Zoe Cruz is a Greek American senior banking executive and former co-president of Morgan Stanley. Currently, she serves as Founder and CEO of Menai Financial Group.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian economist, who has been serving as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization since March 2021. She is the first woman and first African to lead the World Trade Organization as Director-General.
Cynthia Blum Carroll is an American businesswoman. She was the chief executive officer of Anglo American PLC, a British mining company, which, among other things, is the world's largest platinum producer.
Akio Toyoda is a Japanese business executive who is the chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation. He was previously the company's president and chief executive officer (CEO). Toyoda is a great-grandson of the industrialist, Sakichi Toyoda, and a grandson of both the founder of Toyota Motors, Kiichiro Toyoda, and the founder of the Takashimaya department stores corporation, Shinshichi Iida.
Maria Ramos is a South African businesswoman, banker and corporate executive who has been serving the chairperson of AngloGold Ashanti since 2020. She previously served as chief executive officer (CEO) of Absa Group Limited. Prior to joining Absa in March 2009, she was the CEO of Transnet. This was after serving as director-general of the National Treasury.
Halima Tayo Alao is a Nigerian architect and former Minister of Environment and Housing during President Umaru Yar'Adua's administration.
Helen Marion Nugent is a leading Australian company director, businesswoman and former academic.
Maria Kiwanuka is a Ugandan economist, businesswoman and politician who served as Minister of Finance in the Cabinet of Uganda from 27 May 2011 to 1 March 2015. Since 2015 she has been Senior Advisor to the President of Uganda on financial matters, responsible for the Bretton Woods Institutions.
Inanda Seminary School is one of the oldest schools for girls in South Africa. It was founded in 1869 at Inanda, a settlement just over 20 miles (32 km) north of Durban, by Daniel and Lucy Lindley, an American missionary couple.
Swati Ajay Piramal is an Indian scientist and businesswoman, she also involved in healthcare, focusing on public health and innovation. She is the vice chairperson of Piramal Group, a business conglomerate with interests in pharmaceuticals, financial services, real estate and glass packaging.
Thandi Ruth Modise is a South African politician who served as the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans from 2021 to 2024. She was previously the Premier of the North West from 2010 to 2014, Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces from 2014 to 2019, and Speaker of the National Assembly from 2019 to 2021.
Eve Christine Gadzikwa is a Zimbabwean businesswoman and entrepreneur. With a career spanning over 25 years in the public and private sectors, Gadzikwa has served as Director General and Secretary to the Standards Association of Zimbabwe since September 2008. She is also a qualified microbiologist and a fellow of the Institute of Medical Laboratory and Clinical Scientist Council of Zimbabwe and the Marketing Association of Zimbabwe. She was previously the 13th and first female president of the African Organisation for Standardisation from 2016 to 2019.
Nonkululeko Merina Cheryl Nyembezi, also Nku, is a South African engineer, businesswoman and corporate executive who was appointed Chairperson-designate at Standard Bank Group and Standard Bank of South Africa, on 10 May 2022. She assumed office on 1 June 2022, replacing Thulani Geabashe, who retired on 31 May 2022. She has been active in steel, telecommunications and finance. Since March 2014, she has been CEO of the Dutch mining group, IchorCoal N.V.
Wendy Elizabeth Lucas-Bull is a South African businesswoman, banker and corporate executive, who served as the chairperson of Absa Group, a large pan-African financial services group, with subsidiaries in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. She retired from Absa on 31 March 2022.
Nthabeleng Likotsi is a South African accountant, entrepreneur, businesswoman, and community leader, who serves as the chairperson of the Young Women in Business Network(YWBN) and Managing Director of the YWBN Co-operative Financial Institution which is a majority female-owned and female-led financial institution. The self-made South African entrepreneur is currently hailed as the new rising star of the women entrepreneurship agenda by being the first woman and youngest in the world to establish a Mutual Bank that promotes inclusive development and growth in the country and across the continent. She is an assertive, tenacious team leader and player dedicated to the economic empowerment of WOMEN. Ms. Likotsi has steered YWBN CFI into great success, a formation conceived of an idea to realise the objective of making basic financial services more accessible to unbanked and underbanked consumers by minimising time and distance to the nearest bank retail branch as well as reduced banking and transaction-related costs through mobile digital technology.
Olusola "Sola" Adejoke David-Borha, is the former chief executive (CEO) of Africa Regions at the Standard Bank Group, a position she retired from in 2021. Currently, she is the Chairman of the Board of Stanbic IBTC Holdings. She was the CEO of Stanbic IBTC Holdings until January 2017 and was deputy CEO and executive director of corporate & investment banking. She was the CEO of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc from May 2011 to November 2012, and was head of investment banking for Africa. She is the vice chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group since 2015. She joined the board of IBTC in July 1994. She has been a non-executive director of Coca-Cola HBC AG since June 2015. She was a director at Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC from 1994 to March 2017. She is a member of the governing council of the Redeemer's University.
Nicky Newton-King is a corporate finance and securities regulation lawyer and was the first woman Chief Executive Officer in the 125-year history of the Johannesburg Stock exchange (JSE).
Jacqueline Muna Musiitwa is an international lawyer and expert in African commercial affairs, who served as the executive director of Financial Sector Deepening Uganda, a Ugandan non-profit that aims to facilitate the availability of affordable financial services to a wider and more inclusive segment of Uganda's population. She was appointed to that position in June 2017. She left FSD Uganda in February 2019.
Makoti Sibongile Khawula is a South African politician and previous anti-apartheid activist from KwaZulu-Natal serving as a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party since 2014. Khawula is known for her insistence on speaking Zulu in Parliament.
Violet Sizani Siwela was a South African politician from Mpumalanga. She was a Member of the National Assembly, where she chaired the Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development, and a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC). She served in the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature until May 2019.
