Phuti Mahanyele   Phuti Mahanyele is the Executive Chairperson of Sigma Capital an investment holding company. Ms Mahanyele is the former CEO of Shanduka Group, an investment holding company she joined in 2004 and left in 2015. Prior to that, she was the Head of the Project Finance South Africa business unit at the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Prior to the DBSA, she was Vice President at Fieldstone, an international firm specialising in the financing of infrastructure assets. She joined them in New York in 1997 and later transferred to the South African office.

She is involved in a number of activities with youth in her personal capacity. She mentors young professionals and supports students. She is involved with the “Dignity Day” programme which is led by Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum and is focused on re-enforcing the values of dignity in young people. She is an honorary member of the Golden Key International Honour Society and Patron of Bosele Foundation.

She was awarded the Forbes Woman Africa Business Woman of the Year Award as well as the Platinum Award by Motlekar Holdings BBQ Awards in 2014. In 2013 she was awarded a “Distinguished Achievement” by The Douglass Society, and the Africa Investors recognised Ms Mahanyele as a “Leading Africa Woman in Business of the Year” in 2012. In 2011 Rutgers University conferred on her the “Rutgers Vision of Excellence Award”. In May 2016 she became a member of the Rutgers University Hall of Distinguished Alumni, and in the same year the President of Rutgers University awarded her with the Outstanding Alumni Award. In 2009 she was awarded the “Most Influential Woman in Government and Business by Financial Services. The Wall Street Journal counted her among one of the “Top 50 women in the world to watch”. Ms Mahanyele was also selected as a Global Young Leader in 2007 by the World Economic Forum. She was awarded “Top in Project Finance, 2003” by the Association of Black Securities & Investment Professionals (ABSIP).

She holds a BA Economics from Rutgers University, USA, and an MBA from De Montfort University in Leicester, UK. Ms Mahanyele completed the Kennedy School of Government Executive Education program ‘Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century’ at Harvard University in 2008. She is Director of Blue Label Telecoms Limited and is on the board of Comair Limited, Reunert and is also the advisory board of Stellenbosch University. She chairs the Bain Academy which supports professionals in corporate Africa.

Updated by Magdel van Rensburg - 26/07/2017