LEADING AN ORGANISATION TO GREATER HEIGHTS

The field of Corporate Affairs wasn’t predestined for Mpho Lethoko, but it quickly became her passion when she began studying at RAU (now UJ). Among the industries she has worked include financial services, professional services, healthcare, and now forestry, pulp, and paper manufacturing.

What is your current role at Sappi?

I am the Executive Head of Corporate Affairs at Sappi Southern Africa. I lead strategies that enhance the reputational capital of the organisation whilst ensuring its license to operate. I oversee all communication efforts with stakeholders which encompasses stakeholder relations, social impact, sustainability communication, media relations and brand management, reputational risk, corporate reporting, and employee communications. I am a member of the Sappi Southern Africa Executive Committee.

Major highlights in my career

There have been a few in my career but I will focus on more recent ones in my current role.

In 2018, I played an instrumental role to help Sappi Southern Africa develop a new strategy that focused on ‘social impact’ for its communities. In 2019, I led a new initiative that sought to manage Sappi’s reputational risk while also building advocacy with its communities. We achieved this by rolling out a communication platform that would allow transparency and more structured communication with communities.

In 2022, my team and I worked hard to ensure the President of South Africa visited one of Sappi’s largest operations and engaged with employees, the community, and KZN-based businesses.

Level of participation by women in the industry

Sappi is a multi-industry company in manufacturing and forestry. Both industries have historically been male-dominated, and this is evident when you look at the senior levels of leadership across the entire industry. However, in recent years there has been a new wave of young female engineers and forestry professionals who have entered these industries and are very successful.

At Sappi, there has been a deliberate effort in attracting young females to enter our industry and we have done this in various ways through our bursary programme and engineering training programmes. All our efforts are driven by a clear strategy that promotes equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace.

This younger generation is set to become the new leadership of the industry in a few years to come.

Can you tell me about your leadership journey and what makes it unique?

My mother was a very ambitious woman and a successful entrepreneur in her own right. I learned a lot from watching her journey. She taught me to be resilient, to work with a trusting team, to be approachable and decisive, to strive for my best even in difficult times, and to impart knowledge to others.

Throughout my career journey, I’ve been privileged to have had powerful female mentors whom I also referred to as my ‘mothers’. My other mothers were either CEOs of listed companies or successful business owners.