle East and Africa, and was responsible for financial control of the marketing sales and services division for two and a half years, before taking over the role of profit manager in March 2018, and finally being appointed CFO for Ford Direct Markets in September 2020. l

Yota Baron

Deon Fredericks

Rayhaan Samsodien will take over from Octavius as the CFO of Mr D Food.

eThekwini Municipality has appointed Sandile Mnguni as its new CFO. He will be taking over from Krish Kumar, who has retired after 40 years as the municipality’s CFO. Sandile most recently served as the municipality’s head of expenditure.

Calgro M3’s Waldi Joubert, who has been serving as the FD since June 2015, will assume the role of managing director of the Calgro M3’s Memorial Parks business from 28 February 2022. Calgro M3’s group financial manager Sayuri Naicker will replace Waldi as the FD with effect from 1 March 2022. She has nine years’ experience in external audit and was involved in the Calgro M3 audit for the past two years. Tiaan Schoombie has extended his service contract as the CFO of Rhodes Food Group until 2026 in order to ensure continuity in the company’s executive leadership. Tiaan has been the CFO of the group for the past 18 years after joining the group in 2000. Novus Holdings has appointed company secretary Keshree Alwar as its new CFO as of 1 September. Keshree has been serving as the group’s CFO-designate following the resignation of CFO Harry Todd.

Gregory Lunga has been appointed as the new CFO of Tsogo Sun Gaming following the resignation of Annelize Hoyer. Gregory has been part of the Tsogo Sun Gaming Group since 2001 and most recently served as the FD of the group’s casino division.

Alex Smith has returned to his role as the CFO of Net1 UEPS Technologies following the appointment of Chris Meyer as the company’s new group CEO. Alex

Krish Kumar Michael Kransdorff

Gerhard Malan

has been serving as the company's interim CEO since August 2020, when Herman Kotzé resigned.

Marcel Naude has resigned as the FD of Chrometco with effect from 23 September. He previously worked at KPMG.

NVest Financial Holdings has appointed Dion Ramoo as its new FD. Dion stepped aside as an independent non-executive director of the company, a role he held since 27 January 2021, to take up the new role. Dion took over from Charl Herselman, who remains in the finance team as head of group finance.

Michael Kransdorff has been appointed as the new CFO of ProfitShare Partners. He joins ProfitShare from Standard Bank South Africa, where he served as a senior manager in a specialist unit.

Sybrin has appointed Gerhard Malan as its new CFO. For the past three years Gerhard has served as the CFO of UK-based IT services company Viadex. Prior to that, he served as the FD of Rectron South Africa for 10 years.

Affinity Group has appointed Michelle Chetty as its new group CFO. Michelle joins Affinity Group

Nicholas Bofilatos taking Altron 2.0 forward as its new CFO

Throughout his career, Nicholas has looked for the roles where he could add value to the organisations he worked for. When Cedric Miller, the previous CFO, approached Nicholas to join Altron as a finance consultant in October 2019, this was exactly the goal they both had in mind for him as he was tasked with supporting and stabilising the finance function within one of Altron’s subsidiaries.

Within four months of being introduced to the Altron group and completing several initiatives in aiding the turnaround of the Altron subsidiary, Cedric offered Nicholas the role of executive of finance change management. Now, with Altron having reached its financial goal of doubling EBITDA in five years through the One Altron strategy, Nicholas has been appointed as the company’s group CFO to help it drive the next step in its growth phase: Altron 2.0, following Cedric’s resignation. “One of the personal goals that I had set for myself was to become a CFO of a listed company before the age of 40,” Nicholas explains. “Achieving that was very special to me.”

Nicholas says that, in his new role, there are a few key metrics that he believes Altron needs to maintain and improve on, which are aligned to its new Altron 2.0 strategy. “As we progress to become a very specialised ICT player within the industry, we believe the organisation should be a capital light business.” The organisation has also set out a target of tripling its operating income by 2025. “So we’ve got very key targets to meet, and the exciting part is that there’s a lot that needs to happen in order to get there,” Nicholas says. “To be part of that story and achieve our objective of returning shareholder value will be fulfilling.” l

Michelle Chetty

Nicholas Bofilatos

Nadia Statham

from Saint ICT Consultants, where she served as CFO.

Nadia Statham has been appointed as the FD of blasting and explosives company BME, a member of Omnia Group. “Despite the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic, this is an exciting time to be serving the mining sector,” Nadia says. “Minerals remain vital to global growth, and I am looking forward to helping strengthen BME’s financial capability to drive our contribution and performance.” Heleen Botha has been appointed as the new CFO of Safire Insurance Company. Heleen was involved in the company’s financial audits in 2020 and 2011 during her time at KPMG. She most recently served as the senior manager of finance Credit Guarantee Insurance Corporation of Africa.

CBRE Excellerate has appointed Siveshen Puckaree as the new FD of its Sub-Saharan Africa Facilities Management division. Siveshen joins CBRE Excellerate from Denel, where he most recently served as the group’s finance manager.

York Timber Holdings has appointed its CFO, Gerald Stoltz, to act in a dual and secondary role as the interim CEO of the company. His appointment follows the passing of CEO Pieter van Zyl on 19 July.

Anabel Vieira has been appointed as the new executive FD of Octodec following the resignation of Anthony Stein, who will be emigrating with his family to Australia. “I am very excited to be given the opportunity to work alongside an established and experienced executive management team, and at the same time contribute my own skills to the management of what is an incredibly large and diversified portfolio of assets,” says Anabel.

Optimi Group has appointed Rajan Padayachy as its new CFO. Rajan, who previously served as the CFO of Easigas, says, “It’s refreshing to have the opportunity to work in an organisation that understands the value of resilient and well-structured support functions, and I’m hoping to play a leading role in driving a culture of learning and development within the group.”

Bauba Resources FD Jonathan Knowlden has assumed the role of acting CEO pending the conclusion of the investigation into allegations made against Nick van der Hoven, who has been suspended.

Heleen Botha Anabel Vieira

Umuthi Healthcare Solutions has hired Phillip van Huyssteen as its new CFO, replacing Pieter Grimes, who is leaving “to pursue other business opportunities”.

Nepi Rockcastle FD Mirela Covașă will be stepping down in order to pursue “other entrepreneurial activities”. Mirela has been with the company for 10 years and became FD in February 2015.

Amanda Farris has been appointed as the interim CFO of Kore Potash following the resignation of Jean Michel Bour for personal reasons. Amanda has been working with Kore Potash since May 2021. l

Rajan Padayachy