31 August 2021
WOMEN'S MONTH FEATURE
Financial services sector must be deliberate in promoting women to leadership positions BY NOMATHIBANA MATSHOBA CFA and Managing Director at Terebinth
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here are few females in senior leadership roles whom young and upcoming women can look up to in the financial services sector, says Nomathibana Matshoba, CFA and Managing Director at Terebinth. “This could be the reason why many young women in the sector sometimes doubt themselves and question their capabilities. They constantly ask themselves whether they’ve been recruited to meet company affirmative quotas of employing more females, or if they are there because of their abilities. The only way we can fix this is if we encourage and ensure that females fill leadership and management positions now, so that the next generation can be motivated to realise that it is possible for females to advance their careers in the financial services sector.” According to Nomathibana, the financial services sector, like most sectors in the country, is dominated by males, which makes it difficult for females to advance. She believes that the sector has to be deliberate in ensuring that females are promoted into leadership positions. Nomathibana has always been surrounded by inspirational women. Growing up, one of her role models was her father’s sister, who worked at Old Mutual. “We all wanted to be independent like her. She was successful in her career, and her relationship with her husband was equally thriving. She inspired us, her nieces, to want to do something more with our lives.” Moreover, both Nomathibana’s mother and aunt had a passion for education. Whereas Nomathibana’s mother held an undergraduate degree in Education and another in Child
Psychology, Nomathibana’s maternal aunt earned a BSc in Mathematics and Physiology, and they opted for careers in teaching. “Both women took a very detailed route to arrive at teaching because they wanted to be perfect at it.” She believes that in South Africa, recruitment agencies and corporate leaders are presently pushing to employ more women. However, retention still remains a challenging factor. “I think that is where most corporates are falling short. People from different gender and cultural backgrounds are coming into companies and they have different ways of thinking and of looking at the world. If you want to retain people, you have to have a culture that embraces diversity of thought.” Studies show that the performance of corporate companies generally improves when their leadership is more diverse, with research illustrating that women bring different approaches and perspectives to businesses. “Companies probably realise that by not being diverse, in terms of accessing the relevant talent pool, they are depriving themselves of skills from nearly half of the population,” Nomathibana says. However, she believes that gender diversity is more about cognitive diversity. “It’s about actively including people who think differently and have differing viewpoints and skill sets,” she explains. For young women who want to make a career in financial services, she has this advice: “Put your head down and focus on harnessing your skills while you are young, even if this means being in a role that pays you relatively less when compared to your peers. Money will come. And when you are good at your job, you arrive at a point where you can negotiate with confidence, because you know you can deliver just like anyone else in the industry.”
“Put your head down and focus on harnessing your skills while you are young”
Female Head of Growth for GCI Wealth
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CI has appointed Paula Berrow as Head of Growth for GCI Wealth, with a mandate to grow the division’s footprint. Berrow has worked in the financial services industry since 1985, and has held leadership roles in sales, training and new business development for blue-chip companies. “My new role at GCI is a return to my real passion, which is growth in general and sales in particular,” she says. “GCI is a great fit for me because it’s so entrepreneurial in spirit. In particular, its succession plan for wealth managers/financial planners is really impressive and has the potential to change the industry radically, I believe.” Alex Cook, CEO of GCI, explains that GCI’s succession plan is intended to address a key challenge for the industry: how to enable independent wealth managers and financial planners to realise the true value of their businesses, as opposed to the industry standard of three times their annual revenue. “The three-times revenue model does not deliver a capital sum substantial enough to reproduce the financial planner’s pre-retirement income, and it also does not guarantee seamless service delivery to clients,” Cook says. “Our model works because it hinges on ensuring the clients remain at the centre of everything. The reputation of the retiring advisor is protected, as is his or her income for life.” Berrow says that GCI’s goal of helping 150 000 South Africans achieve financial stability and a secure retirement by 2025 resonates with her. “To make this a reality, we need to expand our reach dramatically, so I have already initiated an aggressive campaign to recruit more financial planners and wealth managers, both individuals and small practices, to join our team,” she adds. “The more wealth managers and advisors we have, the more people we can touch.” Paula Berrow, Head of Growth, GCI Wealth
Rooted in Knowledge. We Grow We never forget how much the money we manage, matters.
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2021/06/17 13:59
